AMBOY, CA---LONELIEST TOWN IN AMERICA

If you've seen the movie BAGDAD CAFE (filmed nearby) you get some feel for lonely towns. That movie drew me years ago to this end-of-the-world town where I met the famous Roy of the motel sign (seen in so many movies) and stayed the night in my van across the street. I come again to remember and feel its delicious loneliness. Roy is gone now and a hired hand operates the lonely station/snack shop/motel. Weekend route 66 nostalgia tourist keep the place just profitable enough to stay alive. Patrollmen do their first duty here and they too are lonely. One pulled us over just to talk to somebody
Interstate 40, 12 miles North, long ago bypassed it and now it has little reason to be.

And this is it: Exquisitely pure and colorful salt water just under a crusty layer. A cloride plant sucks this in, dries and sells it. A lovely foreigner took this photo.

All the rooms were empty. No guest.

And nary a customer at the counter.

This spunky stallion statue is the livelist thing in town.

No one attends this church anymore and it seems to droop in sadness.

We pause for lunch and a nap.

And then leave town to resolve this staggering mystery just to the East: Why would anyone build a gigantic gleaming white wall in the mountains, about a mile long and 500 feet highThe answer so stunned me that I prefer to keep its secret. If you must know, write me and I'll tell you.