photo by Earl Leatherberry, from the Carload Flickr pool

It’s Day 40 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. I continue to comb the Los Angeles area, driving a half hour due east from the Vineland to the Mission Tiki Drive-in Theatre in Montclair CA.

This is the fourth California drive-in run by the same folks who also run the South Bay in San Diego and the Rubidoux and Van Buren in Riverside. I’ll get to visit one of their place just once more when I reach the Redwood in suburban Salt Lake City UT.

The Mission Tiki opened as the single-screen Mission Drive-In in 1956, when the city was known as Monte Vista. They replaced the original screen with four new ones in 1975. The name changed to the Mission Tiki in 2006 during major refurbishing, including FM transmitters and Technalight projection system. The parking lot was repaved, the ticket booths were remodeled to look like tiki huts, a Maui statue garden was added, and the concession stand was remodeled to match the tiki theme.

My week of repeated viewings continued. Again, I had four screens from which to choose. Again, I had already seen each early movie. I couldn’t bear Resident Evil: The Final Chapter for the four time in a week, so I picked the relatively inoffensive A Dog’s Purpose.

Miles Today / Total:  18 / 4877 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: A Dog’s Purpose / 30

Nearby Restaurant: Across the street, there’s a Dairy Queen, Little Caesar’s, and Panda Express. So you can tell that it was worth driving about two and a half miles to reach something more authentic, the Mix Bowl Cafe in neighboring Pomona. Real Thai noodles, spicy sauces, and a price that wasn’t much more than Panda Express.

Where I Virtually Stayed: Another LA-area three-mile drive brought me to the Best Western Pine Tree Motel in nearby Chino. For a fairly modest price, I got a coffee pot, a refrigerator, a very nice breakfast in the morning, and a lovely setting with lots of palm (not pine) trees around.

Only in Montclair: In nearby Ontario CA, Logan’s Candies exhibits the World’s Largest Handmade Candy Cane. It’s six feet long and weighs 30 pounds. If that’s too large for you, there are plenty of smaller, warm, freshly made canes for sale in the shop.

Next Stop: Electric Dusk Drive-In, Los Angeles CA.