California Day 4 - Barstow to Victorville

 It was a short day today, less than 40 miles, which gave me a good opportunity to  recover from yesterday. All of it was on Route 66.

Route 66 has a gentle climb the whole way to Victorville. The picture is one of the few spots where there are some ups and downs. The BNSF main line parallels the highway, so you get to have fun watching nonstop trains.

I'm getting near civilization. From Vegas to Barstow, it's all barely alive desert towns scraping by on traffic at the highway exits. Barstow is an actual town. It's a very, very gritty town, but it's a town. There is a huge rail yard and a marine base nearby. Victorville is also gritty, but not as gritty as Barstow, and there are nice things once in awhile, like this terrific restaurant, the Red Hen Cafe, where I had lunch.

And lunch was terrific. I finally felt recovered after I ate this. I was dragging all morning.

The railroad runs right by Route 66 coming into Victorville. I got to see a train carrying tanks!

I thought tanks on flatcars only happened in toy train sets. There were 26 tanks, two per flatcar.

I scored on a historic Route 66 hotel tonight. I'm at the New Corral Motel. It's spotless, perfectly maintained, and it has excellent WiFi. There are no long-term residents here.

Such a nice room!

And there is a China Buffet in that giant shopping center across the street.

So many tentacle options!

I will be hammering out the miles tomorrow.

Here is the Strava page for today: https://www.strava.com/activities/17737004158