Let me just say… food poisoning sucks. If you’ve had it, you know what I’m sayin’, and this is the second time this year for me! Argh. So after three days suffering in the house, my feller took me out on a much needed post-yuck-fest, post-Dia de los Muertos adventure.
Woo hoo!! A Day Trip!
First, we picked up some lovely flowers (Black-Eyed Susans like I so loved on our 66 tour!) then headed out on Route 66 to middle-of-nowhere California, where we planned to have lunch at the famous Emma Jean’s Holland Burger (even though I wasn’t sure I could eat) but sadly, they were closed…
So… we continued on to our destination.
Bagdad.
Many of you may have heard of the Bagdad Cafe, made famous in the 1989 film, Bagdad Café—although it was actually shot at the Sidewinder Cafe in Newberry Springs, which has since changed its name to Bagdad Cafe. I haven’t been there myself, but Brian went in there once, and said it was one of the most surreal moments in his life. If you want an entertaining read, check out some of the Yelp Reviews and make your own call. Perhaps, go for the quirk, not the food.
So the real Bagdad. Bagdad’s big claim to fame was being the driest spot in the country, 767 straight days without rain, from October 3, 1912 to November 8, 1914. It was a railroad town created in 1883, and although the 40 bypass in ’73 put the final nail in the coffin, the town had been dying a slow death for years. In 1918 a major fire destroyed most of the wooden buildings in the town… I think I found a souvenir piece, cool, huh? It certainly came from some very hot fire, the way the glass is melted into the metal.
Anyway, in 1923 the post office closed, in 1937 the library shut down, and from there it just kept dwindling.
These days, there’s nothing left of Bagdad that you can see from Route 66. All the buildings are gone. BUT… if you’re driving along Route 66, about 7.5 miles west of Amboy, look for the tree on the north side of the highway. That’s where Bagdad used to be, and where, if you cross the railroad tracks, you will find remnants of the people who used to live there. Someone has been digging holes looking for treasures (which is where I found my above souvenir) and has unearthed tons of broken glass and china.
Keep moving, and you’ll eventually run across a small cemetery: our day’s destination.
Brian thought it would be nice to take flowers to what we thought was an abandoned and neglected site, but clearly, someone has been taking care of it.
The gravel is nicely raked and there are red silk flowers on every cross.
I’m assuming the owner of these gloves is the responsible party and as lovers of Route 66, we thank you.
After snapping a few pics, and searching the piles of stuff for treasures…
We got back on the road to Oro Grande toward the Bottle Tree Ranch, and boy, did we hit the timing right! With the sun low in the sky, it looked as if the bottles were lit from within. Absolutely stunning.
Pretty cool what adventures you can find within a day’s drive, right?
And now… back to work. AND… back to work on my neglected Triumph project! Summer got in the way, but I jumped back into it this past Sunday, and the wiring is finally making sense! Yee haw! More on that project soon…
Until then…
Later gators!