Day 15, May 28: Living Inside a Pixar Movie

If you grew up watching Pixar’s Cars, driving down Route 66 hits different. The 2006 film’s fictional town, Radiator Springs, was largely inspired by Seligman, Arizona — a small Route 66 town that nearly disappeared when Interstate 40 bypassed it in the 1970s and was later revived by a local barber named Angel Delgadillo. We didn’t make it to Seligman itself this time, but driving through this stretch of Arizona and knowing that history made every mile feel a little more cinematic. It’s one thing to watch Lightning McQueen get stranded in a forgotten desert town; it’s another to actually drive the real road that inspired it.

Instead, we spent our time in Kingman, Arizona, soaking up the neon-lit diners and Route 66 memorabilia the town is famous for.

Mr. D’z Route 66 Diner

This place is a Kingman institution. The building started life as a gas station back in 1939 and was transformed into a 1950s-style diner in 1992 — and it absolutely commits to the bit. Think hot pink and turquoise walls, black-and-white checkered floors, vinyl booths, chrome barstools, a working jukebox, and walls plastered with photos of Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, and vintage cars. Sitting down here genuinely felt like stepping onto a Hollywood set — the kind of diner you’d expect a road-trip movie to be filmed in, not a real place you can just walk into.

Right across the street is a stretch of Route 66 lined with photo-op spots, so we parked, snapped a few pictures for the memory books, and headed back in to eat.

What I ordered:
Half baby back ribs — $19 (₱1,173)
Root beer float — $9 (₱555), and yes, it’s bottomless

The portions were huge, as American diners tend to be, and the service was just as entertaining as the decor — our waitress kept the energy up the entire meal. The ribs were tender and smoky, and that root beer float might be one of my favorite diner desserts of the whole trip.

Honestly, this stop was a full trip down memory lane, even though it wasn’t my memory to begin with — it’s the collective nostalgia of American road-trip culture, and you can feel it in every corner of that diner. If there’s one thing this leg of the trip reaffirmed, it’s that America really is built for road tripping, and you appreciate that a lot more once you’re actually living it.

Day 16, May 29: Gas Stations and a Very Reluctant Shopping Day

We checked out of our hotel, grabbed the complimentary breakfast, and got back on the road, picking up coffee at a gas station along the way. Small tangent: gas in Arizona is noticeably cheaper than in California, but what struck me more is that gas stations out here are basically mini tourist stops — huge convenience stores with way more snack and drink options than I’m used to back home. I will never get tired of American road trip pit stops.

The original plan for the day was Joshua Tree National Park, but we changed course and headed to the outlet stores in Barstow, California, instead, right at the edge of the state line.

I’ll be honest: a full day of shopping is one of my least favorite travel activities. I don’t enjoy buying things for other people, and I only shop when I actually need something — window shopping just isn’t my thing. I can handle maybe two focused hours of it, tops.

The Barstow outlets didn’t do me any favors either; the cafes and restaurants were tucked away on a completely different side of the complex from the stores, so there was no easy way to just duck out for a coffee break. Plenty of seating around, at least, but this was easily my least favorite part of the trip. I did walk away with a pair of pajamas from Old Navy and a couple of T-shirts, so it wasn’t a total wash.
Around 3:30 PM, we finally sat down for lunch at Ono Hawaiian BBQ — $23 (₱1,420) for Kalbi short ribs with rice. After days of American diner food, having rice and something closer to Asian flavors again was such a relief. It genuinely tasted close to home, and everyone at the table was happy about it. Funny detail: the place was packed with soldiers grabbing a meal, which made sense given how close we were to a few military installations in the area.

Day 17, May 30: Last Supper, Korean BBQ Style

Our final full day started with a treat — Uncle Ed took us out for Korean BBQ at 2N1 Nice to Meat You in Temecula.

We went with the Premium B package for $42.99, an unlimited barbecue spread with:
Chuck eye steak
Chuck flap meat
Top blade meat
Seasoned boneless short rib

Everything was tender and packed with flavor, but my personal favorite — aside from the banchan (side dishes) — was the LA galbi. Korean BBQ in California is genuinely next-level, arguably better than what I’ve had back home in the Philippines, and there’s a reason for that: LA galbi actually traces its roots to Los Angeles. Korean immigrants who settled there in the 1970s and ’80s adapted their traditional galbi to the flanken-style cut favored by American butchers — slicing the short ribs across the bone instead of along it.

That cut caught on, the name stuck, and it’s now a Korean BBQ staple worldwide. Eating it here, in the region where the dish itself was born, felt like the perfect way to close out our time in California.

After lunch, we swung by Target so I could finally use a gift card Auntie Baby had given me, and Malen treated everyone to Starbucks on top of it. Full stomachs, happy hearts — a genuinely awesome way to wind down.
We headed back to pack our bags for the next leg of the trip: Canada, starting tomorrow.

Next stop: Canada! Follow along for the next chapter of this trip.