Driving to Bakersfield… route 66-ish

One of the things that always fascinated me was route 66.
The mother road, the “highway” that connected the united states.
In all honesty I never really felt that way about a road, but maybe it’s because it’s so well known from all the songs, movies and books that were written about it, and for some people driving route 66 on a Harley is the most desired event in their lives.

For me the attraction to route 66 is probably the things next to it, the abandoned buildings, the “weird” sideshows, the insane tourist attractions etc. etc. Normally when I teach at photoshop world one of the things we try to do is drive a small part of route 66, there isn’t much between San Francisco and Las Vegas (or LA/Vegas) but there still is enough for a few hours of fun and photographic opportunities.

And although I don’t want to drive the whole route on a Harley, my bucket list item is without a doubt driving it with an RV and documenting every stop that’s interesting and taking portraits of interesting characters along the road….. maybe one day if I can find a sponsor 😀

For today some images from part 1, the road to Bakersfield.
We drove to Vegas in 2 days, and this is leg 1.

In this album you see some images from for example the pacific coast highway, which I believe to be one of the most beautiful routes I ever drove, and the whole route is actually build for photographers (it seems) with loads of stops everywhere, in fact I think if you would stop on EVERY parking spot you will probably take a month to drive from SF to LA 😀 and trust me it’s VERY hard to fight the urge to stop at every option, it’s that beautiful.

In this album you also find the last gasstation where James Dean stopped before his fatal accident, and as expected… they use that to get customers, and in all honesty who blames them, if you’re in the middle of nowhere, you have to do something to survive….
Click on one of the images for a better and nicer gallery view.