69 It was a change in direction

Kingman, barstow, san bernandino.
Won't you get hip to this timely tip
When you make that california trip
Get your kicks on route sixty-six.

A few I think, but that was back in Winslow. Now we were looking for a ride again in Kingman. I don't remember the driver or the ride but somehow we made it to Needles. This time when they would have asked "Where are you headed?" we'd answer "California" and they would have said "Yeah. Heading right there."

Then Route 66

Made it. I remember it being kind of a place you could have your privacy. Didn't see too much of the town but it didn't look fancy at all. Do what you want. Older buildings. Out in the middle of nowhere. I thought it might be kind of a cool place to live. But that was from looking at a distance. We kept moving.

About 1980

New photo

It wasn't all that easy yet. We got a ride out of Needles pretty quick but we were left in a desolate place again. Looking at the map now my guess would be Fenner, but I can't be sure. I just remember looking around and saying "This is the Mojave?"

Fortunate though. It may have been an hour or less but not long enough to ponder mortality. Just enough to appreciate wide open spaces. Got the ride we needed, timing was perfect. It all fell into place after this. Dropped off near Barstow. I said "Hey! That's where Big Valley took place!" "No. That's Stockton." Cool.

I suppose we were past Barstow, near Highway 395. It's a VW van pulling over. "Where are you going?" "Oh. We're not really sure." "We're going up to Lake Tahoe. You wanna come with us?" Yes.

She kind of reminded me of Crystal Gayle with plenty of hippie overtones and he reminded me of Tommy Chong when his hair was long. They were to be our guides and guardians our first couple of days in California.