My Super Duper Road Trip 2017 Part 4

On the morning of May 1st, we packed up and left our hotel.

We would be leaving the Los Angeles area that morning, but not until after breakfast at...CINDY'S!

Soon afterwards, we were heading for LAS VEGAS. But as we approached the turnoff for ZZYZX Road, I realized we were close to Baker, California...and we had to stop.

I had done an article on Baker and Zzyzx Road for The Fresno Bee's Central Valley magazine back in 2013, not long after finishing nursing school. It's an odd little place to stop, out in the middle of nowhere...and basically the last gas/food/potty break before hitting Nevada. Aside from Zzyzx (rhymes with "Isaacs") Road (which is a made-up word--"The last word in health"-- by some crackpot self-described "doctor" who founded a health resort out in the middle of the desert [the ruins of the mineral baths --heated by water heaters. Ha!--are still in existence], but the guy was kicked off of the property after many years because he never owned it---the government did. He had just been a squatter all that time. It is now part of UC Santa Barbara [?] and serves as a home to the school's desert studies program), Baker features some marvelous roadside attractions, the most visible and obvious is the World's Tallest Thermometer! It stands at a staggering 134 feet tall, commemorating the hottest recorded temperature ever in North America (in Baker) or 134 degrees. For years the thermometer was not working---but since my article, it is now up and running again. The building below the thermometer is now a gift shop (so, of course i stopped). The building was originally home of the Bun Boy Restaurant. Bun Boy was popular and by the 50s or 60s, it moved to a larger location next door...and also opened a Bun Boy Motel next to that. Some guy bought the original owners out and let Bun Boy run down. When that was failing, he bought into the Bob's Big Boy franchise and turned the Bun Boy into a Big Boy---but that didn't work. It reverted back to Bun Boy, but by then it was too late. Now Bun Boy--the restaurant and the motel--are nothing but legend.

Aside from the thermometer (and it's connection to the long-gone Bun Boy), Baker is also home to other quirky things. The Alien Fresh Jerky store keeps growing and growing. I didn't visit it this trip, but it must be doing well. It now has a cool Las Vegas-like sign and new alien light (?) poles. The facade also looks like it's getting a face lift (possibly to look like a UFO?). Inside is a lot of jerky...as well as snacks, drinks, and alien-related knickknacks.

I chatted with the girl at the Thermometer's gift shop. I asked her about all of the things I had visited and wrote about back in 2013. After I mentioned Alien Fresh Jerky, she asked if I had ever visited The Country Store (next to the Bun Boy Motel). No, I hadn't. It was a convenience store, clearly competing with Alien Fresh Jerky. In addition to general snacks and souvenirs, the store also carried a lot of retro candies and more than 400 types of soda (a sample of which can be seen below). One of my co-workers said, upon seeing the photos, that they looked disgusting and she wished we could try some. So---I ordered us PIMPLE POP (it's pictured), which we all sampled at work one day (it's just marshmallow soda really). MARTIAN POOP soda is on the way for us to try as well...

Another highlight of sorts in Baker is THE MAD GREEK. We ate there in 2013...and it has been featured on some TV show called DINERS, DRIVE-INS AND DIVES (or something like that). There are all of these gaudy statues everywhere (if you take the exit from the freeway that drops you into the center of town, the first thing you see is the statue of David right on the corner in front of you), but the food is good. We were both still full from our breakfast at Cindy's, but I had to get SOMETHING. I opted for one of their famous date shakes (with coconut). It was way too sweet--but good.

The only thing I did not get to re-visit on this trip was the statue of Roald Amundsen. Who? Roald Amundsen was the guy who discovered the South Pole. It is odd that the place known for having the hottest temperature in the country also had a statue of the discoverer of one of the coldest places in the world. A man who owned a gas station in town years ago had been a relative of the explorer's and he commissioned the statue to commemorate his famous ancestor. Unfortunately, the statue was stolen a few years back and has never been recovered. Waaaagh!

Onward we drove...and at last we reached Las Vegas! We were staying at the Aria, one of the newer hotels on the strip that we had first seen back on our last visit in 2013. It had so impressed Erich, he vowed if he ever returned to Vegas, he'd be staying there. So we did. It's so very nice...

The room was great. I was a little freaked because we were on the 14th floor (really 13th--but...you know how they "number" to avoid "unlucky" ones...especially in Vegas). But it wasn't too scary high for me (and we could have been so much higher--EEEK!). The room was well stocked with snacks, drinks, booze, etc...but all of it expensive (so we didn't have any). There was a phone next to the toilet (eeew!) and remote controlled curtains! Zowie!

Erich wanted to rest a bit...so I wandered down to the casino. I had spied a Willy Wonka slot machine--different than the two I had played in New Orleans (and won on) back in 2015. I wondered if Mr. Wonka would smile on me this time...

I put in $20 (it's a penny machine---all of the Wonka machines I've played have been penny machines), and two or three spins later I won $200+ !!! Zowie!

After cashing out, I ran upstairs to show Erich. We made plans to go and get a drink next door at the Cosmopolitan casino in the Chandelier Bar (which we remembered from 2013) to celebrate and to recover from our long drive. I went downstairs again and called my mom to tell her about my win. While talking to her, I absent-mindedly sat down at the same machine again, put in some money and...Zowie! Something happened that I had never seen happen before...every single square was a MATCH. I won in every possible way imaginable. Ha! How scrumdiddlyumptious!

I played a little longer and launched the Veruca Salt bonus round (with the geese that laid the golden eggs) and walked away with another $200. Golly. Thank you so much, Mr. Wonka!

Erich and I then walked over to the Cosmopolitan for our post-long drive/pre-dinner cocktail in the fabulous, two-story Chandelier bar.

From there, it was back to the Aria and dinner at Lemongrass.

Post-dinner, we Lyft-ed on over to The Golden Tiki, a NEW tiki bar that had opened since our last visit in 2013. Yahoo!

I really liked the actual place---but the crowd was was too young and, to top it off, there was an annoying (and LOUD) live band. I'd still go back, though. It was not nearly as good as Frankie's Tiki Bar (also in Las Vegas---and, alas, we did NOT make it there this trip). The waitress even said Frankie's was her favorite. Oh well. I did score some cool mugs though (not pictured--sorry).