| J: Get your kicks on... P: On what? J: Don't you know music? P: Like Ja Rule and Outkast? J: I have the worst imaginary friend ever! |
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| J: This is the Mojave Desert. I urinated here. |
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| J: As the Talking Heads sang, we're on a road to nowhere. But since it's over 100° perhaps AC/DC's Highway To Hell is more appropriate. |
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| J: Roy's Motel and Cafe in
beautiful downtown Amboy, California. Don't try to find it on a map. It's a desert town,
population 20, and I think that is overstated. The town is owned by two guys. There's this
place, a very small school and a few shacks and trailers. This stop on Rte. 66 was built in the 1930's. There is a cafe (about ten seats at a counter) where two Mexican men cook the usual roadside diner fare, burgers and such. The motel probably never gets used, since this stretch of 66 is fairly desolate and not well-traveled anymore. I-40 runs parallel not too far from here. |
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| J: This is Amboy Crater. This 250-foot-high crater is approximately 6,000 years old and one of the best
examples in the Mojave Desert of a recent volcanic cinder cone. The crater
is breached on one side where basaltic lava poured out over a vast area. The inside of the
crater contains two lava dams behind which has formed small lava "lakes."
Outside the crater, the lava field contains such features as lava lakes, collapsed lava
tubes and sinks, spatter cones, and massive flows of basalt. Amboy Crater stands alone in
the Mojave Desert with no other evidence of recent volcanism close by. P: Write that yourself? J: Never you mind. I took a little black lava rock as a souvenir. |
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| J: It seems the desert is for sale. Just call Exclusive Realtors at 818-348-7500. |
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| J: In case you can't read the sign,
it says: "There may be rattlesnakes in this area. Rattlesnakes are active at night
during the summer. They will seek out shady places during the heat of the day. Children
should be warned not to go near any snake. Reasonable watchfulness should be sufficient to
avoid snakebite." P: Did you see any? J: No. This was at the edge of a rest area on I-40. There was a little space where there were two other signs. One faced one direction and said "BEWARE OF RATTLESNAKES" and the other was about ten feet away facing the other direction and said "PET AREA." Either people out there keep rattlers as pets or little Fluffy's going to be snake bait. |
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| J: I see dead people. P: Where? J: Under those rocks. This was a little cemetery called Daggett Pioneer Cemetery. It is still used by the good people of Daggett, pop. 200 or so. But the newer graves looked rather ordinary. These were more interesting. |
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