People are nice in L.A.

We let ourselves sleep in a little on Saturday morning, figuring that no matter when we hit the road, there would be traffic, so we might as well be well rested. We bid farewell to the Wigwams around 9:30 a.m.





Foolish optimists that we are, we called the Viceroy and told them we'd be there around noon and asked if we could check in early. Foolish, foolish girls!

Our first intended stop was Bono's Restaurant, but as we pulled into the turn lane in front of the restaurant, we noticed that it was undergoing some sort of renovation/construction, so we kept on going. We kept an eye out for some of the other vintage businesses along the way as well, taking note of the Sycamore Inn, the Magic Lamp Inn, Wolfe's Market and others.

We set our hearts on Flappy Jack's Pancake House in Glendora for brunch. We had about a 20-minute wait (I tried to sweet talk them by telling them we had just driven Route 66 and they seemed quite impressed, but not enough to move us to the top of the list), but it went by quickly and it did give us a chance to stretch out on the front lawn and enjoy the California weather.



Perhaps because we were on a regular four-lane city street and not the freeway, and perhaps because it was Saturday morning/early afternoon, the traffic was no more hectic than any other city in America. It took us a while, but it's not like we were sitting there cursing the L.A. traffic. I believe Tom Snyder encourages people in his book to just hop on the freeway at this point, and if you've already driven this stretch before I can see his point, but if you haven't done it, please stay on the Route. It's well worth doing once.

We made a short detour to stop at one of my personal meccas, Dodger Stadium. The original plan was that we would come into L.A. on a night when the Dodgers were in town, but it just didn't work with our schedule. Thankfully, the Dodgers are pretty cool about letting people come inside the stadium gift shop and into the upper deck. The highway patrolman and the security guard who directed us to the right parking lot were both unfailingly polite and made us feel so welcome there. I had to exercise a lot of self-control in the gift shop - I managed to walk out with just a long-sleeve t-shirt.






We caught a brief glimpse of the Hollywood sign and lots of glimpses of people celebrating gay pride weekend as we made our way to Santa Monica. It seemed sort of surreal to finally be there and be done with the trip!

We pulled into the Viceroy around 3 p.m. and the valets were like a SWAT team - four of them rushed up and opened all the doors of the van. They loaded up our multitude of bags onto a luggage cart and we checked into our room. Now I have loved every hotel we stayed at along the way and I'm looking forward to doing this trip again so I can stay at more of the famous vintage lodgings, but the Viceroy was sweeeeet. We had a room on the top floor overlooking the ocean. The maid brought us chocolates. The bathroom was huge and luxurious. It was definitely the right way to end the trip!





After taking a few minutes to relax, we headed for the pier and the beach. We walked north from the pier a little, playing a couple games of "Retrieve Ann's Flip Flops from the Ocean" along the way and one unfortunate game of "Watch Ann's Sunglasses Get Swept Into the Ocean After Retrieving Her Flip Flops." We walked back to the pier and stood out there watching the people and the ocean for a little while before making a jaunt up to the nearby ped mall to investigate restaurants for dinner.




My friends Marci, Laurie and Lynn met us at the hotel at 6:30 and we walked up to Café Crepe on the ped mall for dinner. I can't remember what everyone else got, but I had a spinach and feta crepe that was everything I hoped it would be and more. While at the restaurant, we were introduced to the concept of needing to get tokens to go to the restoom. I guess it's to prevent people from coming in off the street and using the restaurant's facilities? You have to get a token from an employee and then you can get into the bathroom, as Marci informed us.




After another short walk around the ped mall, we went back to the hotel and spent the remainder of the evening just chatting and hanging out. When the rest of the Route 66 girls started feeling a little tired, Marci, Laurie, Lynn and I retired to the lobby of the hotel. Apparently the Viceroy is some sort of scene for wannabe hipsters who want to see and be seen? ("What's the difference between a wannabe hipster and a real hipster?" Dave asked. "If I like them, they're a real hipster. If I don't, they're totally a poseur.") They stayed a little bit longer and when they left, I knew I should go to bed because I was tired...but when am I going to have the chance to observe a scene like this? So I wandered around the pool area, watching with amusement as everyone tried very hard to be beautiful and interesting.

I spent a few minutes talking to a couple of young Iranian men. They had both moved to America within the past 10 years to "pursue the American dream." They weren't familiar with Route 66, so I tried to give a brief history, but at 1:30 in the morning I think their attention spans were somewhat limited.

The hotel staff started closing things down, so I hit up the bartender for one last club soda with lime and asked him why people come here to hang out. His answer? "I have no idea. It's been four years and they still pack this place. I don't know why." He asked what brought me there and we talked about the trip a little bit before I retired to the room around 2 a.m.

Boy, did 6:45 ever come early! I made the mistake of hitting snooze and we ended up being a little rushed. The valets brought the car around, with bottles of Evian in each of the cup holders. We drove down Lincoln Boulevard to the Budget drop-off at LAX and said our goodbyes to the good old Montana (with a comment that they may want to change the oil!) before hopping on the shuttle to the terminal.

I flew out to Atlanta at 10:20 and the rest of the gang flew to Milwaukee an hour or so later.



So that's the nuts and bolts of our trip. I'm anxious to get a little free time to kick back and really think about the trip - what I learned, what I liked best, what I will definitely do and not do next time (there must be a next time). My parents are talking about doing the Route and Ann's mom wants to do it with one of her girlfriends, too. I don't know if I'll be able to let them go without me!

It's hard to believe it's over. After all these years of talking about it, we finally did it. And if I had the chance, I start all over again tomorrow.