Day Sixteen - San Bernardino to Santa Monica PIer (and beyond...)

Does this not look like Lightning McQueen in the next WigWam over from mine??

But first, I must apologize. I have not written in nearly a WEEK! And even then I was two days behind. (Think of it like the 8 second delay they have to make sure no one swears on Saturday Night Live.)

Here's the thing. I have been staying with friends since my last day on the Route and when you stay with friends there is so much talking and eating and drinking and laughing that who has time to write?

I can see why those old-timey macho writers would live in hotels. There's an awful lot of opportunity to write when you are staying in a hotel alone!

But on with the story...

So this is what the highway looks like in LA. It is horrible. Lots of traffic, weeping, swearing, gnashing of teeth... I hopped on the highway, I mean FREEWAY in San Bernadino thinking I would just hop off in Pasadena and then hop back on the route there and catch the Arroyo Seco Parkway and then be home free on Santa Monica Boulevard. 

Oh... it all seemed such a simple plan...  

Alright, THE 202* was a nightmare so I decided I could go faster through the 6,732 traffic lights between Azusa and Pasadena. So I got off the highway - dammit! freeway - and started back on Route 66 I went through lovely Glendora and then I entered San Dimas! I was so excited I took a picture of the San Dimas Ave. street sign because of its historical significance. 

**In California they are freeways, not highways and they all have THE in front of the number. It's very important.

Just past San Dimas, I saw a sign for Claremont. Now, this gave me a clue as to what you Southern California types may already be figuring out. I was going completely the wrong way! I got turned around coming off the highway and was so jaded about using GPS that I just trusted myself. I am a road warrior, surely I can handle this!

Nope, I turned around and took another picture of the San Dimas sign on the way west to remind myself of the consequences of folly. 

BOGUS!!

Well, I finally got to Pasadena. It was a lovely city. It got me to the parkway. It is a parkway, not a freeway, or maybe it is both. Anyhoo, I got on it and stopped moving. But everyone else did, too. It's the law. We crawled and crawled and FINALLY I got off to follow Route 66 the last few miles to the ocean. 

Except I couldn't stop thinking of the Chateau Marmont. I have always wanted to stay there. So when I knew I would be out here, I looked at making a reservation. The cheapest room is $400 a night. Needless to say, I had no plans to stay. 

But I really wanted to look at it! I checked my GPS (obsessively after the double San Dimas incident) and saw that I was only 15 minutes away. I decided I could just go look, use the bathroom, maybe have a cup of coffee. So I made the turn and headed for the Sunset Strip!

My favorite song of all time came on just as I made the turn and I knew I had made the right choice! 

And as I got to Marmont Lane, I saw a parking space with a meter right at the edge of the road. And it even had 15 minutes on it already! So I chucked in 3 more quarters and headed up the hill. 

There was a little valet station, but I couldn't see any fancy entrance so I walked around the building. Apparently, there is no fancy entrance. You just go in the valet entrance and up. So I did. In my baggy jeans and mom top. I reeeeally looked like I belonged there. But I was there, they had a ladies room, it seemed it was meant to be.

Of course, I couldn't find it the ladies room. So in my most imperious voice (but with a friendly smile) I asked a waiter to direct me. He very personably did and probably thought for the rest of the day, "Wow, that woman who asked where the bathroom was had a horrible outfit, but she was classy as hell..." 

After the facilities (which were quite fancy, but I didn't take a picture of them because I was afraid someone would come in and seem me acting like a rube after having gotten this far) I got a glass of water from the water station and went back down to the little waiting area by the valet. I sat on the couches and drank my water and looked longingly at the locked door that said "To pool and bungalows." How I longed to see the pool and bungalows. But it was not to be... 

I hung out and read Harry Potter and surreptitiously tried to see if anyone famous was leaving. No one did, so I did. 

I drove down the strip, crossed over to Rodeo drive and got back on Santa Monica Blvd. There is theoretically an "END ROUTE 66" sign somewhere besides the pier, but I couldn't find it for beans. There was a lot of construction where I was looking and no parking, so I bailed on that and just went to the end point. The ocean!

I waited a dog's age to get on the pier, but I finally got parked.

When I got out of the car, I asked a teenage girl getting out of the car next to me if she would take my picture. She looked at me puzzled, why did I want a picture with this filthy car? I told her I had just driven cross country from Massachusetts and wanted a commemorative picture. 

She said, "I'm from Massachusetts, we're on vacation here! Where are you from?"

I told her Beverly and she started laughing. "I'm from Gloucester!" 

Small world!

I went on to the pier where 2 years ago I decided that I had been thinking and talking about driving Route 66 long enough, was going to do it and I bought my copy of Jerry McClanahan's EZ66 Guide - the one that got me across the country!

I chatted with the guy at the booth and bought a much deserved tee shirt and sticker. 

Then I got a chili dog and a concrete (a blizzard, but with frozen custard instead of ice cream) and went to the beach. 

It was packed, but I took a little video, mostly featuring garbage cans, for some reason...

I would love to carry on with the harrowing story of getting out of LA, followed by the lovely hospitality I received from Cathy in groovy Grover Beach, but I must go out to dinner with friends! I will pick up the tale eventually!

Until then - Be excellent to each other, and party on dudes!