Barstow is a railroad town that happens to have a highway running through it, and you can feel the trains in the place: freight cars rumble past day and night, and the yards on the edge of town are among the largest in California. The settlement grew up in the 1880s as a junction on the Santa Fe line, and the Casa del Desierto, a Harvey House hotel and station built in the early twentieth century in the Spanish Mission style, still stands beside the tracks and houses a Route 66 museum. It gives a good idea of what travel in the age of steam looked like, with fine dining and uniformed waitresses for passengers changing trains in the desert.
The Mojave surrounds the town, a plain of creosote bush and rock with low brown ranges on the horizon. It is hot and dry in summer, with temperatures regularly above forty degrees, and cold and windy in winter, with occasional snow on the mountains. Spring after good rains can bring a carpet of wildflowers. For a rider on Route 66 it is a place where the road empties out, long straight miles of broken, patched asphalt running parallel to the railway and the interstate, with abandoned filling stations and shuttered motels.
Barstow is a practical stop. It has plenty of fuel, restaurants, motels and shops, mostly strung along the old route and the interstate, and with a population of more than twenty thousand it is the largest town for a long way in either direction. Many riders stay overnight before or after the long desert crossing. The Mother Road Museum has old photographs, signs and relics of the highway's glory days, and is worth an hour.
Nearby, the old silver mining town of Calico, now a tourist attraction, stands on a hillside north-east of town, with its wooden buildings and gift shops, and the Bagdad Cafe, made famous by a film, is farther east along the old road at Newberry Springs. West of Barstow, the route climbs toward Victorville and the Cajon Pass.
Wind is a constant companion in the high desert, and it can be fierce in the afternoons, so keep a firm grip on the bars and expect to be buffeted by passing trucks. Water bottles and sunscreen are as important as a spare tyre.