March 21, 2026
Celebrating Route 66 Centennial and Community Spirit in Newberry Spring
On this episode of the Outdoor Adventure Series, we're continuing our series with Newberry Springs, California, a unique community nestled along the historic Route 66. We're speaking with locals and community leaders like Ton Forbes, an energetic force behind the Route 66 Centennial planning committee. Ton shares her journey from Orange County to becoming an integral part of Newberry Springs, describing what drew her to this vibrant, nature-filled desert town and how she became involved...
On this episode of the Outdoor Adventure Series, we're continuing our series with Newberry Springs, California, a unique community nestled along the historic Route 66.
We're speaking with locals and community leaders like Ton Forbes, an energetic force behind the Route 66 Centennial planning committee. Ton shares her journey from Orange County to becoming an integral part of Newberry Springs, describing what drew her to this vibrant, nature-filled desert town and how she became involved with its iconic landmarks, such as the Baghdad Cafe and the local garden club. Ton highlights the nostalgia, history, and small-town spirit that make Newberry Springs a must-visit, especially as the town gears up for an unforgettable centennial celebration of the “Mother Road.” Get ready to step back in time and experience the charm and community spirit that define Newberry Springs and Route 66.
DISCUSSION
00:00 "Route 66 Centennial Spotlight"
04:35 "The Bagdad Cafe Movie, The Barn, Garden Club, and the Community"
06:58 "Planning the May 2nd Birthday Bash, the Time-Traveling Car Show."
09:42 Come Celebrate the Route 66 Centennial
LEARN MORE
To learn about Newberry Springs, CA, the Route 66 Big Birthday Bash, the Garden Club, and much more, visit the Newberry Springs Chamber of Commerce at https://newberryspringschamber.com/ or on these social sites:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NewberrySpringsChamber
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nbsp_chamberofcommerce/
To learn more about NSEDA, visit their website at https://www.nseda.net/.
The Mother Road e-Newsletter: https://motherroadnewsletter.com/newsletter/
The World Famous Historical Bagdad Café: https://bagdad-cafe-usa.com/
IMDB | Bagdad Café: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095801/
NEXT STEPS
Visit us at https://outdooradventureseries.com to like, comment, and share our episodes.
KEYWORDS
Ton Forbes, The Barn, The Bagdad Cafe, Newberry Springs Chamber of Commerce, NSEDA, Route 66 Centennial, Outdoor Adventure Series, Podcast Interview
#TonForbes #TheBarn #TheBagdadCafe #NewberrySpringsChamberofCommerce #NSEDA #Route66Centennial #OutdoorAdventureSeries #PodcastInterview
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WEBVTT
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Hello everybody, this is Howard Fox, and welcome back for another episode of the Outdoor Adventure Series Podcast.
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I am winding down here on a Friday evening in beautiful Newberry Springs, California.
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I have been interviewing the residents and community leaders all day.
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And really about Newberry Springs, what makes it so special, what makes the people so special.
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And we're also talking a little bit about a very important reason why we're here because Newberry Springs is literally situated right on Route 66, the mother road.
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And it is a couple hundred miles from Santa Monica, the western terminus of Route 66.
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The eastern is in Chicago, my ex hometown.
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But I'm very excited to be here in Newberry Springs because I've gotten to know all these fantastic people.
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And right now I get to introduce a young lady who is involved with the planning committee for Route 66 on behalf of Newberry Springs.
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And I have the pleasure to introduce you to Tan Forbes.
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And she is here in the community, and I'd love for her to share a little bit about herself and what does it take to help be a part of this community?
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And what are some of the activities that you are involved with to celebrate for the Route 66 Centennial?
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Well, I started three years ago.
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Newberry Springs has a really great garden club that's run by Inceda.
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And so when I was invited, I was really excited to meet the people here.
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And just like most people, it's just so open area and the range is amazing.
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And driving through it, I take pictures a lot because of the mountains.
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And it's so amazing.
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And then I've actually was able when we were having a meeting with a garden club to see rams and sheep.
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And it's uh it's wild to even see animals out here.
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So it's very rural, but it's it's very more to nature.
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Okay.
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And what's really nice about it.
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Excellent.
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How long have you been out here in the in in the desert?
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You're in the I guess this would be the eastern edge of San Bernardino County.
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Uh we're right near the Mojave National Preserve, which is a place that's very special for me.
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But coming out here, I mean there's we're kind of like at the intersection of the two major interstates, and tucked away is this beautiful little valley and community.
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And how long have you been a part of of this community?
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Oh my gosh.
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Well, I used to live in Orange County.
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Okay.
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And I had to drive up here for work most of the times.
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Okay.
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And I would go through a lot of different areas, and Newberry Springs was amazing.
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Well, I'd have to go through Barstow.
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Okay.
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And so and the town was just so like tiny.
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Everything was so tiny and the people were so unique because everything was still back in the 60s and 70s.
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I was like floored.
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This is so cool because going back to the past, it was like going back through time.
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And so when I came up to Newberry Springs, I always stopped at the Baghdad Cafe because it was such a bizarre kind of place.
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And so I got a chance to speak to Andrea Pritt and I was doing advertising.
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She goes, Yeah, I was thinking about doing some advertising.
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And so when I stopped there, and I had their hamburger and french fries, and they introduced me to all the people and they asked me if I wanted to hold up a Route 66 sign.
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Really wasn't familiar with it.
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I had to do some research.
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Okay.
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Yeah, I didn't realize that Route 66 came from all the way from San Mardin, all the way to Chicago.
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Right.
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And I really want to make that trip just to see what it's like.
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I've never been through it.
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So, anyways, when I was sitting there, Andrea would say, sit down and just don't mow till 12 because we have all these tourists.
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And I'm like, why?
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I said, Because are you familiar with Baghdad Cafe?
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And I'm like, No, I'm not.
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And so she goes, and then all of a sudden, these four huge buses come in and there's nothing but French people everywhere, and they wanted everything and anything, and they couldn't use the register enough to get this.
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I'm like, oh my god, what is going on?
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And she says, Oh yeah, that was lunch.
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And then they all took off and I go, tell me about this place.
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And she says, Oh, you gotta watch the movie.
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So I had to sit and watch the movie with Jack Pallet, and I was like, Oh my gosh, it's such a great like little movie.
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It's kind of like now you think it's really corny, but it was really interesting.
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The music was amazing, and I found out that it won a nominated actually for an academy for the best original song.
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So I was really thrilled to even know that hey, we have a kind of like a famous area.
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And then I came to the barn and I remember the barn.
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It wasn't as fancy as anything else either, but then after a while it just kept getting better, and it's amazing how this place has developed and and it gets richer every time I come through here because I'm part of the garden club.
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And getting to know all the people that live here just touches my heart because I said, I'm gonna be part of the chamber.
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So I signed up for the chamber and then they pulled me in to do this aesthetics for them.
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And so I'm like, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna make this happen for them, right?
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And then they said, Oh, we're having that 100-year anniversary of Route 66.
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And I'm like, I didn't even know it was a hundred years already.
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So I said, This ought to be really interesting.
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So, and you can see how excited the town is, right?
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Even though I feel like a lot of people don't know about Route 66.
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This is where all the history of the train we can hear the train right now.
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Exactly.
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I love that sound bottle.
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Yeah, yeah.
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And it's amazing how you can go through it and it becomes nostalgia to you.
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Some people will remember picking up bottles, like they look at it, like you could go through this town and there'll be like old bottles, and like, wait a minute, this is not a regular Coke bottle.
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This is an antique bottle.
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This antique classic Coke.
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Yeah, you're like, okay, should I put it on eBay or should I just keep it?
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So but it it is an amazing town for sure.
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And so this activity of the aesthetics, what are some of the highlights that you are hoping to to share with the the visitors that are gonna be coming through this this year and experiencing Newbury Springs, the barn, the Baghdad Cafe, and just being on Route 66.
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What are some of those aesthetic elements that you're work working on or if you can share that?
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Well, my favorite movie, just to let you know, is Back to the Future.
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Love that movie.
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And when you come through here, I want to give that same feel when you step through time with the car shows, because I've been to Route 66 car show before.
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It's amazing.
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So when you when we enter in to what we're trying to do is to enter into the car show, and then you enter a little bit in and you see the the railroads that we built.
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And then you enter a little bit farther and you see the horses, and you go, Oh yeah, I see.
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I see how that is.
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That's part of America.
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Right.
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That's part of what we have, and we want to hold on to it as much as we can.
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So it is it's safe to say you're having hard work.
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I mean it putting on an event of this magnitude is not for the faint of heart, but it sounds like this is this is really uh feeding your soul, so to speak.
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Well, yes.
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They told me it's gonna take six months to really do this project, but we're gonna try to do it in two months.
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Oh boy.
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So we'll see how that works.
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Are you a taskmaster?
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I am, I really am.
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Yeah, the first thing I do when I get up is make my bed.
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Sure.
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I make coffee and sit outside, that's my first thing.
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Oh everything comes after that.
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That's the second thing.
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Okay, gotcha.
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Well, listen, I appreciate you taking the time to chat a little bit about you and your background and your role here in in this the centennial celebration for Route 66 and really helping as our others putting Newberry Springs firmly on the map as a must-visit destination.
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So thank you so much for spending time with us today.
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Yes, and one more thing I want to tell your your your podcaster listeners is to definitely watch that movie.
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It shows you a lot about Newberry Springs.
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It's such it's so nostalgic.
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When I was introduced to Carla, I actually I'd seen the YouTube video with Wonder Hussie, and you probably have seen that too, and the the marriage ceremonies back here.
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And when I met Carla, she said, You have have you seen Baghdad Cafe?
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And I knew of it.
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I even knew there was a Baghdad Cafe, but I never had never watched the movie, and so once I did it, it's like I get it, I can't wait to be here.
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Absolutely.
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It is wonderful, and we are gonna have that backlinks and all of the episodes in our show notes.
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Hopefully, folks will see that movie and want to come out here and visit Newbury Springs and just to celebrate we're 66 here as well.
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Thank you.
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