A sentimental sap goes to see "Cars"

So, the funny thing is that right until we went on our trip down Route 66, I didn't even realize that "Cars" had a Route 66 theme. I think maybe Jennifer mentioned that the soundtrack was being released while we were on the Route and that it was supposed to have multiple versions of the song on it...which left me thinking, "Huh? I thought this was a NASCAR flick!"

After our trip, when I read Ron's guide to the movie, I got very excited about seeing it in the theatre. So, Friday night the 30th, Dave and I headed over to the Raleigh Grande for the 8:30 showing.

Two random sidenote stories first.

1. We decided at 7:40 to see the 8:30 show. I bought our tickets online and then we hightailed it out the door so we'd have time to stop at Jersey Mike's for subs before the show. We walked in the door at Mike's and three of the employees were standing behind the counter. We approached. "We're out of bread!" one of them bleated. What? Out of bread? Apparently with the holiday weekend, lots of people were having reunions and they were eating subs. Lots of them. I asked if they still had wraps. "Yes!" they responded happily. So wraps it was. Yay.

2. After printing out our tickets at the movietickets.com kiosk, I decided that after my spicy chicken/jalapeno wrap, I really needed some Milk Duds. I asked the price at the counter and the guy said $3.25. Sure! I'll take some! And then I dug around in my purse and produced..........$3.17 cents. No joke. I told him to forget the Milk Duds. He asked how much money we needed and I sheepishly responded "Eight cents." He spotted us a quarter, which made me happy, but I felt like a complete moron. Oops?

Anyway - on to the important thing. The movie!

I don't think I would have gotten half as much enjoyment out of the movie if I wasn't familiar with Route 66. I'm glad the theatre wasn't very full, because with each shot I'd gasp a little and lean over to Dave and whisper, "That's supposed to be __________!" (A little disclaimer: I am not normally a movie talker. But this one definitely called for whispering!)

It took a good 20 minutes for me to get Dave to understand what was going on with the Cadillac rock formations.

"See that? It's supposed to be like the Cadillac Ranch!"
"What?"
"There in the back...oh shoot, it's gone now." *pause* "There!"
"Where?"
"In the rock formations....oh shoot, it's gone." *pause* "See! They look like Cadillacs!"
"What?"
"The rocks! They look like Cadillacs buried in the ground!"
"Huh?"
"Like the Cadillac Ranch!"

This went on forever. Boy, you'd think he hadn't read the blog at all. :-)

One thing I did realize: Even though I have a bad habit of assigning human emotions to inanimate objects (See the Figment story), I never fully bought into the idea that it was cars that were the characters in the movie. I don't know. Maybe it's because I really don't get attached to cars too much. Cars are cars (to quote Paul Simon.

But I did thoroughly enjoy the little things like the Cozy Cone Motel, the Glenrio and the U-Drop Inn. And that brings us to the part about how I'm a sentimental sap. At one point in the movie, there's a scene in which the cars tell how their town wasn't always run-down, and when Route 66 was alive and kicking, things were much different. I may have gotten a little sad. I may have, um, leaned over to Dave and whispered, "I'm so lame! I'm crying!" And, um, I wasn't lying.

What it really made me wonder is this: I'm 31 years old. I am completely enamored of Route 66 and can't wait to drive it again. My fabulous friends who came along are all in their late 20s and early 30s. We seemed to be a bit of an anomaly along the road - definitely younger than the other travellers we saw. So I'm wondering how many other young people there are out there who care about Route 66. It's the same feeling I get every time the oldies station stops playing a few more 50s songs and starts playing a few more 70s or *gasp* 80s song. C'mon! I love Buddy Holly and early Ricky Nelson! Don't take them off the air! (Dear Oldies Station: Kokomo came out when I was in junior high in the 80s. I realize it's by the Beach Boys, but that doesn't make it an oldie. Thank you.) As the baby boomers get older, are there enough nostalgic Gen X-ers and MTV Generation people to take their place? Are you guys out there somewhere?

I actually saw something on a Web site the other day about one of the places along Route 66 and how it would be nice if a renovation-minded person would buy it and I thought, "Hmmmmmm...we have some money saved up....."

Anyway...afterwards Dave said he enjoyed the movie and I said, "Enough to drive it now?" He replied, "Well, not the whole thing." Did you hear that? I think I can put my plan of doing short weekend stretches along the Route into action. I brought that up and Dave said that maybe he'd be interested in doing the stretch around Flagstaff, since I keep raving about how beautiful it is. Baby steps.

In conclusion - I found the movie amusing enough on its own, but it was the little inside jokes that really made it worthwhile for me to see it in the theatre. I laughed, I cried, it was better than Cats. It made me want to drive the Route again and again.