Route 66 and Pacific Coast Highway 2022

We had half a day to fill before dropping our hire car off and checking in to fly home (as it happened with a flight delay of over 3 hours*). This was our hotel in San Francisco: We took the cable car from right outside the hotel down to Fisherman's Wharf. A stroll in the sunshine to Pier 39 and a clam chowder for lunch. Alcatraz prison sitting menacingly in the Bay: The iconic Golden Gate Bridge in the distance: Around 3600 miles under our tyres, considerably more than the 2448 miles of Route 66 due to our many "side trips", mostly driven in glorious sunshine.  Truly a holiday to remember! * We subsequently found out that our original plane, another Airbus A380-800, had suffered a bird strike and had to be turned around and replaced

No pictures today. We left the peaceful tranquility of Cambria and drove north along THE most beautiful stretch of road (Highway 1), hugging the Pacific coastline up hill and down dale and across spectacular bridges over deep ravines for probably the best part of 100 miles. We had a coffee and cake in Carmel (possibly best known for once having had Clint Eastwood as mayor) before driving the remainder of Highway 1 into San Francisco and to our final hotel on this trip, the Stanford Court that sits on California Street at the very top of Nob Hill. Sadly, the drive into San Francisco revealed a city very much in apparent decline with dozens and dozens of street people wandering about, slumped in doorways or, quite literally, camped on the sidewalks. We had been warned that the city was no longer quite the paradise it once was and so it proved. Very, very sad to witness. We checked in online for our flights home tomorrow so, in effect, this will be the last blog from the USA. We will retu...

Our motel and lodge:  We drove a short distance up the coast to San Simeon to view the Elephant Seals (all juveniles) on the beach. We also saw lots of pelicans. Then on to Hearst Castle, the realisation of a the dream of media mogul William Randolph Hearst that took 28 years to build. It is perched on a mountain top and is accessed off Highway 1 up a winding 5 mile long driveway. The views towards the Pacific are stunning ...... ..... as are the buildings themselves that house Hearst's collection of over 10000 pieces of art. The guest accommodation: The Neptune Pool: The main house: The dining room (and our guide, Monica): All-in-all a quite breathtakingly opulent home, worthy of - at the time - one of the world's wealthiest men.

Our final few miles on Route 66. We drove down Santa Monica Boulevard to Santa Monica Pier, the "official" end of Route 66. We breakfasted on the pier and strolled to the end of the pier. The opportunity was taken to have a paddle in the Pacific Ocean. And with that we bade farewell to Route 66 and headed north up the Pacific Coast Highway 250 miles or so to Cambria and our home for the next couple of nights, The Cambria Pines Lodge. We had a brief stop for lunch in Oxenard where we sampled the delights of Jack in the Box (actually the Oreo milkshake was very good).

Today was really all about crossing the Mohave Desert and making our way to the Pacific Coast of California, the ninth state we have visited and the eighth, and final, state on Route 66. A long day racking up nearly 400 miles and, as we approached Los Angeles from San Bernadino, some epic volumes of traffic. It took us the best part of three hours to travel the last 75 miles. We left Las Vegas on Highway 95 due south back to Route 66, 100 miles away, picking it up west of Needles. A brief lunch stop at Fenner the last, and most expensive, opportunity for gas/food before embarking on the crossing of the Mohave Desert. We did a 30 mile detour to visit the recently restored Roy's Cafe and Motel at Amboy. Sadly either side of this iconic Route 66 attraction the route itself was closed! It was very hot, over 100F, in the desert and we were all tired and hungry when we finally arrived, after dark, at our overnight stop, the Mondrian Hotel on Sunset Bou...

We headed south out of Las Vegas to go and view one of the greatest engineering feats of the 20th century, The Hoover Dam. The expanse of water behind the dam is Lake Mead. The white line on the rocks above the water demonstrates just how much the water level has dropped in recent years. Worrying. Driving through Boulder City to Henderson we spent an enjoyable few hours at the Clark County Museum. It includes a walk through exhibit of the history of south Nevada and the meteoric growth of Las Vegas and a number of buildings from the city that have been saved for posterity. This is the kind of motel accommodation we might have found ourselves in 80 years ago: Dinner at the Smith and Wollensky steak restaurant in the Venetian Resort. Sublime.

Today we put another 280 miles on the clock and entered the 8th state on our trip, albeit not one on Route 66, Nevada to spend a couple of nights in the crazy world that is Las Vegas. On the way we travelled on the most undisturbed and unspoilt part of Route 66 stopping in Seligman, the beating heart of Route 66's revival in the late 80s and early 90s following its official decommissioning. The late Juan, owner of the Snow Cap Cafe, and his brother Angel Delgadillo, a barber shop owner, established the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona so that the heritage of Route 66 would not be lost. Seligman is also home to the Roadrunner Cafe and the infamous Roadkill Cafe whose motto is "you kill it, we grill it". Onward to Hackberry and the delightful Hackberry Stores, home to THE best gift shop on Route 66 and some cracking examples of old cars and Americana memorabilia. ...