Sunday, April 11, 2021

A surprising oasis


This place was a weird and serendipitous find.  I was looking for somewhere to pull off and have my lunch - and a break from driving - on the long bleak stretch of I-40 between Barstow and Needles.  Both rest areas were Closed for Repairs.  So I exited at Goffs Road - which I could see had a gas station - but little did I know it would have this oasis (with picnic tables).  Goffs is an old Route 66 stop - a very old Route 66 stop, because the road was rerouted even before the building of I-40 - and a defunct railroad town, apparently - and now a ghost town, a few miles further up the road (I didn't know about it until just now, or I'd have gone to have a look, and not just stopped here, at Hi Sahara Oasis).  Apparently the area is also famous for desert tortoises, too.  This took me right back to the American Road Cultures course I taught at Rutgers one year ... I had such fun with that ...










 

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