My Dad had been struggling with his mental health since moving into the Collingtree Care Home back in Northampton in the UK. Depression had set in. I made plans to fly back and visit him for his birthday in March so he could have his three daughters with him on his special day. Flying from Redmond in central Oregon to San Francisco, California, with an overnight layover, followed by the long haul flight to London Heathrow, was a long journey.

The day before I flew I learned my dad had been admitted to hospital. His oxygen levels were low, he was very wheezy and his asthma medications weren't helping. He had a high fever, all of which pointed to a bad case of the flu, or possibly pneumonia. It was very worrying.

My sister Caroline picked me up from the airport in her lovely white Tesla and drove us to her home. After a quick cuppa tea we decided to go and see Dad at the hospital straight away. I was jet lagged but had my second wind.

Dad was still in A and E which was packed, noisy and generally chaotic. Dad was in a small room and was clearly distressed and disoriented. I sat and held Dad's hand while Carrie grilled the staff to find out exactly what was wrong and if any test results had come through. His x-rays, heart and vital signs indicated he would be in hospital until he stabilized. There was a diagnosis of COPD and some additional heart issues.

We reassured Dad that he was safe and in good hands while they searched for a bed on a ward for him.

And so for the next two weeks, the entire time I was in the UK, including Dad's birthday, I visited dad in hospital every day. 

Hospitals have such a powerful energy. I felt it.

It was the same hospital where my mum passed away, where I'd had a miscarriage and where my Grandmother had been admitted many times. Painful memories.

Dad was slow to recover his health and mobility and was grumpy the entire time. He was desperate to get out. At 83 years old he worried he would never get out. A legitimate worry.

Finally, the day before I flew back to Oregon, he came out of hospital and returned, with great relief, to his room at Collingtree. He was so grateful to be back with all his carers and back to his own routines. It took another couple of months to fully recover his health.

I am so glad, honored actually, that I could be there with him and advocate for him while he was in hospital. 

Happy Birthday Dad! 

We drove a stretch of Route 66 starting at Roy's, passing through Ludlow, Newberry Springs, Barstow and finally Victorville, chasing trains and trucks on the I40 across the desert as they thundered towards the west coast of America. 

Roy's Gas Station, Motel and Café is an iconic stop on Route 66.

Against the wilderness of the Mojave Desert, in a tiny ghost town called Amboy, in San Bernardino County in California, the gorgeous vintage neon sign advertising Roy's looms to beckon weary travelers to stop and find rest and refreshments on historic Route 66.

I adore Roy's.

We arrived, parked up and even in the hellish heat, we took the time to wander around the gas station forecourt, chatting with bikers and sightseers, mostly about the price of gas, but sharing our love of 'The Mother Road' and how cool it was to be at the legendary Roy's. I wandered around the motel and snapped a boat load of pictures until my trusty iPhone overheated. Then we retreated to the shop and the 50's café for souvenir stickers, postcards to send my Dad, and to buy a Coca Cola in a glass bottle, the best kind, from Mexico with real sugar. Popping the top off and taking a good long chug of the icy cold coke was a transcendent experience that is now forever scorched into my sensory memory. Yum!

The motel and the sign itself are fine examples of Roadside Googie Architecture that was born in the 40's and continued into the 60's. This style of architecture retrospectively reflects futuristic themes based on the atomic and space ages of the period. Boomerangs, arrows, wings, stars, atomic bursts, flying saucers and parabolas, along with minimalistic designs, roofs tilting towards the heavens, walls of glass and bright colors all symbolize the idea of humanity moving ever forward with the aid of science, seeking out the next frontier, or as Star Trek puts it,  "To explore strange new worlds...to boldly go where no man has gone before." As you can see from the pics, the motel's reception building is fashioned in this dashing style, as is the neon sign with its huge red arrow. I cannot say it enough, Roy's is truly iconic.

Roy's was originally built as a gas and service station in 1938 by Roy Crowl and has seen many changes over the years, with various different owners. Before the I40 bypassed this particular section of Route 66 in 1972, Amboy was a popular stop for both road and train travelers. These days Roy's is a lonely landmark. The motel is closed down and no longer accepts guests. Lonely tumbleweeds blow across the road. Similarly, only the most intrepid of travelers blow in to town, going out of their way to visit Roy's. Even though Amboy has become a something of a ghost town, it is still beloved by Route 66 enthusiasts the world over.

Fans of Amboy include the famous actors Harrison Ford and Anthony Hopkins who have flown into Roy's at the adjacent airfield on numerous occasions. The historic site has been used as a popular filming location for TV commercials, music videos and movies. Roy's has established itself as a cult figure in the last couple of decades. Deservedly. Did I mention it is iconic?

Here are some links to Roy's most famous moments on screen.
Click to view.

1. Enrique Iglesias music video for "Hero."
2. Clip from "The Hitcher" starring Rutger Hauer
3. Clip from "Kalifornia" starring Brad Pitt

You can read more about Amboy and the history of Roy's Motel and cafe here.

You can read more about my travels on Route 66 and enjoy photos from the Arizona stretch of the Mother Road here. It's a love story.

Also in Amboy we saw a golden buddha that had been adorned with stickers and bedecked with various pieces of trash. Religious and sacrilegious. Beautiful and ugly. Weird and wonderful. Totally Route 66.

The Amboy Post Office, a lone building across the road from Roy's, is a leftover service from when the small town was booming with traffic from the Route 66 Highway and the nearby railroad depot.

About a kilometer (half a mile or so) away from Roy's sits the Amboy Crater, a dormant, cinder cone volcano surrounded by a lava field made up of lava lakes, collapsed lava tubes, sinks and spatter cones, spreading 70 square kilometers (27 square miles). Way too hot to hike in July, but still worth a stop. Spectacular!

In a cloud of dust kicked up by the dark Toyota 4Runner, my sister Caroline and her family arrived at our campsite, coming in from Las Vegas. It felt surreal. Eleven short days ago I was chatting with her in her kitchen back in the UK. Since then, I returned to the U.S. and we began our Grand Adventure Road Trip. She then set off with her family on her 50th birthday holiday to America. And so our two worlds collided in the Mojave Desert on a blazing hot Monday afternoon.

After a tour of the trailer and lots of hugs, we set off to cool down at the pool. We had a lazy, leisurely afternoon catching up. It was great to see Kim and Simon chatting and the hilarious banter between cousins. Henry loved seeing Will and Maddie who he had not seen for a number of years due to Covid, work and travel limitations. It was just the most blissful afternoon and I loved every minute of it.

Later we met up for dinner at the Tropicale Restaurant in downtown Palm Springs. More chat and a delicious meal before retreating to bed.

The next morning we met up again for a final goodbye and breakfast together at the Denny's diner just off the I10. We each shared three gratitudes, mostly around family, health and good fortune. We took a moment to send love to absent family members. Louise and Lynda love Denny's so we immediately thought of them, plus of course Mum and Dad are always on our minds. 

Waving goodbye was hard. They set off on the next phase of their holiday- Los Angeles and then Hawaii. Fantastic.

I will never forget our lovely, unexpected, surreal rendezvous in the desert.

Family is everything.

So after years and months and weeks and days and hours of planning and preparation, on Monday July 17th 2023, we set off on our Grand Adventure!

Our plan is for the three of us to live full time in our Grand Design Solitude-S 2930L 5th Wheel Trailer for the next few years, visiting every state in the contiguous U.S. and also adding Alaska and Hawaii at some stage, somehow. It really is a Grand Adventure and now that Kim and I are retired, we are thrilled with our delicious decision to travel and explore America. Henry coming with us is the cherry on top of the parfait.

It was a warm morning in Phoenix when we locked the apartment, loaded the final bits and bobs into the truck and set off to pick up the trailer. To be honest, it all felt a bit surreal, maybe I was still feeling jet lagged from my return from England, still missing family desperately, especially my dad, or maybe I was just tired after a very busy weekend of preparations. 

We arrived at the trailer and my excitement began to grow.

I chuckled at our cheesy new license plates; FUN USA on the truck and FUN UK on the trailer. 

We enjoyed the moment and then we got busy.

We hitched our beautiful Grand Design Solitude-S trailer to the Chevvy, did all the light tests and final checks, Henry removed the chocks and we slowly pulled out of the storage lot. It was 9.20am.

After several exchanges of, "Can you believe it?" "This is it!" and "We're doing it!" we rolled on to the I10 and began heading west to our first stop, Palm Springs.

We're off!