Barstow, California

I had a panic attack at a Denny's there on the drive to grad school in Los Angeles.

Lots of sex.

It has a lovely McDonalds. Like a real train station!

Well ...

You can get your kicks there.

Bleak. Dusty.

There is no there there. As far as I know, people only drive through it on the way between LA and Vegas, stopping to refuel or grab fast food. I cannot imagine who lives there.

A dump.

Is there a Tim Horton's there?

Most of San Bernardino County tends to feel like that. Oppressively hot, dusty, and a whiff of smog. I'm always surprised people live there.

Academy Award-nominated actress Jeanne Crain was from there. I don’t know her, but I will assume some of our DLers with vast knowledge of obscure actresses do.

they have a dairy queen and a gas station there.

i don't know where the gas station and dairy queen workers live because there is nothing else there.

oh, like everyone else - i drove through on my way to vegas from la...

I got a dairy queen blizzard - good stuff. It was about 120 degrees there (coming from about 80 degrees in LA) It was like a sauna OP. Thank god for the dairy queen.

The crown jewel of the California desert!

Lots of old Hell’s Angels and former Manson family members live there. Avoid.

It’s one of my favorite towns in American Truck Simulator.

At least the motel in OP’s photo has a pool and vacancy!

[quote] I had a panic attack at a Denny's there on the drive to grad school in Los Angeles.

Was it because you were going to grad school? Going to Los Angeles? Dining at a Denny's? Spending time in Barstow? Or some combination of the four?

I was raised here! I KNOW! Crazy, dusty....full of desert people who are either on the run or too mentally ill to be around others. Lots of rusty cars on what in any other city would be the lawn. That said: has one of the original Harvey Houses (train station) from early 1900's. Also has Marine and Army training bases, so tons of smoking hot 18-23 year olds without shirts, brains or condoms. Use that info as you will. One more thing: stark beauty at night, where millions of stars are laid out to see with no street lights to interfere. I used to sneak up to our roof at night and just lay there for hours.

Always stopped at the In-N-Out when going to/from Vegas.

R19, what was high school like there?

With all those young horny marines, high school must have been something.

It's the Gateway to Baker!

R21, I'm sure it was just like attending Beverly Hill High School.

It truly is a dreary town. Baker, Barstow, Mojave. They are all pretty bad.

It's "The Crossroads of Opportunity"!

I have always had a weird interest or fascination with Barstow. I love that a DLer is from there.

R25, don't forget cities like Needles and Blythe. Pretty much all of the California desert cities are grim.

It's very meth-y.

It's where people from Vegas go to bury their victims.

They have a restaurant called Bun Boy.

Is this the place that has a gyro restaurant?!?!

Yes, R32. The Mad Greek Restaurant, which has billboards announcing it for miles. Good gyros, too. I ate there once.

All of those tiny desert towns are a bit spooky. Barstow is better than Baker and Amboy is the freakiest IMO. It's very much a fill your gas tank quickly and get back on the road sort of place. Were it not for the existence of Vegas and the need for many LA residents to drive/visit there - I think that the town of Barstow would have dried up decades ago. The Greek place is really pretty good BTW!

[quote] Amboy is the freakiest IMO.

Why would Amboy be freaky, R34? Would it happen to have anything to do with this photo of blood splattered walls in an abandoned Amboy motel room?

All those horny marines make it sound ideal for day trips, but not to live in. Maybe a long suckfest weekend, but that’s it.

Apparently Rick Steves is from Barstow or at least born there.

The Mad Greek is in Baker, not Barstow. I Dr check t see if there are multiple locations but there is only one according to Google. Baker also has the World's Tallest Thermometer.

How do you meet a Marine?

Barstow is about 62 miles (100 km) from Baker, California and 111 miles (179 km) from Primm, Nevada. Barstow is almost exactly midway between Los Angeles, California (130 miles (210 km) southwest) and Las Vegas, Nevada (125 miles (201 km) northeast).

[quote]How do you meet a Marine?

in a negligee, Rose.

The Mad Greek makes an excellent gyro.

I got stuck here with my boyfriend Hawk while my other two sisters (we are triplets) were busy trying to convince my dad to get freaky with the Susie version of Hailey Mills

R19 here. I was a gay boy in a very redneck town, so High School was not great. There were some amazing teachers, so that was a plus. Barstow is worse now than it was then, if that is possible. Had a small town feel then, and in truth, I am happy I was raised there ...people looked out for one another. It's also a great place to escape from, so its a perfect way to inspire yourself to get out in the world and explore.

I drove through once on my way to Death Valley. The city is dismal, but the Mojave Desert is spectacular.

It's arid.

It's dry, too.

I find the lack of rain particularly dry as well.

[quote]Lots of rusty cars on what in any other city would be the lawn.

This is hilarious. I bet you're right about the stars, though.

Cruising areas?

R19 here again. Cruising areas: no. And to be honest, not safe. Super redneck town and not even remotely pro gay. Not a place you want to be caught out at night alone looking for dick.

Really check out the train station (Harvey House) online. Spectacular! 1911. Was the station that connected LA to Grand Canyon and beyond to the entire USA. Was completely abandoned when I was in high school, so was filled with trash and ghost stories. Beautiful restored now. A piece of American history hiding amidst the tumbleweeds.

[quote] Was it because you were going to grad school? Going to Los Angeles? Dining at a Denny's? Spending time in Barstow? Or some combination of the four?

Grad school, moving alone to California (from Michigan) without a place to live, driving across country in a car I didn't trust...

Sadly, Bun Boy (in both Baker, where there was an adjacent Bun Boy Motel) and Barstow are long gone.

Sounds like a great place if you are in the witness protection program. Who the hell would look there?

wtf R35! Is that for real?

We have a DL Amboy, CA thread too. I believe there were more pictures from inside of that motel room, R55. Very creepy.

No offense to R19, but all of the small, California high desert cities seem unlivable to me. Driving through the desert, you will often pass up ramshackle desert homes, long abandoned and graffitied over. Makes you wonder who lived there in the first place.

Another example.

[quote] Sadly, Bun Boy (in both Baker, where there was an adjacent Bun Boy Motel) and Barstow are long gone.

Well that's disappointing. As a young gayling, sitting in the back seat, thumbing through the AAA book while on family trips, I always wanted to make a trip to Bun Boy. Seriously. Even before I know the other meaning of 'buns', I just liked the logo

I like the beef jerky place that has a hundred types of jerky. Is that near Barstow?

r60 You mean Alien Jerky? It's in Baker.

Victorville (about 45 minutes closer to LA) is marginally nicer -- more shopping and restaurants, at least. And they used to have the Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum in nearby Apple Valley, but no more.

The Mad Greek has another location in Primm. (In the parking lot of the outlet mall.)

Alien Fresh Jerky

The last few times I drove to Vegas, the World's Tallest Thermometer (in Baker) was not working. I think it was connected with the Bun Boy, so maybe it met its demise when the restaurant shut down.

We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.

It's the Akron of Southern California

Is housing cheaper in the desert because Victorville has had a booming population for the last 30 years?

R61, that’s the one!

R56, this is the DL thread that talks about Amboy.

R68, yes. That's why you'll hear of southern Californians, especially those with families, buying houses and property in such far-flung places such as Hesperia. Even if they commute into LA to work. Housing is comparatively very cheap out there.

I like Calico Ghost Town.

[quote]It's the Akron of Southern California

Hardly. Akron was a major manufacturing city. Barstow is a small, dusty desert town with no industry to speak of.

Adelanto can be fun!

A little off topic, but I've lived in SoCal for 30 years and have always wanted to go to Death Valley. Drove to Vegas dozens of times, but never detoured off to DV. I finally went last year and it was definitely worth the trip. I drove into the park via Baker and came back via Adelanto/Hesperia (US 395).

It doesn't even feel like California, or at least most people's idea of it. Barstow holds the distinction of being the meth capital of the state.

R75, Death Valley is very fun if you have a 4WD or high clearance vehicle to reach some of the more rugged sites.

A mildly humorous/entertaining movie Just Add Water (2008) captures the pathetic nature of these dead desert towns. Meth seems to be about the only "commodity" produced these days.

The actual town of Mojave is even worse. I had car trouble there once, and walked around the block just to kill some time as I waited for a tow. It was like the Walking Dead.

I love the over the top, garish Greekness of the Mad Greek Cafe. The owner rakes in $4 million dollars a year. Here's a fun article about him.

[quote] Against all odds, 28-year-old road trip icon the Mad Greek rakes in $4 million a year. Yes, that’s big money for any restaurant in this day and age — but it’s especially impressive for an aging diner with sky-high operating costs that trades in a style of food that’s languished for years elsewhere in greater Southern California. Not to mention it’s positioned in the midst of a nearly inhabitable climate: in the high desert between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Despite incredible odds, owner Larry Dabour keeps his family business’s status as a juggernaut in itinerant dining alive. How? Travel to the source to find out.

We were on our way home to Santa Fe after a road trip to SF when the car broke down. We were towed to Barstow. We had to sleep in the car since it took 3 days to fix the car and we were broke. Late summer of 1994. Mis. Er. Y.

I ate at the Denny’s.

I was about to start a “real” job and desperately needed to cut off my bleached hair. I walked to a nearby barbershop. No mirrors and the barber was listening to conspiracy stories about the US government at full volume. Not a bad cut. He didn’t seem to mind that my hair was filthy.

Is Twentynine Palms nice? We didn’t get a chance to visit. The Robert Plant song of that name makes me think that it might be a mysterious and sexy place.

The Mad Greek himself:

I'll never forget driving up through Mojave very late at night and seeing a car fully engulfed in flames on one of the farm roads off the highway. I didn't see anyone around, just a burning car in the night. I was sure someone had just been murdered and torched out there.

I worked for one of the stores that had a shop in the outlet, and I had to go a few times. It is deadly dull, and there was a whole lot of nothing. I thought the desert was beautiful, and it was amazing to see how it just stopped at the edge of town, but there is absolutely nothing to do there, and nowhere decent to stay. The outlet mall was pretty great, at least at the time. It's a Tanger, and they've gone a little downmarket over the years, so I don't know if it's as good as it once was.

Frightening stuff, R83, and typical of that region.

It's all about Yermo.

Barstow has the "outlet mall" exit, where of course there's the outlet mall, and ONLY the outlet mall, and a pretty dismal one at that. Then 5 miles of desert highway later there's the "downtown" Barstow exit with the fast food joints mentioned upthread that serve the daily 100,000 folks driving between So Cal and Vegas. The McDonald's is actually a gross, fun, kitschy, big place [barely] resembling a train car that's actually more like a massive gift shop where you can also get a Big Mac. For me, no drive to Vegas is complete until I stop at that place for a pitstop and buy some crappola.

The Tanger Outlet Mall put the much larger Barstow Outlets (which preceded it by many years) out of business.

[quote]Barstow has the "outlet mall" exit, where of course there's the outlet mall, and ONLY the outlet mall

Actually, the Outlet Mall exit comes way before the outlets; the next exit gets you much closer to the outlets, and there are a bunch of restaurants in that area as well.

At night, you can see the Barstow town lights spell out the word Satan from a nearby mountain. True thing.

I almost took a job in Barstow. I hate commuting, so I looked into getting an apartment or condominium. A two bedroom condo is half the price of my one bedroom in the south bay.

I’m glad I turned it down. That place is a hell hole.

Good decision, R91.

The fact that they have an In n Out makes them better than Baker. Wouldn't want to live there though.

I'm no fan of Barstow, but the Mojave Desert night sky is something to behold.

I thought for this sure this thread was a cryptic title for another Soap thread. Who knew that dump Barstow of all God forsaken places could generate this much interest?

That whole desert region is a hotbed of illicit activity. Body dumping, meth labs, bikers, gangs, criminals hiding out from the law. People who just don't want to be bothered in general.

This makes the Mojave look pretty.

And this one not so pretty.

Not much there.

How’s the Meth in Barstow?

The meth is meh.

The URL at R99 describes the photo as a homeless man pushing a shopping cart. I can't even imagine how terrible the conditions are for somebody being homeless in that brutal desert heat. One would think heat stroke would be a constant danger.

We went to a reataurant in Twentynine Palms when visiting Joshua Tree. At around dusk, a bunch or grizzled, ragged looking men started filtering in from the desert for food and beer. They did not look like regular campers; they looked like they lived in the park, who knows where. I don’t think that Joshua Tree technically closes. I assume that these were homeless desert dwellers.

The desert sun is harsh on the skin. No offense to desert dwellers, but a lot of them ending up looking like lizard people.

Baker is supposedly the hottest town in the US.

Is Palm Springs near this ghastly town? Is it safe to explore these desert towns.. I am morbidly intrigued.

I'm sure the folks in Barstow are proud that they made the Route 66 song, and it was written in 1946. God knows what is was like back then, before air conditioning was common.

R106, Palm Springs is about two hours away from Barstow.

Barstow is on the way to Las Vegas. Palm Springs is on the way to Phoenix.

I stopped in Barstow once for gas, on my way to Vegas, and got accosted by a methhead bum with a peg leg. He was very insistent and belligerent. Finished up pumping my gas and got the hell out of there!

Palm Springs is very tony but yes, is surrounded by its own "methy" areas. Never forget the infamous Salton Sea..

I went on a mad road trip a couple of years ago, and covered most of the western US in a couple of weeks.

Barstow was the only place where I felt uncomfortable spending the night. I stayed at one of the most expensive motels in town, but I was strongly tempted to leave my suitcase in my car rather than go into the parking lot at 9 PM. Not that there was anything remotely menacing visible, I just felt some bad vibes.

To the guy who asked about Twentynine Palms, California... I included it in that recent thread about creepy places, places you don't go to.

I haven't been in about fifteen years, but every time I went everyone in town seemed absolutely miserable, clinically depressed. I didn't feel menaced, as I have been in some places, but I don't think I've ever felt that level of general unhappiness outside a homeless encampment.

Agree with R113 that Twentynine Palms is grim and depressing.

You never hear about peglegs anymore. We should bring them back.

[quote] How do you meet a Marine?

Find a bar popular with Marines and chat one up.

It's the Paris of the Inland Empire!

r75 I absolutely loved Death Valley. Went in March; was warm, but not oppressive. Almost a mystical experience for me; I wasn't prepared for the indescribable scale (pictures don't do it justice).

Below is the view from Dante's Peak.

R97 I find the Mojave the prettiest of the four main deserts in the US (Mojave, Chihuahua, Sonora, and Great Basin). I'd say Great Basin is a close second, though.

Don't forget about Slab City....jewel of the desert.

Gays should gentrify Barstow

There would have to be something initially charming about a place for gays to want to gentrify it, R121. Something Barstow is unfortunately lacking.

The Lady from Twentynine Palms

R122, a brave and entrepreneurial gay man could set up a gay porn studio in Barstow where broke, young soldiers could be convinced to jerk off and suck each other off for a $100!

Barstow is on the high desert. 29 Palms is in the low desert. What marine base is near Barstow?

Isn't Fort Irwin the nearby military base to Barstow?

If you're in Yermo, make sure to stop at Peggy Sue's Diner!

Barstow is the western terminus of Interstate 40. Since it doesn't go all the way to the Pacific, I-40 one of the major east-west interstates (the two-digit routes that end in "0") that isn't transcontinental. The only truly transcontinental interstates are 10, 80, and 90.

I-40 sign at the western end in Barstow.

Barstow just needs a master plan, sort of like Irvine did in the early 70's.

Looks rather vintage Joan Didion Land.

As if Didion would deign to grace one of these places with her presence.

Old Joanie does look a bit haggard. Give her two missing teeth, a camou outfit, and a beer bottle in one hand, and she could fit into any of those frightful desert bars.

That DL thread r70 linked above is great.

You lot are rekindling my foolish desire to go visit the Death Valley and these spooky little towns. I've wanted to go for many years just to see the stars from the salt flats, but from these threads the whole area seems like a trip off this planet, both physically and mentally. Intriguing....

Any scoop on the forgotten towns outside of Palm Springs? Banning, Cabazon, etc.

When I was a small child, my parents took my siblings and I on a roadtrip through the California desert, I think. We passed by Mt. Whitney, which I was in awe of, and then ended up a hot springs sort of nearby. Does anybody know where this area is and is it near Barstow?

All this provides so much context to the Titan video. Perhaps I should revisit it.

To be honest, I'm not from California and had no idea the state had towns like this. i guess I always think of LA and San francisco when I think of California. Are there a lot more towns like this?

R139 - the huge, notable, gorgeous and or desirable cities of California all (for the most part) line it's western coast. The inland areas are not so different from similar desert towns in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Mexico, etc. California is a beautiful state, but not all towns/cities live up to the others - also the cost of living is a fraction so....

I just made that road trip today! Just came back a few hours ago.

If you have to get gas on that road, go to the Peggy Sue’s exit (Old Ghost Town Road). It’s about two hours out from Vegas, or about a half a tank or a little less, depending on the vehicle.

There’s a couple of gas stations there that are well lit and safe. The gas station on the Vegas bound side of the road has better gas prices and the staff at the mini mart there are nice and not creepy. I think it’s an Arco.

Another place is the Barstow exit on the eastbound side of the I-15. There’s a Del Taco you can see from the freeway. There’s a truck stop and a big, well lit gas station there. Lots of people around, it’s safe. There’s also an Original Tommy’s you can see from the freeway at that exit.

Avoid gas stations in isolated small towns out there, especially at night. Don’t take side trips alone, don’t let your gas gauage get too low. There’s a lot of mountain climbs out there and you can burn gas very quickly. Go to a gas station right off the road, don’t wander, especially at night. There’s a lot of crime out there in the middle of nowhere.

Once my sister accidentally got off on the wrong exit and ended up on a desolate stretch of road out there. She saw a big biker with a woman’s small purse, like a bar purse. He was going through it and then threw it away. She was driving alone on the middle of nowhere and was terrified. She read up later and it turns out there’s a lot of murders out there.

I went out to Ventura and I wondered what you guys would say about it. I stayed in Ventura, and as far as I could tell, every hotel or motel is an unspeakable dump. Very run down places, most look like Ma Joad stayed there. You can tell they were nice motor courts once, but most are unkempt looking now. Lots of homeless, obvious methheads. Finally stayed at a place undergoing major renovations, to convert it to a newer shitty hellhole. Drove through the surrounding cities and they are all very run down looking. These were once very nice areas. I bet those people spent a lot of money to live in the oceanside version of Barstow.

I think a lot of small towns never recovered from the crash of 2008-2009. Renovations and improvements just came to a standstill, tons of businesses failed and never came back. Baker got killed then and they just never recovered, they were teetering on the brink then and the Great Recession pushed them over.

A local Vegas station did a special on Baker. Turns out, one family has been keeping it going by soaking a fortune into it. They own the thermometer. They restored it the last few years and are keeping the town alive. That town got hit hard in the Recession.

Ventura is a large city, r141. It has good and bad areas like any other place. Old Town Ventura is one of my favorite places to spend a Saturday.

Know any hotels or motels out there that are in good condition, R142? I read one review after another of people finding cockroaches in their rooms and beds, broken wi-fi and TVs, broken toilets, homeless hanging around nearby. Not cheap either. For the same money I could stay in a nice place in Riverside County.

Yikes! Sorry, r43- I don't know about hotels there because I either go for the day or stay with my friend's aunt. She lives off of Telegraph Road, past the college, in a hilly area. Not a lot of homeless there.

[quote]I could stay in a nice place in Riverside County.

Lol, good luck with that.

Temecula looked like a nice little town, isn't that in Riverside county

Yes, out in the middle of wine country. My apologies- I never think of that area as being part of Riverside. Yes, you will find some nice (but expensive) hotels there.

I was exhausted from driiving from Denver and checked into a Hampton Inn outside Barstow. I just wanted to sleep but the flies in the room were keeping me awake then I found a guy's hand under the bed

[quote]Any scoop on the forgotten towns outside of Palm Springs? Banning, Cabazon, etc.

Not really forgotten -- they have new-ish housing developments and shopping. That whole area between San Bernardino and the Coachella Valley seems to gradually be getting bigger. There's the huge Morongo Casino/Spa/Resort in Cabazon, of course, along with the two outlet malls.

[quote]I could stay in a nice place in Riverside County.

All of the Coachella Valley (Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, Indian Wells, La Quinta, etc.) is in Riverside County. There are some very nice resorts available.

DL fave Alam Wernik has tragically died in a freak accident involving jet-skis, in Texas. Family asks privacy difficult time

For the Ventura person -- I stayed at the Embassy Suites in Oxnard many years ago and it was quite nice -- right on the beach. Unfortunately the beach itself has a lot of tar in the sand.

r151 Unless he died in Barstow, we don't care.

Lol and ww for R153

What about Needles? Looks methy as well.

I met former Manson follower Catherine Gilles in Trona. She lived there for years. Don’t know if she still does. She was a kooky, good humored lady. You would never have any clue she was part of a murderous cult.

R155, it’s appropriately called Needles because of all of the hypodermic needles all over the place.

R137, it sounds like you're describing the spectacular Owens Valley, which is 2-3 hours drive north of Barstow and not part of the Mojave desert.

It's a beautiful valley nestled between the highest part of the Sierra's and the White Mountains, and My. Whitney looms over the place. There are hot springs in the area, and the nice little town if Bishop. I'd post a picture if I weren't on my phone, it's beautiful and a semi-popular vacation site.

[quote] Riverside is a shithole.

The Mission Inn is nice. And that one street with all of the citrus orchards and old homes, and that's about it.

A lot of it has to do with the town itself. Some of the towns in Riverside and Orange County are well kept in general so the hotels have to be clean. Ventura is generally run down in a lot of parts, so the hotels and motels are too. Standards are much lower even for chain hotels.

When I stay in a hotel, I don’t want to spend $200 a night for a place where Yelp reviews say a guy was shooting up in the parking lot and the manager said, don’t leave any valuables in the car. What is a valuable to a junkie? Anything that can be stripped off the car? Hub caps?

I’ve been approached by junkies in Ventura while I was pumping gas there. Not just regular beggars, but people so filthy their clothes were encrusted in layers of grime and matted hair and beard. They must not have any shelters there. I gave them money to make them go away because I was afraid of lice. At least they were polite.

Plus, it makes you seal yourself into your room instead of going out, because you don’t want to deal with whoever is out there.

There used to be Yelp reviews on a notorious motel in Baker that were hilarious. Blood all over the arms of furniture from people shooting up, blood on the walls, huge roaches, a giant blood stain on the mattress under the sheet as if someone had been murdered on it, management saying take it or leave it because there’s nothing else for miles. Horrified but unknowing travelers that mistakenly thought they could get lodging and just couldn’t drive any longer, sleeping in their cars in the parking lot.

The hotel situation in California is a microcosm of what’s wrong with America in general. The bottom has dropped out. Dirty rooms, roaches, junkies with their faces pressed up to the window ogling the complimentary breakfast and the manager shrugging it off, like I read in one Yelp review about Ventura. And bedbugs everywhere, unless you’re very careful to stay away from airports and stay in more upscale places. Cheap travel is mostly over unless you are willing to book into one place after another that you have to walk right out of. Bedbugs and meth killed it.

In the sixties and seventies, I used to travel with my parents and every motel we ever stayed in was clean. Even Motel 6 was spotless. If there were homeless around the cops handled it. Tourism was seen as something that was to be protected at all costs. Now half the places you can’t stop because it’s like the night of the living dead right up into the private parking lot. They aren’t maintained.

There are entire small towns where I won’t even stop because there’s nothing clean or safe there. Baker is one. The motels all went out of business. The gas is super overpriced. It has a bad reputation for travelers along that corridor, which is too bad because I think they are trying to build it up again. There are some travelers’ supply stops there now. But there were years where every business owners’ attitude was, “there’s nothing else for miles around! Take it or leave it!”

[quote] I was exhausted from driiving from Denver and checked into a Hampton Inn outside Barstow. I just wanted to sleep but the flies in the room were keeping me awake then I found a guy's hand under the bed.

...?

In SoCal, the Indians have taken iver all of the motels and little hotels, so standards have dropped.

I did some of my best work in that crappy little town, Barstow. That scene where Tom Neal "accidentally" chokes me to death with the telephone cord was shot in Needles."Detour" was the highlight of my career. I became a librarian. In the 1970' this rude little queer boy found out who I was. The first thing that little bitch asked me was " did I let Tom Neal fuck me?" - Ann Savage

[quote] Standards are much lower even for chain hotels.

This, and because of other horror stories listed, is why airbnb is so much better.

True story. In my mid 20s a good friend of mine were driving to Vegas from LA (where were on the outskirts of the High Desert - Hesperia I think. Not far from Barstow at all). We had to stop and get gas. While she went to pay for it, I was on the search for so food. I walked into this odd little bar about 20 yards from the gas station.

Much to my surprise it was a f-ing gay bar! I couldn't believe it. In the middle of nowhere? It was surreal. From then on, we stopped at this bar every time we drove to Vegas - which was all too frequent in those days.

Impressive, R65! what year was that?

R158, I love that stretch of HWY 395 at the eastern sierras. Beautiful scenery.

Not sure that you would call this a desert though.

I am not so sure that exploring these towns or the surrounding desert is such a great idea. I have a park ranger friend who explained to me that they are always finding bodies and especially body parts there. Parts of Skulls, jaws, you name it.

as an european this thread fascinates me. I checked Amboy (never heard of it before) wiki: i'd love to visit the spoils of the town (which was owned by the man who ran the cool gas station!)

I think Blythe has Barstow beat as a terrible desert town. The only people who live there are people who work at the nearby state prison, although I do suppose living right next to the Colorado River might have its perks if you have a boat... Hotter than hell too.

R158, the town of Bishop is actually quite nice. So is at least one of Lone Pine or Big Pine, I forget which one. I've often contemplated getting a vacation home or cabin in that part of the state, except that the weather conditions are VERY harsh out there. Extreme heat. Extreme cold. Relentless wind and dust. One would really need to be living out there a great majority of the time just to maintain your property. That part of the state is where they interned Japanese-American citizens during WWII, right out there in Manzanar, a horrible thing btw. Manzanar is now listed as a National Historic Site, and you can go to their very impressive Visitor Center to learn all about that and I believe you may tour some of the barracks and mess hall. Lots of interesting history out there, and that's without even getting into the Owens Valley water travesty which led to water being diverted from the Owens River to feed all of Los Angeles. Fascinating stuff.

Barstow is the armpit of California.

I did the trip up US395 once and it was one of my favorite road trips of all time. Stayed overnight in Mammoth; tried to go up to Devil's Postpile NM but it was still closed for the season in June (too much snow.) Beside the things mentioned above (Manzanar, Bishop, etc.), Mono Lake is fascinating as well.

Once we were driving through to Arizona and stopped at Blythe. The motel we stayed at had signs all over saying, no cleaning pigeons by the pool. WTF? Turned out they had some sort of annual pigeon shooting festival that was a big deal there. We were lucky to get a room, hunters everywhere.

R169, probably wild animals are eating the bodies and they're finding the remains.

There’s a story about a murder along the I-15 that creeped me out. Young girl met a guy at one of those tiny towns. She moved in with him. No work there to speak of and she had no family willing to help her, so she was trapped. She barely made enough for food at a part time job waitressing. Then he got tired of her and killed her. It took a long time before her family bothered to check on her. She’d been dead a long time already. I don’t think they ever found the body.

Hemet, CA was my little slice of heaven on earth.

Isn’t Hemet near the Scientology Gold Compound where they imprison the bad scientologists and work them like slaves? I’ve driven by there a few times and it is freaky and fortified.

Bishop is cute.

Well gee, the Mojave Desert has the dubious distinction of being America's #1 killing field and dumping ground for bodies:

[quote] 1. Mojave Desert, NV, Between Victorville and Las Vegas, 148 Bodies Discovered to Date

[quote] At 134 degrees Fahrenheit on its hottest days, the Mojave Desert stretches 25,000 square miles in every direction—an expanse of searing, white-hot hopelessness.

[quote] Long believed to be a favorite dumping ground for the Mafia, the desert has been the backdrop of numerous killings throughout America’s history. In recent years, the high-profile case of the McStay family’s disappearance ended when their corpses were found in the desert, years after they went missing.

[quote] The bodies of Joseph McStay, his wife Summer and his two young children, Gianni and Joseph Jr., were found in shallow graves just 100 miles north of their home, four years after the family disappeared in 2010.

[quote] After the family had been missing for several days, Joseph’s brother went to their home and climbed in through an open window. A carton of eggs sat on the kitchen counter; spilled popcorn splashed across the living room sofa. Later investigations at the McStay home revealed recent computer searches including “What do children need for traveling to Mexico?”

[quote] Eventually, Joseph McStay’s business partner, Chase Merritt, was arrested after police discovered his DNA in the McStay’s recovered vehicle. During the summer of 2015, Merritt’s attorney filed a request to have the case dismissed, accusing the prosecution of using faulty wording when the initial murder charges were filed.

[quote] The California desert sizzles with dry heat and goes on for miles. If a killer can get out there, either to commit a murder or to leave the grisly aftermath of one behind, it’s guaranteed to be a long while before anyone stumbles upon it—if they ever do. For law enforcement, it’s a race against time and the elements, as the heat ensures a body will decompose faster, the evidence of a crime drying up along with it.

[quote] As Keith Bushey, of the San Bernardino County sheriff’s department, chillingly remarked to The Sun, “If there were to be a cross everywhere someone dumped a body, the desert would look like Forest Lawn.”

Indians have taken over the motel business throughout the South. I’ve taken some road trips through eastern Tennessee where all the motels were Indian-owned. One trip last year I went to Mars Hill, NC which is north of Asheville. After I checked out of the motel on Sunday morning I noticed that the Waffle House was right next door, and it was SRO-full of Trumpers back from church who were bitching about immigrants.

"An expanse of searing, white-hot hopelessness."

Sounds like an apt description of Barstow and many of the surrounding towns!

Don't forget the frightening flash floods that sometimes strike in minutes, without warning if you're away from reception.

Needles can't be half bad. Snoopy's brother Spike lives there!

We were headed for Las Vegas, but only made it out to Needles.

When I was a teenager, my family would head en masse to Vegas in my aunt and uncle's enormous 70s van. We always traveled through Victorville to stop at one of the restaurants there. The trip to Vegas always began at some ungodly hour so I'd sleep through it.

No such luck on the trip back. I had to sit in a van for hours on end while one cousin worked through her obsession with Supertramp and another was dry humping his horrible girlfriend. Supertramp cousin always had us stop the van so she could pee in the middle of nowhere.

The highlight of the trip would invariably be the Victorville food. Even my grandmother who complained not stop would shut up and enjoy the meal.

R83 I had a similar experience driving on State Road 60 across central Florida. It was late night/early morning about a half hour outside Yeehaw Junction - and I saw a burnt up school bus on the side of the road - smoldering. It was so super creepy. I made no mention of it when I stopped at the Stuckeys for a Pecan Roll. And I asked no questions.

Victorville recently became the site of California's very first Cracker Barrel! I think they were also the location of our first Golden Corral and Steak-and-Shake.

Victorville used to be the pits before. Not sure how it is now.

R180, I forgot all about the McStay family disappearance. That was pretty brutal that they ended up dead in the Mojave.

Here are the shallow graves where they were actually found.

Barker Ranch, where the Manson family lived, is in Death Valley and you can visit.

I will be driving by Barstow tomorrow morning! Wish me luck!

Good luck in that Memorial Day traffic, R193. Yikes!

[quote]I will be driving by Barstow tomorrow morning! Wish me luck!

Can I have your stuff?

Do NOT load up on gas there, but if you absolutely must, do not go anywhere near Riverside Dr.!

If you want cheap gas, fill up at the Costco in Victorville (if you're a member.)

Any more good sites/blogs exploring forgotten Calif towns/ Route 66?

I've been enjoying this blog posted upthread. Lotsa pics. Text is succinct and factual. Casual read. Commenters are informative. Many ex-dwellers of the towns or their grandparents lived there.

If we don't hear back from R193 ever again, I think we should be concerned.

If you want to experience the sheer ecstasy of a Sacher Torte, you need to go to Vienna. If you want to experience really excellent Mexican brown heroin, go to Barstow.

Barstow is the true Sin City of America. Killers, meth dealers, body dumping, coyotes using it as a strategic point to dump out undocumented, a high crime rate.

Was Barstow featured in “Six Feet Under?” - I used to have a joke with myself that when everything went to shit, instead of suicude, I’d just disappear, move to Barstow and work at a shop. I really have always had a fascination with small, dusty ghost towns. I also like reading bad hotel reviews - R160. I’ll have to read more about Baker. I have a memory of driving to SF from LA and stopping in some dive in Ventura. All I remember was a Subway in a strip mall, but I got the creepiest alien-people vibe from that town and couldn’t leave fast enough. I don’t remember enough details to ever identify it again.

Are you heading to Vegas R193?

I spent ten years living in LA. I regret not taking more road trips or exploring outside of Hollywood. I did do the whole Route 66 trek which included Needles - loved all the abandoned motels and gas stations - and there are some eerie yet fascinating stops. As a solo female, I wandered too far off the path at times because of curiosity, looking back probably put myself at risk.

r192, it's a VRBO.

R202, this is for you.

As of now, the World’s Biggest Thermometer is fully restored and back in operation. It’s back in the hands of the family that built it, the last I heard.

[quote]As of now, the World’s Biggest Thermometer is fully restored and back in operation.

Insatiable bottoms of the universe thank you!

So is anything east of the coast part of the Inland Empire, or that a more specific area?

I thought the Inland Empire was the southern agricultural area, away from the coast, but not spanning the whole state and not desert.

The "blood" spatters on the walls in the abandoned Amboy motel at R35 is from a movie shoot, according to this link.

Regardless, the Amboy thread (linked at R70) really was awesome, and for me it sparked a newfound fascination with these creepy Western desert towns. Still trying to convince a few buddies into a road trip.

Thanks for the link, R207. Here is what somebody else had to say about the town of Amboy:

[quote] I use to live in 29 palms. And would drive through Amboy on the way to Vegas. My best friend and I had had our boys with us on one of the trips. We stopped at Roy’s because they wanted snacks. As we got [out] of the car and started to walk up, the the couple of people we saw quickly place(d) a chair behind the door and locked it. Creepy if you ask me.

I've been to Amboy. The man who runs the gift shop is a bit off if you ask me, and he doesn't really like you hanging around or asking too many questions either.

The Inland Empire:

Here is the archive of Huell Houser’s PBS show, California Gold, which he donated upon his death to a University. The episodes are online available for streaming.

If you don’t know who Huell Houser was, in the 1990’s-early 2000’s, he hosted a show for PBS featuring small towns and landmarks in California. He was known for his charming, easygoing manner. He passed away in 2012 of cancer.

I don’t know what’s there specifically about Barstow or the Inland Empire, but a lot of the shows are about Southern California if you’re interested in the history of the region. There’s some shows about the Palm Springs area.

There are some Huell Howser shows about Barstow.

Huell had to be gay. Did he ever come out? I took one of those death tours here in LA and the tour guide showed huell's place in west Hollywood and mentioned that he also had a home in palm springs.

R212, a friend saw Huell in Palm Springs with a young Asian guy circa 2001, and they were dining alone.

Huell was a former Marine whose house was just outside of the gate of one of the desert Marine Air bases -- 29 Palms?

The first Huell Howser show about Barstow (101) covers local Yermo landmark Peggy Sue’s diner, the first Del Taco and some other local stuff. For our Canadian friend upthread, and others that haven’t been to the area, Howser was really good at capturing the flavor of a local area.

The link to this show is at R211. And if you’ve never been to Yermo, there are billboards starting not far from Vegas advertising Peggy Sue’s in ninety minutes, PeggySue’s in five minutes, etc. Peggy Sue’s is famous because of the billboards and big sign that can be seen off the highway. It’s a 50’s diner.

It’s near the Calico ghost town, an abandoned mining town from the 1800’s Gold Rush. Calico is now a tourist attraction. The Peggy Sue’s turnoff is at Old Ghost Town Road, in honor of Calico. That stop is basically Peggy Sue’s, a couple of gas stations and a couple of fast food places added fairly recently. It’s a truck and car stop, there’s nothing for about thirty miles around in both directions along the I-15, so it’s a landmark.

That peggy sue's place looks abandoned when you drive by. I didn't think it was open.

As far as I know Peggy Sue’s is a busy place. You can see trucks on the parking lot all the time.

There’s another place with a big sign, not far from there, Jenny Rose, which is a diner that I think is closed, you might be thinking of that. Some band used the Jenny Rose sign in their video.

About Huell Houser, there’s a behind the scenes question and answer section that talks about the shows and a little about Huell himself. He seems to have donated most of his property to the university, so maybe he had no living family and no bf to take it.

There’s three parts to the behind the scenes answers.

The Jenny Rose diner has been closed for years now but the sign still stands as a sort of local landmark.

Those diners in the middle of nowhere remind of the signs for "Apple Annie's," which is another diner restaurant along the drive between LA and SF. It's not in the desert, though.

R181 You don't have to be Trumpette to be annoyed with Indians though. There is a reason they have such a bad reputation.

R220, eh. I'm usually happy to see them run by Indians. They mind their own business, and sometimes, in mid-sized cities, they can tell you where to get decent Indian food.

R221 Such sour people, no warmth, and always do the bare minimum. But let's excuse that, we likes thems food!

As opposed to you, who I am sure is as sweet and lovely as apple pie.

Moving on... the Kelso Dunes are a Mojave area attraction worth checking out.

Is Baker near Bakersfield? What's that like?

Not really, R224. Baker is in the middle of the desert, on the inland interior of California's eastern side.

Bakersfield is at the southern end of California's central valley, just north of which is an endless expanse of California agriculture and farming (fruits, nuts, vegetables, some dairy farms). You most likely drive through Bakersfield going from LA to San Francisco or back.

If you want to know what life as like out there before air conditioning, there’s a 1934 movie starring a young Aline MacMahon, Heat Lightening. It’s about two sisters who run a gas station in a remote area in the high desert. A number of travelers stay in their small lodging while waiting for the mechanic sister to fix their car. One of the travelers is a crook, others are carrying jewelry, etc.

They never really say where it is, but I’m guessing it’s somewhere on the road to Death Valley, maybe now it would be along the I-15. I can’t imagine traveling through there in one of those old cars that was so prone to breaking down with no air conditioning. It must have been hell. The highlight for the characters was taking baths in a separate bathroom you had to go outside to get to.

It’s a good little movie, made watchable by Aline McMahon and her little sister, Ann Dvorak.

R224, Baker = hellhole town in the middle of the desert, not far from Death Valley. It’s been hanging by a thread for years;

Bakersfield, surrounded by lush farms, fruits and nuts for sale by the highway for miles around, much larger and greener. It has its own problems, but Bakersfield is livable, Baker is just a hellhole.

I've seen good reviews for this book "The Silence and the Sun" by Joe de Kehoe.

Pics and interviews with people who lived in these Calif ghost towns.

Unfortunately, $75+. Probably because the publisher is regional only, limited print etc.

I don't like the idea of people living in lawless small towns. I want everyone in a major city, observable and trackable.

R229 = Zuckerberg

[quote]You most likely drive through Bakersfield going from LA to San Francisco or back.

Not unless you take 99. Neither I-5 nor US-101 goes through Bakersfield.

[quote]Those diners in the middle of nowhere remind of the signs for "Apple Annie's," which is another diner restaurant along the drive between LA and SF. It's not in the desert, though.

Where is this? I drive that route a lot (101 and 5, mostly) and don't remember seeing it. Now the one that's been abandoned for decades is the Milk Farm, in Dixon (between SF and Sacto.)

Bakersfield is the 9th largest city in CA and the 52nd largest in the US. It has more people than Honolulu, Pittsburgh, or Cincinnati.

Baker is an unincorporated town with a population of under 1,000.

OMG the Milk Farm sign made the Datalounge!

Yes, I know it has absolutely nothing to do with this thread, being about 500 miles north of Barstow. But it's just down the road from my home in Davis, I pass it a couple times a week. I feel so proud!

Aren't there a lot of white supremacists in that area too?

r234 I went to UCD in the '70s, when the Milk Farm was still open (and the original Nut Tree.)

[quote]Aren't there a lot of white supremacists in that area too?

Oh, yeah.

For those wondering what those abandoned desert homes look like from the inside, this might be of interest.

[quote]The Robert Plant song of that name makes me think that it might be a mysterious and sexy place.

Here's the video for the song. It does evoke the look and feel of the Mojave, or what you might imagine it to be.

A higher res version of the video:

r238 forgot to add "Tasteful friends" to his post.

One day it will be the new Palm Springs.

I'm not so sure I would explore those empty homes, like at R238. Often times there are tweakers shooting up there, squatters, people hiding out from the law.

Seems like the setting for a Tarantino Kill Bill fight sequence.

Madonna was quite taken with the bleakness of the California desert during her gothic stage!

This is where the dairy farms dump veal calfs they can't sell. They dump then in the road to die.

Does it have it's own University?

Can you major in Tweaking?

Just found out there's a Barstow Community College.

Wonder what these Baker, Amboy locals think about these tourists coming for pics everyday. Amboy on google maps (by Roy's) shows Chinese/Asian tourists with a small boy exploring/taking pics.

You Whores! How can anyone not mention the great porn industry? In the 90s you couldn't visit the desert towns without seeing TitanMen or some other gay porn studio shooting scenes.

California was such a hotbed for gay porn. Is the gay porn industry still big in Southern Cal?

Thanks, R204! Love that photo.

r249 Wouldn't this one have been more appropriate for this thread?

I have relatives in Apple Valley and Barstow. Lots of "rebel flags" around. It's how I imagine West Virginia...only in a desert.

When I worked at the Navy SEAL base in Coronado, they were always sending the guys out to Barstow for training and operations.

Porn operations?

Thanks R238. I have a demented interest in abandoned desert dwellings. If you catch the 10 at Indio, head east to the 177, 62 and then head north toward Vegas on the 95 it is deserted stretches of desert roads with dozens of creepy, abandoned single wides, homes, ranchettes, commercial buildings.

Beware, while investigating in the spring, the rattlers are just waking up from the winter snooze.

I-10 from the Coachella Valley to Phoenix is pretty bleak. There are stretches where it's more than 15 miles between exits. No towns except for Blythe (on the border at the Colorado River) and Quartzsite (a few miles into AZ.) The sign that reminds you of the numerous "correctional institutions" in the area and warns you against picking up hitchhikers.

R251 <3

I didn't know there was a Barstow film....

I seem to recall Donna Summer on a late 80's/early 90's talk show where she said she lived up around Barstow which is what I think of whenever the town is in the news.

Does anyone know of any famous people who have homes in the area?

r62- Victorville also has that abandoned military base- I recently worked on a commercial there (it was a night time disaster scene), and it was friggin' spooky. The commercial was deemed as "too realistic" and was never released.

This is for you, r255.

If you want to get an idea of what the Mojave desert looks like.

Another view.

Confederate flags, deplorables, and insurance fraud.

My "rebel flag" flying cousin collects disability and runs an under the table business.

His unemployed 21 year old son just had a baby with his girlfriend. On purpose.

Put a dome over the whole area.

Another abandoned desert home.

Is it Barstow or Baker that has the huge outlet mall? Sounds like a great place to get robbed in either city.

There is a lot of UFO activity in those desert towns. At night you can see all sorts of strange lights all over Barstow. My aunt is convinced she saw a wolf like creature there at night back in the 70s.

r265 Barstow, but the huge outlet mall is pretty much shut down. The much smaller Tanger Outlets is still there. The really huge outlet mall is in Cabazon, just outside of Palm Springs.

This is the old "dead" outlet mall (Factory Merchants Outlet Mall.)

[quote]I didn't know there was a Barstow film....

It was shared, appropriately for DL, at r2.

I met her on the way to Dallas Working at the Burger Palace

Used to be I could drive up to Barstow for the night

Find some crossroad trucker to demonstrate his might

But these days it seems nowhere is far enough away

So I'm leaving Las Vegas today

R268 That Outlet Mall was amazing 25 years ago. I used to drive up there a couple times a year, when outlet stores were truly outlets. They had a Bally outlet and I love Bally shoes.

The current Tanger POS has nice restrooms. I stop there on my way back from Vegas.

The oldest operating Del Taco is at the Lenwood Rd. exit in Barstow.

Barstow sounds like a glamorous place. Everyone who goes there has a story.

There’s a big Del Taco at the last freeway exit or so at Barstow, headed towards Vegas. It’s right next to a large gas station including gas for cars and big trucks, and a cluster of other fast food places. That place is always really busy, even at nine o’clock at night it’s a madhouse in there, but it’s well staffed and the service is fast.

They seem to cater to travelers and have some menu items that are “Barstow style,” like tacos that have huge amounts of extra cheese. They’re open until 10:30. After that, it’s hard to find much open that you’d be willing to go to.

The Del Tacos in Barstow are still owned by the original family and are not franchised, that’s why they have different menus and the food is higher quality.

That’s the same exit as Original Tommy’s. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a fast food chili place that was originated in L.A. by a WWII vet that wanted to have a chili hamburger and hot dog place. The menu is basically chili hamburgers, chili dogs, chili tamales, and they sell separate containers of chili. It’s kind of the In-and-Out of chili, very simple menu.

It started in LA and the San Fernando Valley, then they expanded a little bit and they now have a few outlets in Vegas and one in Barstow. Years ago, they were famous for their fast service. I used to go to the one in Van Nuys with my mom. They were so fast, by the time you paid, your order was done. And they had a line out the door. The far away outlets are not as special as the original ones were, but the chili tamales are still good.

This is a fun Youtube channel - she has several other videos about decaying towns in the area like Trona and Hinkley (the subject of the movie Erin Brockovich, where the groundwater was contaminated by PG&E) that are worth a look, as well as other parts of the region. I'd be completely creeped out exploring some of these places by myself, but they are fascinating.

Thanks, R275.

Has Barstow now reached the status of DL fave?

Please do not accuse me of race baiting, but are there any black folks in these towns? If not, is that the reason so many Confederate flag waving people settle there? Or is it a chicken and the egg thing?

Barstow actually has a larger than average percentage of black people (14.6%) than the state of California. According to Wikipedia at least. I believe most other desert cities are pretty white though..

"Barstow sounds like a glamorous place. Everyone who goes there has a story."

Darling, everyone, and I mean EVERYONE wore Schiaparelli! All the time!

Here's a picture of the afternoon counter girl at Del Taco about to head to her shift.

[quote]Bakersfield is livable, Baker is just a hellhole.

In what universe is Bakersfield livable? And for whom?

[quote]Barstow actually has a larger than average percentage of black people (14.6%) than the state of California

Wow, that's high for California. African-Americans are around like 6.5% of the population of California. Hispanics 38.9%, Whites 37.7%, and Asians 14.8.

Both the Army and the Marines have bases in Barstow, which explains the pocket of higher black population there.

That makes sense, R283.

I found a scorpion in my shoe in Barstow

R281, you must not have ever been to Baker. In comparison, Bakersfield is paradise.

Ask yourself, if I had to move to either Bakersfield or Baker, which would I choose? Baker is like purgatory in an old Twilight Zone episode.

Of course r277. The gays love Barstow! Let's have our first DL convention there!

Are there any decent hotels there?

R229 is right. We should all live in Urban agglomerations like Boston-to-Washington. But build upwards not out.

I am forwarding this entire thread to the Barstow Chamber of Commerce. This shall make their day!

It looks like there is a father and son running in OP's picture. What are they running from?

They're tryin to get the hell out of Barstow, R291.

Is this what happens near the Barstow military base?

^^^ Nothing near Barstow is that green.

RIP Huell Howser. I didn't know he had passed.

I just went through that drive on the I-15 last night.

Has anyone ever been to the truck stop at the Yermo exit called Eddie’s World? It’s a huge building and gas station with a giant ice cream cone on top of the building .

It was 94 in Baker last night around 9:00 pm.

There is a Love's truck stop there. I walked by the waiting room where there are truckers sitting in chairs watching TV while they wait for a shower room to be available. It smelled like BO and smegma.

[quote]RIP Huell Howser. I didn't know he had passed.

He didn't "pass" anything. He died.

Not one nice hotel.

Is it in Baker or Bakersfield that has an Indian restaurant right on the side of the highway, in the middle of nowhere?

I believe that is outside Bakersfield, R300.

I cannot get over how so many here are extremely familiar with Barstow and Baker to the point where you can readily describe and identify landmarks and restaurants. I knew we had many Californians on board here, but I didn't think they outranked NYers. Now I think they may.

I am recently retired(early) and by the total luck of my inheritance I have a pretty fair amount of money to blow and no heirs clamoring for it. How 'bout I organize a DL luxury motor coach tour, for say 20-25 tops, to tour Amboy, Baker, Barstow and Twentynine Palms along with the Marine base(my dad was an admiral so I have tons of connections.) We will "glamp" along the way and dine on gourmet cookout cuisine prepared by camping stewards, and on occasion we will dine in a landmark café such as The Mad Greek. There will be safety in numbers, plus our stewards will be packing heat to protect us.

Whaddya say?

This was a pretty awesome, detailed, and informative thread. Thanks everybody.

Most southern Californians are familiar with Barstow and Baker because they're on the way to Vegas.

[quote]How 'bout I organize a DL luxury motor coach tour, for say 20-25 tops

You selfish, selfish boy.

Sounds like a grand idea, R302!

Next time I drive from California to visit my family in Tx I want to do a "Great Holes of the Southwest" tour and stop at Amboy Crater, Winslow Meteor Crater (love Starman) and the Grand Canyon. I don't know if New Mexico has any enchanted large holes to view but I will look into it.

r302 You're looking for 20 DL tops?

Bless your heart.

R307 New Mexico has the Carlsbad Caverns.

Stopped in Baker recently and had a very satisfying lamb gyro!

Stopped in Amboy recently and had a delicious Lamb Armistran.

There absolutely are devil worshipers in and around Amboy and that area. No, I'm not religious, but I've gone desert hiking in the area and have come across more than a few pentagram campground rings and a few sacrificed jackrabbits. Could be just teenagers playing pranks but I never stuck around long enough to want to find out.

It's not surprising they'd have devil worshipers, since they're living in Hell on Earth.

r312 I think you did the right thing. People in Amboy want to be left alone in Amboy. They may not be your beliefs, but they are our beliefs.

[quote]At night, you can see the Barstow town lights spell out the word Satan from a nearby mountain. True thing.

In this day and age, don't you think somebody would have gotten a picture of this if it were true?

Your faith in empirical reality, r315, even if it is misplaced, is most refreshing. Charming, for example, that you don't seem to realize that anyone who attempted to get a picture of that would be killed instantly.

Oh, c'mon R316. That is absurd.

R316 killed by what, pray tell? The evil demonic forces lurking there that, for some reason, are perfectly fine with people seeing it with their own eyes, yet raising a phone to take a 2-second snapshot is totally out of the question?

I fully believe that all of these remote desert areas are sketchy places... but Jesus, some of you people need to lighten up and go back to the /nosleep and /creepypasta sections of Reddit.

I dunno anything about the occult, but corpses are dumped in the Mojave all of the time. A combination of drug deals, people hiding out from the law, and it’s a difficult place for officers to keep tabs on.

It could be worse. It could be Imperial.

Aren’t there like all of two trailers in Amboy? Where would all of these satanists live? Hovels in the ground outside of town? I get that the area is totally creepy and either real occultists or pranksters have set up little sites where things have gone on, but in that remote environment those things could be untouched for a long time and not necessarily suggest a high frequency of such events. As for the bodies, two high metropolises hours away on either side, of course people will drive a long way if they think it will properly hide a body.

[quote] I wish there were a satanist community in the dessert

There already is, R321, and I suspect those devil worshipping bastards, Duncan Hines, have something to do with it!

R322 WW

Isn't Imperial county where the government used to do "special" testing?

There have always been stories (dating back to Native American folklore) that there are creatures that snatch humans in the Southwest deserts. Illegal Immigrants always tell tales about seeing paranormal stuff between the borders.

[quote] There have always been stories (dating back to Native American folklore) that there are creatures that snatch humans in the Southwest deserts.

Those are just Arizona women. They look a little alien-y, especially when they wander the desert, desperate and horny.

Stopping by Barstow on my way to LA Pride from Vegas. Wish me luck!

R326, beware of the UFOs that constantly pass through Barstow.

R326, Go to Peggy Sue’s near Yermo, Old Ghost Town Road exit, and let us know how it is. And get gas, last week I was in Malibu and gas was over four dollars.

Did R326 survive Barstow?

Watch out for the chupacabra...

And I think that's where mr. Howell locked up the Brady family because he thought they were going to get his gold...

Over 300 posts about Barstow of all places??

Well, here’s another Barstow post. Went to Eddie’s World today, it’s at the Yermo exit one stop east of Peggy Sue’s. It was a revelation.

Big air conditioned, spotless building with separate areas for pizza, salad, homemade ice cream, jerky and coffee, and displays throughout full of toys for the kiddies and bags of candy, including Mexican brands. Tons and tons of bag candy. Lots of small Beanie Baby or handheld size toys. A whole wall of refrigerated cases of cold drinks.

The whole place is new and spotless. Bathrooms are spotless, with roomy private stalls. There’s room for big trucks and lots of car parking.

And the best part is lots of people are employed there. People are continually cleaning the bathroom, floor and the large seating area. There’s seating both in a large indoor area and on a patio. The ice cream people have obviously been told to serve with a smile. No sullen faces anywhere.

Gas today at Eddie’s was about $3.79. At Costco in Woodland Hills this morning, gas was about $3.47.

This is the only clean, decent looking bathroom for miles around. The last one I used was at Chevron at Old Ghost Town Road. No mirrors, filthy, door locks missing or torn up, no hooks to put your things. Dirty.

I've always imagined these California desert towns to have an intense spiritual energy. Can anyone who has visited there tell me if this is so?

[quote]Well, here’s another Barstow post. Went to Eddie’s World today, it’s at the Yermo exit one stop east of Peggy Sue’s.

I-15 runs north and south. Which direction is it from Peggy Sue's -- before (heading to LV) or after?

R333, people dump a lot of bodies in the remote parts of the desert. I don’t recommend just wandering off-road in some of the more remote areas. Not even with one other person.

People used to dump bodies in the outskirts of Las Vegas, now it’s so overbuilt that’s not really practical. So they’re dumping them in the desert. And there’s motorcycle gangs out there living in remote trailer parks or campgrounds.

There’s an alternative truck route in the area that’s the old Route 66. I last traveled that way a couple of years ago. There is nothing there but a potholed road and some decrepit old buildings. Some of it is deserted enough that you wouldn’t want to have car trouble out there, especially at night.

If you’re traveling alone and don’t know the area, stay on I-15 if you can. If you need to stop, do it at one of the truck stops or gas stations if you can. They are well trafficked and you can wait for the Emergency Road Service there if your car overheats. Peggy Sue’s and the gas station at Old Ghost Town Road nearby are busy and well lit and lots of people go through. Eddie’s World is busy and you can wait indoors with seating. There’s a sign for Newberry Springs. Pick another stop if you can.

Right before Victorville on the Vegas bound side, there’s a gas station visible up on an elevated area to the right of the freeway (Chevron maybe?) with an adjoining McDonalds. That’s a busy and safe area too.

About Eddie’s World, they have a large stainless steel mechanism attached to the inside of the bathroom doorknobs with a sign on it in several languages, saying it automatically sanitizes the doorknob inside the stall after every use.

You should see the bathroom I’ve been using at the Old Ghost Town Road exit before this. It’s a hellhole, but there was nothing else. The Jack in the Box at that exit serves horribly greasy food, even for a Jack in the Box. There’s grease literally dripping from the hamburgers.

Whoever Eddie is, he’s a genius. There’s nothing else of that quality out there. The ice cream is handmade with no artificial dyes. There were lots of cars there. And the people there looked thrilled to have a job, there can’t be much available out there.

They need to put a motel adjacent though. One well-dressed but exhausted man had his head laid on a table in a corner. I would think a plain but clean motel next door would make money.

R334, sorry I wasn’t clear. Peggy Sue’s is on the right hand side as you approach Las Vegas, but you can exit at the Old Ghost Town Road exit in either direction. If you’re heading towards Los Angeles, exit there and make a left, then another left at Jack in the Box.

Eddie’s World is one stop closer to Las Vegas. There’s a building there shaped like a giant ice cream cone. It’s visible on the right hand side if you are driving towards Las Vegas. Las Vegas = I-15 North.

It's actually EDDIE World (no possessive.)

You’re right, R336. I’m still bleary eyes from my trip. My mistake!

R336 Thank you so much for posting the link to Eddie World. That place is just fascinating. Hell, I want to go see it even though I am nowhere near Cal/Nev. I love their description; The Disneyworld of gas stations. That's an ambitious claim, but they seem to have actually done it.

I hope they make a fucking fortune for having the guts to do something really nice where there was such a blight before.

There's another Eddieworld in NV, which may or may not have urinals where you can play shoot the enemy tank with your stream...

Where? Where?!

There's a place in Beatty, NV (a short drive from Death Valley) that reminds me a lot of Eddie World.

I remember going to to that one at R341. I didn’t remember it as Eddie World though. It’s much smaller than the one in Yermo, which is huge.

It’s nice that someone realized what people need at these stops: gas, coffee and candy to stay awake, drinks, toys to shut up the bored kids in the back seat, food, clean bathrooms, and a place to sit down as long as you want and get some air. No place along that route has an air conditioned place where you can just sit down. And ice cream in the desert.

And of course a million flavors of jerky. Apparently no one can travel along the interstate without jerky any more.

R333, if you’re asking whether those towns elicit an emotional reaction, my answer is yes. It’s a combination of the extreme landscape and the isolation. Everything is thrown into relief. The smaller are emptier the town is, the wierder the effect.

I think you would like Joshua Tree and should go if you haven’t been. I can’t really describe the vibe. The “mountains” are really strange, more like big piles of rocks than solid single formations. The Joshua trees themselves are really extraordinary. They’re roughly human size or somewhat larger with long, gangly braches that can make them look like they’re gesturing or posing. It is huge and barren except for cacti and these little jewel-hued flowers. My favorites were called claret cups. It inspires a sense of awe, especially at night.

r342 I just noticed there's a sign over the gas pumps that seems to say "Eddie."

R343 thank you it sounds amazing. I hope I can visit some time

Here’s a story about the World’s Tallest Thermometer in Baker. It says the highest temperature ever recorded in Death Valley was 134 degrees.

There’s a shop at the base of the World’s Tallest Thermometer. The proceeds of the shop go to maintain the Thermometer, so stop by if you’re in Baker.

Jeanne Crain and Rick Steves are from Barstow.

Eddie World IS NOT FUCKING AROUND.

"What Eddie World truly represents is a complete departure of traditional expectations. We want to completely redefine how people perceive gas stations. Our biggest passion is our extreme dedication to clean and comfortable bathrooms, freshly prepared quality food, and the cheapest gas from Yermo to Las Vegas!"

I live several hundred miles away and this thread is making me want to jump in the car and go to Eddie World, lol. How is the cruising in those clean and comfortable bathrooms?

Probably not good, R349. When I was there they had a crew of employees continually mopping and cleaning. And there were tons of people including lots of kids. I guess it depends on what time you’re there.

On the plus side, that’s the cleanest public bathroom I’ve ever seen. It was gleaming ceramic fake marble and shone like a showroom. But you can vent your sexual frustration on some really good ice cream.

I think Eddie World is a microcosm of what the typical American wants, without judgment. Gas, food, popcorn, coffee, ice cream, toys and candy and clean bathrooms. If they had a big screen TV, recliners and showers, some people would just move in.

And I think they sell Eddie t-shirts there.

Barstow bump!

Blowjobs were wild available everywhere you looked in the truck parking lot at Eddie World last time I was there

All I could think of in those videos of people traipsing around in deserted old houses in the desert was HANTAVIRUS........

And don't forget the bats -- very plentiful in this area of the Mojave Desert -- as possible disease vectors

For Sheryl Crow, Barstow was a destination:

Used to be I could drive up to Barstow for the night Find some crossroad trucker To demonstrate his might

(Leaving Las Vegas.)

Barstow is on Route 66. I drove through Barstow without stopping, but I did stop in Victorville, where I ate some good middle eastern food at Ala' Al-Deen. I have a fascination with desolate western towns, for some reason.

"Back To Barstow" was filmed there. It's a pretty accurate depiction of the town.

It has the cutest split-level I’ve ever seen.

r356 I don't think Victorville is really a desolate Western town.

R352 Lot lizards at Eddie World parking lot, which just opened circa 2017? Oh my heavens!