Barstow is home to a Marine Corps Logistics Base. I passed a compound that looked like it had enough Humvees to equip the whole British Army!
This is where I left I-40 and headed NW towards Edwards AFB. Over the past three days, I had traveled about 400 miles on I-40, which follows the route of, but has replaced Route 66. However, the highways into each town that I-40 bypasses are called Historic Route 66, in order to attract tourists. In each town that I drove through (Winslow, Flagstaff, Kingman and Barstow), I felt as if I was in a time warp. A lot of motels, gas stations and restaurants appeared to have changed very little from the 50s. It was also obvious that the economies were suffering - many closed businesses and For Sale signs, particularly in Winslow, which is almost a ghost town.
Before I arrived at Edwards, I made a detour into Boron, "the Borax Capital of the World":
I went there to see this (and visit the Saxon Aerospace Museum):
Unfortunately the museum was closed, but this was an unexpected bonus - my first SAAB Draken:
Back on the highway, I turned off here to Edwards AFB North Gate:
The museum at Edwards is not accessible to the public these days, for security reasons, but there is a B-52 at the North Gate and several aircraft at the West Gate, that can be viewed:
This is not just any old B-52, this is B-52B "008", which was NASA's mother ship for all air-drop tests, starting with the X-15 and ending with the X-43A:
See here for the history:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/n...emembered.html