Fall 2025 Road Trip; California

The iconic Roy's Motel & Cafe in Amboy, California.  (click any image to enlarge)

This is a continuation of my series of posts about my recent, fall 2025, cross country and back road trip, primarily following Route 66 west.  

I had not previously mentioned the fact that the past couple of days had been heavily overcast with some periodic light rain.  Nothing that would curtail our adventure, however.  But a nice break from the bright, blue sky, sunny days which have been much warmer than normal for this time of the year.  That said, California, in many places, evidently experienced some heavy downpours just before our arrival.  Fortunately, we missed those downpours but we did see the results as some roads were closed, parts of the Mojave Desert was flooded and we witnessed large pools of standing water in many places between Needles and Barstow.

We didn’t want to stay long in California.  The cost of everything is much more than any of the other states we visited.  For example, we saw as much as $6.50 listed for the price of gasoline.  Hotel costs were higher as well.  California is a nice place to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there, even if it has some of the most beautiful places to visit in the country.  Also, noting against the people who choose to live there.  The ones we met were all nice.

One place I wanted to ensure I vitied was Roy’s Motel & Cafe in Amboy, California.  I had seen many photos of it but we somehow missed it on our last two Route 66 road trips.  Now I know why.  It is substantially off the interstate highway, which is where we previously drove.  This time, albeit “Road Closed” signs due to flooding, I left the highway and drove to Amboy.  And…I’m glad I did.  It was a landmark stop.

We spent quite a bit of time at Roy’s.  I mainly photographed with both my X100VI and my OM-3.  My two companions made a couple of phone snapshots then spent a considerable time speaking with the two individuals manning the Cafe (not really a cafe since they have no running water but you can buy curios, clothing, hats, snacks, drink, etc.).

This is what the rest of the property looks like.  We very seldom see anything but the sign and
nearby cottages in photographs.

Did I mention a stormy and spectacular sky?  OMG!  What a bonus.  The sky brought drama to my images and I have never seen others like the ones I made (they probably exist but I have not seen any).  I was very fortunate to have a sky like this.

There were two other things I photographed.  One was the small post office across the road and the other was “Roy’s Airport.”  I had never seen photos of the airport and I plan on a post for each of those subjects in the near future.    

Like Chicago, none of the three of us had any desire to drive into Los Angeles.  We had done that and ended our Route 66 trip on the Santa Monica pier twice before.  Been there, done that.  No T-shirt.  Instead we spent the night in Barstow  So, Barstow was technically the end of our time on Route 66, “The Mother Road.”  

From Barstow, we then decided to drive north on Route 395.  It is a really nice drive.  This is a part of California my companions nor I had previously visited.

Along the way, we passed by the site of the Manzanar Internment Camp from World War II.  We all were aware of Manzanar and how President Franklin Roosevelt ordered Japanese citizens as well as Japanese-American citizens primarily on the west coast to be rounded up and involuntarily moved to these (there were several but Manzanar was the one that has gotten the most publicity) camps.  Sad.

One of the reconstructed guard towers at the Manzanar internment camp.  There was also a
reconstruction of one of the buildings used to house families.

Over 11,000 Japanese-Americans and Japanese citizens were interned, or confined, here against
their will during WWII.  It makes you think what can happen despite the U.S. Constitution.

We 'escaped' from California just as fast as we could.  We continued our drive north and spent the night in a casino/hotel in Reno, Nevada.  Other than ordering what we thought was a regular hot dog, it was unremarkable.  The hot dog, however, turned out to be fit for a giant!  It was the largest hot dog I have ever seen.

Next:  Driving north to Washington State.

Join me over at my website, https://www.dennismook.com. 
 

Thanks for looking. Enjoy!  

Dennis A. Mook  

All content on this blog is © 2013-2025 Dennis A. Mook. All Rights Reserved. Feel free to point to this blog from your website with full attribution. Permission may be granted for commercial use. Please contact Mr. Mook to discuss permission to reproduce the blog posts and/or images.