Throw your rucksack into the trunk of your beat-up ’49 Hudson. Rev the engine. Peel out of LA. An hour into the California desert, and you’ve rolled into Lancaster. You’ve traveled back in time and hit Club Ed.
One-time film set for Eye of the Storm, Club Ed embodies the nostalgia of On the Road, though IMDB does not report Lancaster as one of the locations the Hollywood version of Jack Kerouac’s novel was filmed.
Club Ed is pure roadside bliss for the wanderlust traveler who wishes to step back into an era, where pie was still made on the premises of greasyspoons and served up by surly waitresses, who kept your mug full of stale coffee. The menu is written in paint on the window. You look out and all you see for miles on end is the scorched shrubs dotting the valley. Mountains loom in the distance. There’s an old gas station, where you should fill your tank. You may not see another one soon.
On the Road will inevitably inspire people to hit the road. Route 66 isn’t what it used to be, though. Drive through Missouri or Texas, and you’ll likely seen the same chain stores from the highway that you’d seen in Arizona and California. Club Ed isn’t the real deal, and yet it looks more authentic than a Denny’s.
Stephanie Nikolopoulos 
What a place! I wish I could visit on my next visit in November, but it’s not compatible with my route at all, so this will have to wait, sadly. Have you been, Stephanie?