Peggy Sue's Diner

Most years, a couple times per year, I fly to the Bay Area, connect up with one of my best friends and the two of us head to Las Vegas. It's not for the usual gambling or whatnot, we're far too eclectic for that. But this lens isn't about where we end up, it's about the journey along the way. One specific point along the way.

Peggy Sue's Diner

If you want to find this place, you need to head out to what Hunter S. Thompson referred to in Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas as "bat country." However, unlike that novel, you can stop at this place and in fact, you should stop at this place!

They have plenty to eat, clean bathrooms, a gift shop, and even some shade out back if you just really need a break from the road.

between Barstow and Las Vegas

Peggy Sue's Diner is at the edge of Yermo, CA, east of Barstow, along California Interstate 15. We've stopped at a variety of different places to eat and take a break over the years on our many road trips between the Bay Area and Las Vegas, but over the last decade, this has now become the ONLY place we now stop and get more than gas for the car. There isn't much else in Yermo. Except for right across the freeway from Peggy Sue's is a Marine logistics training base. So don't be surprised if you see a whole mess of guys in fatigues come in looking like they're about to order one of everything from the kitchen. The Marines are polite, call everyone who is female "Ma'am," they hold doors for you... and they all seem to just order the chicken-fried steak.

You'll see groups of bikers here (our faves were this massive group of 40 who all were from France), campers full of kids, folks heading for a gambling weekend, people zooming to LA.... you name it. The inside is not to be believed, but once your eyes get used to it, the whole thing becomes really fun. The entire inside is decorated with a mix of 50s colors and styles and decorated top to bottom and back again with movie memorabilia. Photos, news articles, art work, statues: they've got a little of everything.

make sure to bring your appetite in from the car

Eat whatever you feel like eating, even if it seems to vary wildly from what anyone else at the table might be eating. The menu includes breakfast, lunch and dinner. Portions are not small. Food is Americana-comfort. If you have special needs or sensitivities, this is not the place to eat. It's down-home cooking. There's lots that's fried, sauced and buttered more than might be advisable, but given that hours of driving surrounds both sides of this location, you want that sort of eating.

In addition to their original diner building with the little booths and counter, they have several large dining rooms, a pizza parlorm a five-and-dime store where you can eat yourself giddy on a wide selection of old-fashioned candy, or you can choose to cool down from the desert heat at the soda fountain. You'll see tables of whole families, groups of bikers and little teams of Marines from the base across the highway all chowing down elbow to elbow.