Day Ten - Las Vegas, NV to Kingman, AZ to Barstow, CA

As Cesaria Evora sang in her dark, rich tones I slowly got to Kingman, AZ.

I stopped on the road to take a few photos and nearly melted in the heat. It is nearly as hot as the Gulf in this part of America.

Passing through Kingman and on to Route 66 for perhaps the best drive so far - through the Black Mountains on Oatman Highway (the local name for this stretch of Route 66).

This is an old part of Route 66 and was famous (or perhaps notorious) for being a site of many accidents. I can now understand why....

You drive up a series of hairpin bends on a shabby road with enough width for ONE car only and no safety barrier on the edge of the road. Add in some blinding sunlight, stunning views and locals driving pick-ups as big as small barns as though they were at the race track and you get the picture.

I drove slowly, very slowly and only changed my underwear twice....

The views across the mountains are incredible and the cause for many stops to take photographs.

The music for this somewhat surreal journey across the mountains was the new double album by German artist ATB. This was the first time I listened to it properly having only bought it recently. It is very good. The first part is upbeat and has a strong dance beat and the second part is more ambient and very relaxing.

This saw me through the mountains and through to Needles - the first town in California.

California - the alphalpha sprout and tofu state...

Actually that is not really California's slogan - but it could be. These people are nuts and obsessed with health and fitness to the point when I was last here I felt like a convicted child killer every time I lit a cigarette - the way people looked at me.

Anyway, from Needles I headed down I-40 looking for the exit to Route 66 again. Janice got confused and I took several freeway exits only to get back on again.

The light was beginning to fade and gas was running to the last quarter of a tank, so I started to think about stopping for the night.

Problem #1 : The California section of I-40 has no motels by the freeway for the first 100 miles or more.

Problem #2: It also has no gas stations for about the same distance....

I thought I'd try my luck back on The Mother Road and directed Janice to get me there.... And between us we failed for the first two exits.

When I finally did get off I had a 15 mile drive from the Freeway to Route 66 which was in the middle of the desert with no towns to speak of and no traffic. At all.

I had read about a place on this stretch called Bagdad and wanted to stop there. But Bagdad by night is not impressive and it was close to 8pm now with no motel or petrol station in sight....

I set Janice to get me back to the Freeway and to Ludlow - the first place that looked like it might have a motel and a gas station.

I drove for about 60-70 miles at around 120mph on pitch black part of Route 66 with ATB playing at full volume and nothing but the desert for company on the whole stretch.... Shame I'd used my last clean pair of underwear in the Black Mountains....

Ludlow had nothing but one, tiny, decrepit motel by the roadside surrounded by large trucks. I thought about it, but felt that if worse came to worse, sleeping the night in the car at a McDonald's parking lot would be better than losing my virginity, wallet and car keys to a trucker from the mid-West, so I headed back on to I-40 and on to Barstow....

Although today was one of my lower mileage days - around 420 (yesterday was 570), because I spent so much time on the original road and also driving through Vegas and the Hoover Dam, I actually spent more than 12 hours behind the wheel.... And I arrived in Barstow, CA exhausted and desperate for food and a bed.

The Good Lord provided in the form of a "Quality Inn" which had a smoking room on the ground floor for $89 + tax and a Mexican restaurant! Hooray!

I checked in immediately - drove the car around to my room and unloaded and then went straight to dinner.

Two Mexican beers and a plate of Chilli with refried beans were consumed with passion and speed. (Fortunately it's only me in the car tomorrow and Janice doesn't have a sense of smell!)

While eating dinner I was privy to a conversation among a typical American family who were on vacation and returning home.

The grown up son talked at length about his gardening business before launching into a diatribe about how unreasonable and demanding his Mexican employees were - only wanting to work eight hours a day, have a proper lunch break and so on. Worse still - they wanted to be paid a fair wage as well!

Then they started to talk about different places including Lake Mead - which is by the Hoover Dam and Lake Tahoe - which after the Great Lakes in the North and in Canada is perhaps the most well know of America's Lakes...except Woody (that's what I named him) didn't even know which state it was in. (The answer for ten points is California)

Mother then talked about how she likes to write poems and how she is trying to write one about "the seasons....you know, like the four seasons, spring, summer and so on". Well, good luck to her on the poetry front - with such an obvious talent for the "implicit" she's on her way. Sylvia Plath look out. Her son then went on to share some lyrics from some of his favourite rap artists which turned the air blue.

They then went on to discuss TV shows. And that was their conversation for the rest of the meal.

This conversation sums up America's interests nicely - the economy, America's sites of interest (even though most don't know where they are), low culture and TV. That's about it.

Some are interested in base politics and religion - although under the current President you'd be hard pushed to tell the difference.

I hadn't planned on getting as far as Barstow and am not due in LA until the day after tomorrow - so I will have a leisurely day browsing towns on Route 66, visiting the McDonald's museum and the first ever McDonald's in San Bernardino and perhaps a detour to Death Valley - the hottest place in the US.

Mark Knopfler's "Shangri-La" album will be a major feature of my day as I head slowly to Los Angeles....and the end of the road in Santa Monica.