Day Fifteen Barstow to San Bernadino

The penultimate post! I have been waiting for an opportunity to use the word penultimate ever since learning that it meant second to last. Until a couple years ago I thought it meant “the MOST ultimate”. Yep, I know that is not a thing. I blame society...

Anyway – I started off the day with a nagging feeling that I should check my coolant. Rich sent me off with a big bottle of special Subaru coolant that I hadn't even thought of until this morning. Well, it is a good thing I checked! It turned out that I was hovering at the “very low” line. Zoiks! I “topped off my coolant”* like a boss and went on my way.

*I know an awful lot of car care lingo but not usually how to do any actual car care aside from putting in gas.

I stayed on the last bit of rural Route 66 for the drive to San Bernadino. It was desert-y and dusty, but there were a fair amount of other cars which was nice.

I needed to stop to use the bathroom halfway there and the only place for miles was a liquor store. I burst in and told the lady behind the counter, “I'll buy some booze in a minute, but I really need your ladies room.” She laughed and showed me the facilities. 

That's how I ended up with six of these bad boys. It was a win-win. 

I got to San Bernadino and checked out the Wigwam Motel, where I would be spending the night. It was far too early to check in and I had 4,000 traffic lights to get through before I got to my lunch date in Claremont. So I headed westward. 

 

 As I was driving, my phone decided to hit the California section. I heard some Joni Mitchell and Led Zeppelin. I switched to local radio before it found the unholy Katy Perry track that is on there due to a horrible accident.

The radio station I found was playing great old-timey standards and as I was traveling to meet some Betsy-Tacy friends* it cranked up this little number that made me squeal with joy.

*Okay, how to explain Betsy-Tacy? They are my favorite books ever. They are written by Maud Hart Lovelace about growing up in Minnesota. They have a very feminist flair for books written in the 1940s. Because I moved around as a kid and didn't have a home town, I chose Deep Valley, Minnesota as my own childhood home. Thanks to the internet, I have made connections with other people who are as deeply in love with these tomes as I am. As a matter of fact, one of my dearest friends, the frequently commenting Lady Chardonnay, was one of the first people I met thanks to my interest in these books. "You're welcome!"says Maud Hart Lovelace from heaven.

[And the song in the video above is mentioned in the books, that's why it is so cool that it came on on the way to visiting some Betsy-Tacy friends that I had not yet met!]

I took this picture in Upland. It is one of the 12 Madonnas of the Trail that the Daughters of the American Revolution have put up to honor the spirit of Pioneer Women along the National Old Trails Road (part of which runs along route 66). There was no place to park to really take a look, but I got a car shot. And I appreciated her. 

 When I got to Claremont, my first stop was the house where Maud Hart Lovelace and her husband lived during their retirement. It looked just like a normal house. There was no visual indication that my most beloved writer had ever lived there. But I could feel it. 

Then to the Claremont Public Library I went! There is a friendship bench in MHL's memory in front so as soon as my pal Michelle showed up, she took a picture of me being friendly.

Michelle came down from Bakersfield and, just like every time I meet a Betsy-Tacy person I have only know from the internet, we felt like old friends immediately! Krista, Peggy and Diane showed up shortly thereafter. We went across the street for lunch. 

Look how cute we are in that California-awesome booth! L-R: Me, Diane, Krista, Peggy and Michelle. 

We ate like we were going to the chair. (Okay, maybe just me.) And we laughed and talked and had a wonderful time. We discussed how we met our significant others, how we met the Betsy-Tacy books, and of course the eternal question - "Which Beverly Clearly teen romance is the greatest of all?" I mean, the clear answer is FIFTEEN, but some people do prefer THE LUCKIEST GIRL, which is excellent. We tossed this disquisition around for far longer than normal people should and finally agreed that JEAN AND JOHNNY blows and left it at that. 

We we decided to share a dessert, which somehow turned into three desserts, the way that often happens. Someone- Peggy, was it you?? - realized that our empty dessert plates were reminiscent of Betsy, Tacy and Tib. One brown-haired, one blonde and one red-headed - except they were desserts so they weren't actually made out of hair. 

We went back to the library which had an excellent booksale section. I proceeded to buy every Beverly Cleary book they had because of the power of suggestion. After standing and talking and saying, "I really need to get going!" and then standing and talking some more, we finally went out separate ways. They had brought a bag of books for me, in case I had run out of reading material. It was very thoughtful and gave me a lot to look at later. It was just so wonderful to meet these friends I had known for years and yet had never met. Thanks, Maud! 

 

I went back to San Bernadino (going back and forth on the same road is going to be a theme in my visit to Southern California) and entered my Wigwam! I was in number 7, the luckiest of all Wigwams 

Here is a little tour if you are curious. 

And a Wigwam selfie!

I had a dip in what was once again a private pool. (I mean others could use the pool, but apparently had chosen not to...) And my joy was so great, I panoramed again!

I had been slacking on my conversations with strangers rule because I had been talking to people I know. But one of the guys at the Motel came over to chat several times when I was reading outside my Wigwam. (No, I will never tire of referring to it as my Wigwam.) He was a friendly kid who had a real curiosity about the world and particularly the differing cannabis laws among the great states and commonwealths of our nation. He was a hoot.

 

A healthy dinner at IN-N-OUT BURGER topped off a wonderful day. I watched some RNC coverage on the Wigwam TV (the less said about that the better) and hit the hay, preparing for my last day on the Route!