Route 66 - The Mother Road

Sun Pillars are rare optical phenomena. Click here - http://www.pbase.com/image/7939154 - to view another one, at dawn, over Mono Lake. This one is over the BNSF rail yard, in Barstow, California, in the Mojave desert.

Litter takes on a look of stained glass in the Mojave desert, along Route 66.

This is a portion of a giant rolling pin, once used by the National Chloride Company, to tamp down the salt flats in the Mojave desert near Amboy, California.

The B-52s would love this juke box, on display in the Route 66 Museum, in Barstow, California.

Close-up look at the underside of an engine of the Burlington Norhtern - Santa Fe railroad company. This engine was on a siding in the Mojave desert.

The image is somewhat abstract - vehicle tracks in the salt at the National Chloride Company, Amboy, California

This ornament is on the hood of an old Cadillac on display in the parking lot of the Route 66 Motel, in Barstow, California

These two are on permanant display at the Route 66 Motel, in Barstow, California.

Don and Janet Riddle - They are the retired school bus drivers for the Amboy school, which closed in 1997. When I made this picture, in early February, 2003, Don and Janet had been ordered out of their home behind the school, where they had lived for many years, by the county school board. They managed a sunny attitude.

The diners at the Bagdad Cafe, in Newberry Springs, were both in the film of the same name - a cult film worth seeing - and were enjoying lunch the day our photography workshop group dropped in for a meal. Lyn and Pat Wright were two of the many authentic "characters" in the film, made on location in the Mojave desert. Pat has worked single handly to bring fame to the little cafe and the film, both of which effortly serve up dishes of myth and reality.

Look closely and you'll see at least one important prop from the film in the background of this picture.

http://www.bagdadcafeusa.com

Light reflected off my subject - the man wth his sunglasses - and into my camera, while we stood in front of Roy's Cafe and Motel, in Amboy, in the Mojave desert. The sunglasses reflected Roy's Cafe and Motel sign. And the sign is reflected again, dimly, in the pupil of the eye.

The cook at the famous Bagdad Cafe takes a break - Newberry Springs, Mojave desert, California, USA

This Burlington Northern/Sante Fe (BNSF) employee graciously posed for me in front of the historic Harvey House train depot, Barstow, California, in the Mojave desert.

"Stuff" is everywhere at Tom's Welding, in Barstow, located along Old Highway 58, and a few minutes from historic Route 66.

Route 66, Amboy, California

A trick of perspective makes it appear this figure of a welder is working on the old Standard Oil sign.

The little community of Daggett lies just east of Barstow, in the Mojave desert of California. Many of the graves in the Pioneer Cemetery - alongside historic Route 66 - are unmarked, but those who rest there have not been forgotten.

This old car sits in the parking lot at the Route 66 Motel, in Barstow, California. The Route 66 Motel's neon sign reflects in the windshield.

Close view of a headlamp on an old truck at the National Chloride Company, in Amboy, California, just off Route 66.

The famed Route 66 Motel sign, in Barstow - Mojave Desert