How hot is it in Baker?

by **MoapaPk** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 4:50 pm

Where do you think Alien Jerky comes from?

by **Bob Burd** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 5:09 pm

MoapaPk wrote:Where do you think Alien Jerky comes from?

by **MoapaPk** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 6:09 pm

Sorry, that's a chupacabra attack victim.

by **JHH60** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 6:15 pm

MoapaPk wrote:Oddly enough, my relatives lived in the real Podunk-- in Massachusetts, about 10 miles or so west of Worcester. The town was disincorporated, but the Podunk Road

I think it's now the Podunk Pike. My ex's family lived in N. Brookfield -it was very much a podunk town.

by **SeanReedy** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 7:54 pm

MoapaPk wrote:And there was a gas station in Rachel back then! Now if you arrive at Rachel on fumes, the Little A'Le'Inn Cafe will sell you a gallon of gas in a can, maybe.

I saw it, but whizzed right past it. Running low on fuel later may have been related to using Nevada to experiment with the point at which my car's governor kicks in (a high enough speed that I don't fully understand why it had a governor at all). My dad and uncle had visited the cafe some years before, coincidentally during some sort of extraterrestrial fanatic convention (this was not long after they had experienced Furnace Creek and some of its amenities for free and alone during the federal government shutdown). Instead of buying alien souveniers, he purchased a postcard with a picture of a road sign stating

DO NOT
PASS
SALADS OFF
AS REAL
FOOD
EAT MEAT

...I suppose it could have been in reference to alien meat. It sounds like such marketing isn't saving some of those roadside tourist attractions.

by **MoapaPk** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 8:21 pm

JHH60 wrote:
MoapaPk wrote:Oddly enough, my relatives lived in the real Podunk-- in Massachusetts, about 10 miles or so west of Worcester. The town was disincorporated, but the Podunk Road

I think it's now the Podunk Pike. My ex's family lived in N. Brookfield -it was very much a podunk town.

I still have family near there in N Brookfield. Been in that area for over 350 years.

by **JHH60** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 10:55 pm

MoapaPk wrote:I still have family near there in N Brookfield. Been in that area for over 350 years.

My exwife moved there when she was 6 (her mother remarried after her father died; her stepfather's family had been living in the Woostah area for generations). 30 years after moving there she was still "the new girl." Not like the SF Bay Area where, if you live in the same area for 10 years, you're considered a native.

by **lcarreau** » Sun Mar 25, 2012 12:46 am

Greg Enright wrote:One of the alien gift shops was closed down last time I went through Rachel. The recession is hitting the Martians too.

by **butitsadryheat** » Sun Mar 25, 2012 5:33 am

The Mad Greek in Baker has one of the best Gyros I have ever had.

by **KathyW** » Mon Mar 26, 2012 2:11 pm

seano wrote:
lcarreau wrote:

My favorites are the signs where the standard format is clearly:
First podunk.
Next podunk.
Insanely far away actual town or city.
But they can't think of a "next podunk," so they just leave it blank; it seems like mostly a Nevada thing. Something like:
24mi Rocky Seep
∞mi Tonopah

Barstow - A nice spot to make a quick stop for coffee and gas, but it's so close to Hinkley that I have to wonder about how great an idea an extended stay would be. PG&E is still making settlements out in that area.

by **surgent** » Mon Mar 26, 2012 4:11 pm

I used to drive through Baker a lot in the late 1980s-early 1990s, usually to and from Death Valley. It was never much of a town, exactly what you would expect of a middle-of-nowhere desert junction wide spot. Ironically, with vehicles these days generally engineered better than they were 20 (or more) years ago, the need to stop in Baker lessens. You can usually get from Barstow to Vegas in a reasonably short amount of time. As I recall, the gas prices in Baker were always significantly higher than in Barstow or Jean/Primm.

Still, these desert towns have character and it's sad to see them decline. The palm-tree designs in Desert Center (I-10, Riverside County) have died and fallen over. The dinosaurs in Cabazon (see Pee Wee Herman's Big Adventure) are still there but have been surrounded now by outlet malls and "gas plazas". I recall the restaurant there simply had "EAT" in big letters. What more do you need to know?

by **3Deserts** » Mon Mar 26, 2012 6:05 pm

surgent wrote:Still, these desert towns have character and it's sad to see them decline. The palm-tree designs in Desert Center (I-10, Riverside County) have died and fallen over. The dinosaurs in Cabazon (see Pee Wee Herman's Big Adventure) are still there but have been surrounded now by outlet malls and "gas plazas". I recall the restaurant there simply had "EAT" in big letters. What more do you need to know?

"Gas plazas." Great phrase. It's exactly those that make Baker and other service towns mostly awful.

On the other hand, Desert Center is a charming little stop, if extremely dilapidated. The cafe is still open! It's a really nice contrast to the other soulless stops. I ate there several times last year, and met up with various groups there for desert trips. Outside of the idiot OHVers doing donuts in the dirt lots a block away, it's a mellow place, and the people who work in the shop are nice and friendly.

Same in Kelso, in the old station. If you're in Baker and headed to the preserve, get gas in Baker (because you have no choice), but save your appetite for the old station in Kelso. Lots of atmosphere, friendly owner and staff, and nice, basic, food to order. There are a couple NPS rangers there too who are very forthcoming with tips for out of the way places to go. And if you have children, there's a large, static model of the town in its heyday downstairs, with model trains. Lots of model trains. And then you can hang out and catch the nearly hourly (or more) real trains groaning past the station. And there's the jail! It's kind of a child's minor paradise in the middle of beautiful nowhere.

by **Bubba Suess** » Mon Mar 26, 2012 6:23 pm

My grandfather was a jeweler and I grew up accompanying him and my grandmother down to the Mojave where we would park their RV out in the desert and go rockhounding. Even though I was very young, that part of Southern California always seemed so exotic. When I was on those trips as a kid, I always looked forward to a stop at Shield's Dates, which always felt like something from some more remote corner of the world. While that feeling remains in some areas, a lot of what I remember down there has dissipated. Perhaps it is strange, but I really like all those dilapidated desert town. I feel like listening to Gram Parsons or Johnny Cash and watching Kill Bill when I get home.

That said, I do have an affinity for the "gas plazas". The years I spent driving between Texas and California gave me a different appreciation for them. My favorite is in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. The people watching was always very, very entertaining. It's not quite a gas plaza, but I also enjoyed the kitsch Americana at Cline's Corner. Not that any of these musings have anything to do with anything

by **Bob Burd** » Mon Mar 26, 2012 11:35 pm

Bubba Suess wrote:Not that any of these musings have anything to do with anything

That's ok, neither did the original post.

by **MoapaPk** » Tue Mar 27, 2012 1:02 am

I like gas plazas, but I don't think the Navajos should build one on the Grand Canyon, thermometer or not.

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