Clicks and kicks on 66.

"Cars" is an amazing movie.

While I was fairly lukewarm on the racing subplot of the film (though the animation was phenomenal), I was overwhelmed by the Route 66/Radiator Springs portion of the film. And I'm a big fan of any film that my son will actually sit through from beginning to end. As for me, I swear I got something in my eye a couple of times, especially during the "flashback" portion of Radiator Springs' heyday and subsequent downturn after I-40 was built nearby, especially with the James Taylor song accompanying the scene.

My two favorite Route 66-related sites on the Internet are:

Route 66 News - I actually stumbled across this site when trying to learn more about the "Cars" movie. Ron has a fairly comprehensive guide to the characters and places in the movie and the real-life folks and attractions on 66 that they are based upon here.

Route 66/Area 51 Tours - Details a father and son's trip along 66 from Chicago to L.A. (but it's not schmaltzy or anything). Plenty of photos and narratives about each state along the way. I'm drawn to this site because it was the first Route 66-related site I'd ever visited, and I revisit the site to read about that particular roadtrip about once a year.

Me? I'd love to see the Mother Road someday. I'm grateful for all of the folks who have discovered or rediscovered this link to our nation's motoring past and are working so hard to raise awareness of it as well as preserve it. As a road geek from way back, I like to discover the off-the-beaten-path roads that used to be the main thoroughfares from place to place before "progress" swooped in (old Indiana 37 between Bedford and Morgan-Monroe State Forest springs to mind). I wonder, with the eventual construction of I-69 through the southwest part of the state, whether towns like those on Indiana state roads 57 and 67, which the interstate will replace as the main Indy-to-Evansville route, will meet the same fate that Radiator Springs did.