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| The end of our Route 66 cross country journey. The Santa Monica Pier is not the actual end but it is recognized as the "popular" end of the road. Now, we turn around and travel east. (click to enlarge) |
We made it to the end of Route 66! Finally! The road unofficially ends at the Santa Monica, California pier after a 2448 mile journey that started in downtown Chicago. We actually drove a few hundred miles more than that with our detours and sightseeing. Add another 620 miles to that for my drive from my home in southeastern Virginia to my traveling companion’s home in Ann Arbor, Michigan where the three of us gathered for our trip. In any case, a long way but so interesting, so much fun and a wonderful adventure!
On the last day of this part of cross country road trip we drove from Barstow, California to Santa Monica (basically a part of Los Angeles metro area but a separate city). We planned to arrive in LA on a Saturday to avoid extreme traffic and congestion but traffic was pretty bad anyway. Our arrival time was about 11:10 a.m. and by the time we could find parking then walk to the pier, we asked another visitor to take photos of us in front of the “Route 66, End of the Trail” sign at about 11:45.
The pier was crowded. We walked around, browsed, enjoyed the sights and general atmosphere, made some photos and had lunch at a restaurant on the pier before walking back to our car and driving to our hotel about five blocks from the ocean. Once we checked in, we participated in a little mandatory (lol) hot tub therapy and, that making us fully relaxed and drowsy, I took a short nap.
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| The Santa Monica Pier was pretty crowded for an overcast and cool day. (click to enlarge) |
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| A marine layer of fog blanketed the area. That didn't stop beach-goers from enjoying the beach and ocean. It was cool and breezy enough that the three of us wore jackets. (click to enlarge) |
At dinner time it was back to the pier. I treated myself to a lobster roll for dinner, took one last look to fully take in our surroundings, then a walk around the downtown area and finally back to our hotel. What a wonderful day!
Tomorrow, we head to Las Vegas for the first day of our journey east. As of the time I am writing this, we really haven’t decided which route we will take or where we will visit. Also, since this drive east seems like a totally separate trip from the Route 66 portion, we really should give it it’s own name? Not sure what to call the new journey?
This drive across our country has been an experience I’ll remember for the rest of my life. Sharing the experience with two lifelong friends, seeing and visiting iconic sites as well as meeting kind, helpful, considerate and just plain nice people all across this vast country is burned into my memory forever. The United States is a wonderful country filled with good people and it’s too bad our press spends most of their time highlighting only the bad things that happen. Yes, there are bad people everywhere, but they are in the very small minority. We do ourselves a disservice, all over the world, to not remember most people are good and keep that healthy perspective.
This will be the end of the daily updates. I’ll now revert to my normal twice a week posting on Tuesdays and Fridays, with some exception. I'll still be documenting our journey and, hopefully be writing about interesting places we visit
Stay tuned, as our adventure continues!
Thanks for looking. Enjoy!
Dennis A. Mook
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