History Main / StockDesertInterstate

* ''Film/GasFoodLodging'' is set in Laramie, NM, a dusty little town by the highway with a truck stop and a trailer park. Trudi suffers from SmallTownBoredom and longs to get out (although the real reason is that she was raped).

* ''Series/TwinPeaks'': ''The Return'' Involves road-tripping through the American West, and as such there are plenty of shots of the empty road in the desert. The last episode especially has this, and much of it takes place in old-fashioned diners and motels or in a car traveling through the desert. A frequent visual motif is an old-fashioned gas-station, which is a portal to AnotherDimension that hops around, appearing both in the remote desert and along the roadsides.

* ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot3Warped'': The motorcycle levels have this aesthetic, complete with 50s-style diners and gas stations. In addition, the soundtrack has a 50s sound, and Crash wears a [[Series/HappyDays Fonzie]]-style leather jacket. The level "Area 51?" also features RaygunGothic-style flying saucers.

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', in the episode [[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS2E18DeathWish "Death Wish"]] the crew gets to visit the Q Continuum, a higher plane of existence where YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm applies to both the place and it's inhabitants. It appears to the crew as a road through the desert with a waystation and Q in human form just hanging around.

* ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' ("[[Recap/CowboyBebopSession19WildHorses Wild Horses]]"): Spike's fighter, the Swordfish, is in need of overhaul, so he flies it to a shop owned by its original designer. He spends most of the episode there, shooting the shit with Doohan, who operates the shop, and it fits the aesthetic of this trope. It also has a Space Shuttle hangar and a huge runway.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}'': Radiator Springs, the main setting of the ''Cars'' movies, is a desert town along Route 66, surrounded by picturesque rock formations. It was once a thriving community servicing cars driving across the country, but by the events of the first movie, was a DyingTown due to the interstate cutting off its main source of income. It becomes a hot tourist attraction after racer Lighting [=McQueen=] makes it his base of operations.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_66 The famous Route 66]], one of the first American highways. It was established in 1926, ran over 2,000 miles from Illinois to California, and notably passed through the deserts of New Mexico and Arizona. Thus, this setting features in many mid-20th century stories where the characters travel west. Although the highway was decommissioned in the 1980s, much of the original route is still traversable through newer roads, and it remains in popular imagination. Much of the route features little towns that led to the rise of the old-fashioned gas stations and diners you see in this trope.

[[quoteright:180:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pic_desert_route_diner.png]]
[[caption-width-right:180:A common sight along the Southwest.]]

* On ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}, Stu and Didi stop at one of these with Tommy and Angelica on the way to the Grand Canyon, when they have some car trouble.

* ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty'': Opus the Penguin finds himself on one after losing his script, wandering along the highway and across the desert before eventually reaching a 7-11, an outpost of american civilization.[[note]]The clerk didn't speak English.[[/note]]

* TruthInTelevision: Get far enough away from the major cities in the American west and yes, the little towns you come across do start to look like this for real.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pic_desert_route_diner.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:A common sight along the Southwest.]]

Oftentimes characters will be traveling through the desert, usually in the southwestern US, and the location feels like it's stuck in TheFifties. It'll feature [[GreasySpoon stereotypical diners]], gas stations with old-fashioned red pumps, and dramatic desert landscapes with buttes, most often with reddish hues and beautiful sunsets, providing some nice SceneryPorn.

Usually they'll be traveling down a road or interstate like Route 66. A common occurrence in this trope is the main character's car will break down and they'll have to walk to a gas station like previously described.

May involve a DesertSkull, AllDesertsHaveCacti, and DecadeThemedFilter. Compare TheWildWest (an earlier depiction of the American West prior to industrialization), and Area51 (another stock American desert location).

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]

* ''Manga/OnePiece'': In the Alabasta arc, one of the Baroque Works agents, Zala aka Paula aka Ms. Doublefinger, owns a diner out called Spider Cafe in the middle of the desert nation. It's mostly used as a meeting spot for the other agents. Later, a cover story mini-arc showed that, after Baroque Works were defeated, she and most of her fellow agents find a dilapidated one called Cactus Saloon, this time somewhere within a rocky terrain and running it legitimately.

[[folder: Film - Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}'': Radiator Springs, the main setting of the ''Cars'' movies, is a desert town along Route 66, surrounded by picturesque rock formations. It was once a thriving community servicing cars driving across the country, but by the events of the first movie, was a DyingTown due to the interstate cutting off its main source of income. It becomes a hot tourist attraction after racer Lighting [=McQueen=] makes it his base of operations.

[[folder: Film - Live Action]]

* ''{{Film/Next}}'': Nicholas Cage travels through Flagstaff which feels and looks a lot like a stereotypical Southwest Desert.

[[folder: Live Action Television]]

[[folder: Newspaper Comics]]
* ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty'': Opus the Penguin finds himself on one after losing his script, wandering along the highway and across the desert before eventually reaching a 7-11, an outpost of american civilization.[[note]]The clerk didn't speak English.[[/note]]

[[folder: Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot3Warped'': The motorcycle levels have this aesthetic, complete with 50s-style diners and gas stations. In addition, the soundtrack has a 50s sound, and Crash wears a [[Series/HappyDays Fonzie]]-style leather jacket. The level "Area 51?" also features RaygunGothic-style flying saucers.
* {{VideoGame/Overwatch}}: One of the playable maps in the game is called ''Route 66'', which features a lot from this trope like the stunning Southwestern landscapes and a Main/GreasySpoon type of diner that players spawn into, along with an old-fashioned gas station called ''Big Earl's''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]

[[folder: Real Life]]

* ''WesternAnimation/Daria'' included a couple of examples. On one occasion, Daria and Quinn were forced to seek stranded-traveler aid at a rural cowboy bar; on another, two different carloads of Lawndale teens stopped at a greasy-spoon run by a salty waitress.

* ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' ("[[Recap/CowboyBebopSession19WildHorses Wild Horses]]"): Spike's spaceship has broken down in the desert, and he has to have it fixed at some repair shop.

* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' played with this concept during a roadtrip where they built this kind of diner ''on top of their RV while it was still in transit'' allowing trucks to drive up a ramp, get some grub and leave just as fast. As per the norm of the show, their parents are oblivious to this and the diner is quickly gone by episode's end.

[[caption-width-right:350:provisional picture to illustrate the trope]]

Oftentimes characters will be traveling through the desert, usually in the southwestern US, and the location feels like it's stuck in TheFifties. It'll feature [[GreasySpoon stereotypical diners]], gas stations with old-fashioned red pumps, and dramatic desert landscapes with buttes, most often with reddish hues.

May involve a DesertSkull and DecadeThemedFilter. Compare TheWildWest (an earlier depiction of the American West prior to industrialization), and Area51 (another stock American desert location).

[[folder: Live-Action Television]]

* ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot3Warped'': The motorcycle levels have this aesthetic, complete with 50s-style diners and gas stations. In addition, the soundtrack has a 50s sound, and Crash wears a Fonzie-style leather jacket. The level "Area 51?" also features RaygunGothic-style flying saucers.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}'': Radiator Springs, the main setting of the ''Cars'' movies, is a desert town along Route 66, surrounded by picturesque rock formations. It was once a thriving community servicing cars driving across the country, but by the events of the first movie was a Dying Town due to the interstate cutting off its main source of income. It becomes a hot tourist attraction after racer Lighting [=McQueen=] makes it his base of operations

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_66 Route 66,]] The famous Route 66, one of the first American highways. It was established in 1926, ran over 2,000 miles from Illinois to California, and notably passed through the deserts of New Mexico and Arizona. Thus, this setting features in many mid-20th century stories where the characters travel west. Although the highway was decommissioned in the 1980s, much of the original route is still traversable through newer roads, and it remains in popular imagination. Much of the route features little towns that led to the rise of the old-fashioned gas stations and diners you see in this trope.