Easy Rider – From Route 66 to 77 Sunset Strip
11/05/2012
It not often you can follow in the wheels of a cult movie but we somehow managed to drive a section of old Route 66 where some of the counter-culture film Easy Rider was shot with Peter Honda and Dennis Hopper in 1969. On the morning we departed Pirate Cove RV Resort on the Colorado River we found a long forgotten stretch of the famous highway where road signs as well as a marker painted onto the rough road identifies the location.
We’d been on the road 12 days and were heading towards 77 Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, eventually clocking a total of 1689 miles. Enroute we parked up in a few flash RV resorts in Temecula and Bodega Springs, CA, in Arizona at a primitive campsite at Painted Rock, lakeside at Patagonia Lake State Park, in Tombstone at the Stampede RV Park for two nights, another two sensational nights at Tanque Verde Ranch, beside giant saguaro cactus Gilbert Ray Campground in the Sonora Desert, lakeside at Alamo Lake State Park and finally a night beside the Colorado River at the award winning Pirate Cove Resort – given the choice of travelling a luxury El Monte RV (our motorhome) or hunched over a motorbike in blistering heat – we know the real winner.
True Trivia: Peter Fonda has revealed that four early 50s Harley police bikes were customized for the film by two California bike builders, Cliff Vaughs and Ben Hardy. Since Fonda was an experienced motorcyclist, his bike was more choppered up than the bike ridden by Dennis Hopper. One of the bikes got wrecked during the movie. It and the other three bikes were all stolen by the end of the movie. Their whereabouts are still unknown.
For more info on renting motorhomes in the USA go to: www.elmonterv.com For renting Harley’s go to www.eaglerider.com
