"If You Lived Here, You'd Be Dead Already"

On our drive to Barstow yesterday we took some detours across the Central Valley to avoid traffic slowdown. Our initial route plan was to drive I-5 from near Los Banos to Buttonwillow, then cross over to Bakersfield. Then I-5 crapped up, and real-time traffic apps recommended we drive 152 east from Los Banos to 99 then south. But then 99 crapped up, too. The maps suggested we drive a variety of county and local roads to avoid the jams. We're pretty bored with the two usual routes, so we figured, Sure, let's do it.

The roads took us through little bits of the Central Valley we've never seen before. For example, we finally saw the town of Firebaugh. We've only ever seen it by its name on road signs in the middle of nowhere. As in, "Firebaugh, 20 miles deeper into nowhere -->."

We also saw lots of hawks on the roadside. They were perched on telephone posts, power line pylons, lamp posts, etc.

We also saw lots of bird boxes. Most farms have them on near the edge of their orchards. Some of the mystery was revealed when we saw a big sign advertising Barn Owl enclosures. We passed a shop that builds & sells them. It was near Firebaugh. And right past that we saw another owl box... with a huge red-tail hawk sitting atop it.

Yeah, that's not going to attract owls. Think, a combination of "It's a trap!" and a riff on the signs you see for new housing/apartments... "If you lived here, you'd be dead already."

Motel Camping. Del Taco #3.

5 Days in the Desert travelog #3
Del Taco #3, Barstow - Sat, 24 Dec 2022, 8:30am

When we started planning our 5 Days in the Desert trip a week or two ago we were thinking about camping out in the desert a few nights. Camping can be fun... except when it's not. Doing it in the winter, when even if the weather is warm-ish it's dark by 5pm, is no fun. Doing it as I get older is also no fun. Thus we do what I euphemistically call "motel camping". See earlier this year for another example.

This trip we're holed up in the Hampton Inn for 5 nights. With my diamond elite status we got upgraded to a corner suite for free. Of course, with the number of cars in the parking lot indicating there might be only 10 rooms sold last night, maybe they upgraded everyone to a suite. 🤣 Anyway, it's nice to have the extra space, including a table we can sit at with our computers open or to play a game at. Yes, we brought a few board games! (See above comment about it getting dark at 5pm.) This morning we snubbed the free breakfast buffet at the hotel. It just didn't look compelling. It barely even looked "meh". It was especially easy to say "no thanks" when there's a Del Taco 1/2 mile away.

Eating at Del Taco restaurants is one of our little pleasures when traveling through certain parts of California and elsewhere in the southwest. They serve food we like, it's way better quality than their arguable closest competitor Taco Bell, and they serve their lunch/dinner menu all day. Which means I can get a proper steak- or chicken taco at 8am instead of some barfilicious egg-and-sausage wrap.

How much do we like Del Taco? Well, last time we were in Barstow we took a slight side trip to visit the site of the original Del Taco! It's not a Del Taco anymore. Now it's some hardscrabble burger-and-taco joint in the dusty desert countryside. Today we happily ate at Del Taco Number Three on Lenwood Road near our hotel.

Route 66 to Amboy Crater

5 Days in the Desert travelog #4
Amboy, CA - Sat, 24 Dec 2022, 11am

This morning we got out for our first hike of our 5 Days in the Desert trip. After breakfast at Del Taco #3 we headed east on I-15 to the I-40 split. Barstow is actually where Interstate 40 starts— or ends, depending on your perspective. The other end is at the Atlantic Ocean, in Wilmington, NC. Yes, I've been to that end of it, too. I haven't (yet) been to all the parts in the middle, though. It's over 2,500 miles!

East of Barstow I-40 follows the route of legendary Route 66. 66 often runs parallel to the newer interstate highway; in places there's as little as 100 feet separating them. At the town of Ludlow— town is really a generous term, as it's really just an exit with two gas stations and a rundown diner from the road's 1950s heyday that may not even be open anymore— Route 66 forks off to the southeast. We exited in Ludlow and followed Route 66.



Here Route 66 is a single ribbon of blacktop, faded almost to beige from decades of relentless sun, arcing across the desert. Once Route 66 departs I-40 there is nothing around for miles. ...Not that there's much around that stretch of I-40, either! Even towns the size of Ludlow are 50 miles apart. Fortunately it's only another 26 miles to Amboy Crater.



So, what is Amboy Crater? It's a volcanic crater about 250 feet high and 1,500 feet across. It's one of the youngest volcanic fields in the US. Its most recent eruption was about 10,000 years ago.



From a distance it doesn't look like much. Fortunately we're not going to stay at this distance. (The cone's about 1 mile away.) We're going to hike right up to it.



Keep reading: Hiking the rim at Amboy Crater