HEAVY METAL
Penned-in accumulation along CA Highway 58, Mojave Desert, CA. Route 66 is the old current that flows through the high desert, gathering itself near a breezy outpost around Barstow, the train yards and the military base attracting drifters and vagabonds to this midway point in the California desert. Route 66 carries its nostalgia well, the legendary blacktop ribbon connecting Los Angeles and Chicago winding through deserts, the Big Basin and the plains on the way to the Windy City. Now the glory is captured in re-manufactured road signs tacked up on café walls, outside road stops and trucker’s overnight stations. The Route is an empty highway now and the talk is of high speed rail between Los Angeles and Las Vegas and the controversy is hot. For Angelenos traveling to Vegas, the highway is a last resort, only traveled if one can’t scrape up the cash for a plane ticket to Sin City. There’s nothing like disembarking from a short Vegas flight at McCarren, out to the gates a