2018 Visiting Elmer Long Rt66 Barstow

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I’ve been to Las Vegas and back to the Los Angeles area so many times and each time it is go, go, go!

It’s a four hour drive to get to the vacation kingdom and the only stops we would make is to pee and to get an Inn and Out hamburger. Never have I stopped along to enjoy the areas and have always said I will one day get off the freeway onto old Route 66. Finally I did and in this video you get to explore with me some off the finds near Barstow California.

First stop was just to see the sun shining through the many bottle trees and the thousands of bottles on display at Elmer Long’s Bottle Tree Ranch. Filled with rusty antiques the property is a unique museum of the ruins of old mining towns as it stands in all its glory under the sun in the hot dessert.

I had seen this on the internet and never thought it would become real as we got to meet up with the owner, Elmer Long. Elmer told us about the origins and his unique lifestyle. Elmer says, “I’m just lazy” and that may be true but Elmer has opened his life and heart to thousands of travelers each year.

The next thing I wanted to see was the Pisgah Cinder cone. After a long journey through some very rugged desert we stopped on the tracks with a train passing and there was the volcano. Dormant, but young, this is only one of the many cinder cones in this area and from this one lava gushed and flowed all over the sand.

Where I wanted to eat breakfast at Peggy Sue’s café. Were we so glad we did as we found food prepared right. It was brunch and Peggy Sue’s did not disappoint. Have you ever had one of those breakfasts that burns into you memory having been that good. This was one of those wonderful moments and now I am craving to have Chicken Fried Steak with that wonderful biscuits and gravy. If you ever eat to Peggy Sue’s 50s Cafe do have the Chicken Fried Steak.

Next, I wanted to surprise my wife and take her to the last remaining Harvey houses. Fred Harvey has left a legacy and it has been preserved by the Federal government as a national landmark.

A Harvey House was built along the stops for the Santa Fe railroad and were places the train would stop so the passengers could eat food and take care of hygiene. These little pop up communities were places of commerce and this is how many people were introduced to this Wild West expansion they called California.

Situated right on a large switching yard the Harvey House is now a museum and is the last existing one in the nation. Yet it was a brief stop and one I will one day go back to. The Harvey House museum is only open Friday through Sunday and we were there on Tuesday.

Do you like trains? Almost everyone does; yet rail transportation fell away to the booming automotive industry and as people stopped riding the rails, places like this one would only see freight trains and this last Harvey House closed in 1971. By the way some of the longest freight trains in the world come through this train yard.

There is one person who really enjoys transportation by plain, trains, and cars more than me. So in this video we wish our Oregonian friend Tristan a happy birthday as one of those long trains passes by.

LASTLY – One of my main objectives is to explain the changes coming to Louinator59 Channel and complete the #SmallYoutuber Tag and answer question for viewers of Louinator59.

We hope you enjoy our video.
Here are some more photos

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