5/13/2025
Rivian Charging Outpost in the Desert
A Rivian Charging Outpost in the desert on the road from 29 Palms. Rivian is the electric truck company manufactured in Bloomington, Illinois.
Rivian, an electric vehicle manufacturer, has a significant presence in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois. Their main production facility, known as Rivian's Normal plant, is located in the area.
20 Palms to Victorville, Barstow Marine Base, Needles
Harvey House - Classic Train Station, hotel, restaurant in Barstow.
The Historic Harvey House, originally known as the Casa del Desierto, is a former Fred Harvey Harvey House hotel located in Barstow, in the Mojave Desert within San Bernardino County, California, United States. Casa del Desierto now functions as an Amtrak stop (the National Railroad Passenger Corporation), a Professional Office building, along with two museums.
The Casa del Desierto station and hotel was built by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and replaced an earlier one built in 1885 that burned in 1908. It was designed by renowned Fred Harvey Company architect Mary Colter in a synthesis of Spanish Renaissance and Classical Revival architecture styles. The historic structure is an elegant presence in the Mojave Desert beside the intermittent Mojave River. Santa Fe then closed the station in 1973.
The City of Barstow obtained the station in 1990’s. The Historic Harvey House operates as a professional office building, exhibit space and has two large ballrooms used for social events. Other public institutions located here are the Western America Railroad Museum on the east side and the Barstow Route 66 "Mother Road" Museum on the north side.
Museum in Victorville
Joshua Tree
Click for more photos
5/12/2025
Get My Kicks On Route 66 / Marine Corps Base 29 Palms / Marine Corps Reunion Yuma, Arizona
I will attend a Marine Corps reunion at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona. After the reunion I will drive Old Route 66, the Mother Road, from California to Illinois. This famous road was a main route to the west and was used in the dirty thirties and made famous by Steinbeck. I live on Route 66 in Bloomington, Illinois so will end my trip there.
______________
Day 1. I flew into Phoneix and drove to the Marine Corps Base 29 Palms the next day. A trip down memory lane.
Some photos from May 12, 2025 of Marine Corps Base 29 Palms
Click for more photos
______
Some stories about later Reserve duty at 29 Palms after Vietnam:
We went to a number of active duty periods in 29 Palms, California, in the Mohave Desert, usually in August. An infantry Battalion would fight from one end of the valley to another, shooting live ammunition and bombs. Our unit provided air support and command and control.
On one notable exercise we set up in 29 Palms, with radio relay stations on Black Mountain behind Palm Springs, relaying information to Marine Corps Air Station El Toro and Camp Pendleton. It was very hot in 29 Stumps and Marines loved to go to Black Mountain where it was cool and in the Pine Forests at a high elevation. Every time we sent someone up their vehicles would break and they could not get back. I would have to send a Sergeant to drag our troops back to our 120 degree Stumps.
There was a YWCA camp near our location on Black Mountain and our young Marines happily developed relationships with the young female counselors. The counselors let our guys shower there. No problem there - everyone was happy. Another reason our guys did not want to come back down the mountain.
I received a radio call from our Marines saying there was "a forest fire about a mile below their location, but they did not think it would get any closer". I told them to "evacuate now." They asked me, "what about the YWCA Camp?"
"What about the Camp", I said. "I'm sure they have plans on how to evacuate." "No sir", my Marines replied. "They expect us to get them out."
Wonderful. We didn't know how dangerous the situation was and had no idea how to evacuate them. We could not get enough vehicles up there in time, so we sent up two of our CH-46
It was now getting dark and we were choking from the smoke from the fire in the Stumps 80 miles away from the fire. "I told them to get their radio jeeps down to the YWCA parking lot and mark the Landing Zone with the lights from their jeeps in case we had to evacuate with the helicopters. Then my guys called again and said "the fire is now 1/4 of a mile away but we don't think it will get any closer." Wonderful. But they had set up the LZ on the YWCA Camp parking lot, with their headlights of the radio jeeps providing visibility.
Not a good deal. Bringing the CH-46's into a tight LZ surrounded by trees on the side of a mountain and in the smoke, fire and strong wind up currents is a formula for disaster. If we tried to evacuate the kids and crashed and killed many people we were terrible - and if we did not try and they burned to death that would be terrible.
Our CH-46's orbited the location for some time. Fortunately the fire did burn out and we dodged that bullet.
One time in a 29 Palms live fire exercise we screwed up and put the napalm BEHIND the VIP reviewing area. Our PR guy tried to palm it off as normal, but several reporters knew how stupid it was.
It was easy to get confused out in the desert about exact location. I took two young Marines in a radio jeep to set them up a re transmission point just behind the infantry assault. We got to the hill and set up the equipment. Then we saw that about ten 250 lb bombs were stuck into the hill. I got the guys sheltered behind the hill and called range control to ask about the chances that the bombs would go off. "If they have not gone off yet, they probably won't" said the Range guy. They did not go off.
I took the same two Marines up a mountain in a CH-46 helicopter to set up another retransmit site. Way up high and very hot. We set up a little shelter for them. Nasty hot place with a great view.
"Whoom" went a very large round right over our heads. Very close. They were not supposed to be shooting our way. Never did know what the shell was but I am sure it was big. I had hopes that those two young guys would stay in, but after they got home and told their stories to their wives their families strongly encouraged them to leave the service.
"Whoom" went a very large round right over our heads. Very close. They were not supposed to be shooting our way. Never did know what the shell was but I am sure it was big. I had hopes that those two young guys would stay in, but after they got home and told their stories to their wives their families strongly encouraged them to leave the service.
________
29 Palms aka The Stumps
Sea Stories
Most of us spent a lot of time at Marine Corps Base 29 Palms aka the Stumps.You can write your story here between the lines, or work your comments into the text below.
________
I saw one A-6 Jet Aircraft simulating straffing over the troops. He was flying very low and made me pretty nervous. "Pull Up!" I said to myself. Then he crashed.
I called the medevac in with an old tired PRC-41 UHF radio that I powered with slash wire off the jeep. I kept washing it trying to cool it down, hoping it would last till the medevac was done. It did last. Both Majors flying the plane died and they badly burned two other Marines on the ground. The troops said the Pilots realized they were going to crash and were able to pull the plane away from most of the troops, or a lot of them would have died.
Craig
____________
I was there on the ground during the A6 crash in the summer of 1971. I was actually a member of the 20th Rifle Company out of Rockford, Illinois. We were the aggressors for the exercise. I did not have knowledge of who the larger organization was. It is true the A6 was doing simulated strafing runs over our aggressor hill position. As I recall it was the middle of a typically very hot day at the Stumps when during one of the A6 runs it came too low and hit the sand exploding and spreading debris everywhere. I can still hear the horns of the 6X as rescuers swarmed the hill honking and shouting and looking for injured Marines. As I rose up out of my shallow foxhole I saw charred sand and debris going further up the hill. I don’t remember any details about injuries other than the pilots were killed. Scuttlebutt at the time said that they found the head of one of the pilots still in his helmet.
At the lowly infantry company level of an independent rifle company, I didn't even know who 2/24 was at that time. The 20th Rifle Company was disbanded in the fall of 1971 during a pretty significant reorganization of the Marine Corps Reserve. The most notable commanding officer of the 20th Rifle Company was our Major General Mitch Waters. 2/24 inherited quite an assortment of Marines during the reorganization. Marines in Rockford were given the choice of going “class III” or joining another element of 2/24.
I elected to transfer to the newly formed Golf Company in Madison Wisconsin. The Golf Company was recently redesignated a rifle company from a 105 howitzer battery. I remember having to clean the 105s so they could be shipped out. Unfortunately, and a sign of the times in the early 70s, Golf Company inherited a nickname of “Goofy Company”. Through no fault of its own, this artillery battery was full of Madison, Wisconsin college students who had little interest in being Marines. There was quite an assortment of salty Korean War vets and newer Viet Nam Vets. I’ll never forget the influx of recent VietNam vets who joined Madison hoping to extend their careers, became quickly disillusioned and left. It took a few years and some purging to square things away. I can’t remember when but at some point we were awarded the “Clifton B Cates Award”. I still have the certificate somewhere in my pile of records.
Master Gunnery Sergeant Harper
USMC Retired
Spiders!!
I was standing in the mess hall line at the Marine Base in 29 Palms with the PR Captain who had handled the bungled napalm attack. I noticed a black widow spider on the collar of the Captain.
"Captain, don't move." I said and tried to brush the spider off of his shirt with the brim of my cover (cap). The spider deftly dodged under the brim and ran down inside his camouflage shirt.
"Hold on," I said and slowly unbuttoned his shirt, which probably looked odd to the rest of the Marines in the chow line. When I unbuttoned the last button he did a war dance, slapping every inch of his body to get rid of or kill the spider.
Then the captain said to me "Next time, don't help."
The ingrate. See if I ever help him again, after all I did.
_____
We had lots of black widow spiders at the Marine Bases in 29 Palms, CA and Yuma, AZ in 1967-68. I had many of them under my desk. I would periodically beat them down with a broom and burn them out a couple of times with a torch, but they always came back. But they were nice and never bit me. I suppose I should be sorry for being mean to them.
One time I was laying on my back on the floor of a room, with my head slightly under a desk. And there was the red hourglass of the spider's abdomen inches above my large and long nose. Startled me a bit.
_______________
Another Marine Spider story. One of our Marines really liked tarantulas. He captured a large hairy one in 29 Palms, California and brought it back to his apartment in Berwyn, Illinois.
Tarantula got out of the box and moved to another apartment. When they discovered spidey in their cupboard the residents convened a hasty kangaroo court and quickly evicted our spider loving Marine and his tarantula.
I also have a childhood memory of Marlin Perkins from Zoo Parade holding a large tarantula in his hand and saying, " as long as I don't make any sudden moves he won't bite."
_________
Day 2 Will drive from 29 Palms to Victoryville, and start driving Route 66 through California. I won't go back into LA - I have driven there enough. At Needles I will leave Route 66 to go my reunion in Yuma, then come back to restart the Route 66 trip
