I always have the best intentions of getting up early.  Checked that the clock was the right time, set the alarm for 7, set the cell phone as back up for 7:30.  Then went to bed.

But didn’t get up at 7 and only got up at 7:30 because someone’s car alarm was going off and I thought, hey, could that be me?  Turned out, it wasn’t.

Showered, shaved and hit the road after rebooking this place for another night.  Hey, it had internet and a HUGE bed and all the towels were made into small animals.  Plus, it would save me time, later, looking for a place.

My plan was to hit Ludlow, take the pictures I couldn’t yesterday, drive out to Amboy and see one of the locations I set my story in, then drive out to the Mohave Desert National Park, and, if I had time, maybe Death Valley.

On the way out, found a tank, (I mean, how cool is that, not only are there gun shops every 10 feet but they put tanks in parks!)  Also found a neat rusty old truck, an outlet mall and an old map of the desert at an old gas station.  Took me about 30 min to get to Ludlow.

Loved the little town of Ludlow.  It’s not really a town but a gas station an place to eat, a hotel and a huge truck stop.  But it had a ton of abandoned buildings.  I parked and walked to a few of them, hoping they weren’t filled with gun-totting maniacs.  Took some pictures, felt a little sad that there were so many dead towns like this.

No big adventures to report.  Hit 110mph on the old highway 66.  Nearly hit 45 going backwards, though I couldn’t seem to break 43.

Wait, what?  Backwards.

Ok, lemme esplain.

I wanted to take a picture of the route 66 stencil on the road.  However at 100, you tend not to see stuff until you’re about past it.  So, as I drove over the 66 marker, I stopped and, since there was no traffic, backed up a bit.

I parked beside the marker, got out, took my pictures, thought, damn it’s hot, and got back in the car.

Then I thought.  Hey, if I can get it up to 110 easily, who fast could I go in reverse?  Sort of the same thinking that I had when I zapped myself with the electrical ends of a bug zapper (how hard could it hurt, I wondered- and the answer is, it actually hurts a LOT!)

Anyway, there was no traffic in either direction, and I could literally see for miles so into reverse I put the 300 and gunned it.

It went to 25 fast!  Then it took me a long, long stretch to road to finally get to 43.  I really wanted to get to 45, (OK, I wanted to get to 50!) but the 300 wasn’t able to muster the strength.

Still, it was kinda fun.

Harder to keep the car straight going backwards at that speed but maybe with more practice, who knows.

Didn’t use the rear view camera for anyone interested.

Also, for the record, going backwards really confuses the GPS (and frankly, it was kinda cool that I could actually track my speed going backwards.)

Anyway, after that experiment, it was on to Roy’s.