AMBOY, ZZYZX AND PAHRUMP

I am fascinated by the history of Route 66. Of course I have already been on this stretch before so it's not new to me.
*DUPLICATE PHOTO WARNING* Good old Roy's Motel and Cafe. The cafe is still open but I don't think the motel is. Since it's the only fuel for miles, they can sell it for $4.89 / gallon. That's not the highest I saw on the trip.
God only know how long it's been since there were children living in Amboy. It closed in 1999 and there couldn't have been that many kids left at that time.
*DUPLICATE PHOTO WARNING* My plan was to hike the mile and a half trail to the Amboy Crater, but it was kind of hot, the sun was beating down, I didn't have any water, I hadn't eaten and I was alone. So rather than an hour's walk I just went a little bit and turned back.
This is the trail.
*DUPLICATE PHOTO WARNING* Just proof that I wasn't lying. And yes, the song was stuck in my head again all day.
Some businesses along Route 66 in Ludlow that are no more.
Mount Pisgah and its lava flow. Oh, and a train.
Welcome to Zzyzx, Califronia. It's pronounced ZYE-zix. This is Lake Tuendae, but it's little more than a big pond.
Back in 1944 there was a radio evangelist and so-called doctor called Curtis Springer who made a mining claim on Soda Springs and he renamed it Zzyzx, which he figured would be the last city alphabetically. He built the Zzyzx Mineral Springs and Health Spa in 1944. It's still there. This was the administrative building and chapel.
It eventually became a sixty-room spa resort.
I don't imagine it was a bad place to go, even if Springer was a quack doctor.
Given the tower on top of the building I wonder if this was where he had is broadcast studio.
Everything seemed like it was going great for Springer. He started selling lots on the land. The only problem was that it was actually public land, so he was charged with squatting and evicted. The facility is now used as the Desert Studies Center for the California State University system.
There was a restroom facility next to the parking lot. In it was a toilet that was little more than a hole over the ground. I'm not making this up. That brown in the center is an actual column. Now I don't know if it was a natural rock formation or a literal pile of crap, but I choose to believe it was the latter.
The Soda Dry Lake.
After a long day's drive through the desert, I got to the booming metropolis of Pahrump, Nevada where I would spend the next two nights.
The room was nothing fancy but more than adequate.
I decided to eat dinner at the buffet in the Pahrump Nugget Hotel and Casino. That family that just got out of the taxi did the same. The cashier in the restaurant asked if I was a senior. I think that's the first time that's happened. But it is understandable. Almost everyone else in there was.
There's nothing like visiting a brothel at dawn. This is the Chicken Ranch.
Sheri's Ranch and the Chicken Ranch are the only two in Pahrump and they are located right next to each other. Odd placement.

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