Road Trips : Las Vegas
OK, it was my first time there and it was also a really good excuse for a road trip taking those convoluted routes I'm so fond of, this time including more chunks of Route 66 and Highway 99 through the Central Valley. This time, the raod led through Bakersfield and Pixley and Barstow.
Like it or not, you have to be impressed by Las Vegas' unchallenged status as "white trash cultural capital of America". Plus there's really cheap food, 24 hour bars, and more neon than the mind can fathom.
13 April 1997
So my friend Duncan e-mails me from Charlotte and says "wanna go to Vegas?". He was going to be there for a convention and invited me along to share in the fun. Being unemployed and bored, how could I say no to a good road trip and dirt cheap (OK...free...) accommodations? So, equipped with my newly acquired "NAC Green Book", the 1941 auto club guide to the west coast, off I went.
As always, I ended up leaving later than planned. And as usual, I took the old road as opposed to the new. I've developed this real fascination with Highway 99, which was the main California north-south route before I-5 was constructed in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Having done the Fresno and Sacramento/Stockton portion of the journey, I was excited about finally hitting Bakersfield.
Highway 99 is great. It's easy to see the remnants of its former dominance, and the towns scattered along it have not been gentrified and modernized into a generic mess like most of coastal California. My first major sighting on the road was an abandoned Horne's Restaurant near Kingsburg. I knew it was going to be a good trip.
Several miles down the road, I found the Elmo Highway. Anyone who really knows me knows how exciting this moment was for me. I don't know where it goes and I didn't drive on it, but I'm glad to know it's there. More towns followed, and I felt compelled to take the "99 Business Route" (the old highway) through most of them. Interesting sights all around.
Pixley! Suddenly, there it was in the distance. Seeing Pixley was more than I'd hoped for. Although there were no traces of Hooterville or Bugtussle nearby, I was happy to see that the commercial tradition started by Sam Drucker's Store was alive and well at the Pixley Mini Mart and the Pixley General Store. After watching a train go by (I don't think it was the Cannonball), it was time to leave and make the rest of the journey into scenic Bakersfield.
