July 31st. Las Vegas – Santa Monica Pier.

The Last day of Route 66. We left Las Vegas to its devices and headed out into the desert, everybody must live in an air-conditioned cocoon because it is blisteringly hot, and I wanted to do this in a convertible!!! First stop was ‘Peggy Sue’s’ diner in Yermo, this is a 50’s style roadhouse diner, packed full of memorabilia and a great gift shop with all the various themes catered for. Apart from Elvis and Marlyn, there are sections for The Three Stooges, Wizard of Oz, Wonderwoman, I Love Lucy... The food was great, I don’t really know how meatloaf is supposed to taste, but this hit the spot, served with gravy, mash and French beans all served in a truly authentic setting. We then visited Calico about three miles away. It was a ghost town, a mining down that saw it’s heyday at the end of the 19th century but it was restored in the 50’s as a kind of theme village, they even had a gunfight at 15:00, on the dot. But it was a pleasant way to walk off the meatloaf as well as sit in the cool saloon and sip a cold one. A curious thing about the bar, the barmaid couldn't serve us a beer as she was under 21, my kind a gal, so she had to get her pa to serve us. Off to L.A. for the last leg of the trip. We hit Santa Monica pier just after 19:00. The traffic was immense, luckily it wasn’t too bad in our direction, here you are reminded that this is one of the biggest concentrations of humans on the planet, I know Tokyo and Mexico city are all big and that Monaco has the densest population per square kilometre but the Los Angeles area is, well, big. It ranks 13th in the list of big places with lots of people – over 15 Million people in an area a little bigger than ‘La Communidad de Madrid’. We parked the car beside the pier and walked to the end, it’s a holiday resort with fairground attractions, a band playing and seafood stalls and restaurants. We had jumbo prawns, chips and beer to celebrate. Then we had to find somewhere to stay, this is no Amarillo and everywhere was full, even around the airport where we had been recommended to look. It began to get late and frustrating so I started to drive along the Pacific Highway southbound. Not long after, we came across the ‘Redondo Pier Inn’ right by the pier (hence the name) and beach, it’s a tad more expensive, but it’s big and comfortable, has a working wifi and a fridge for my beer collection, the beach will have to wait until tomorrow for I am shattered.