We can see you!

So just in the past couple days we've had something like 200+ people visit the blog. They are obviously not a very chatty bunch, but we know they're here. Hello Mr. United Airlines employee! Hello Ms. USDA employee! Good luck, Mr. Oklahoma DOT employee! (I find it somewhat amusing that someone who lives in Oklahoma and actually works for the DOT would need to Google this answer?) Ah well. Maybe one of them will win the million dollars and throw us a fiver or something.

I talked to Ms. Sherrie a couple of days ago. I don't want to steal her thunder, so I'll let her post about her return to Route 66 when she gets back from vacation. It sounds like she's having a great time and I'm quite jealous of her eating experience.

At 1139 you'd be half way there. Send us a photo of the sign proving it.

Get yer Mile 1139 pictures here! Seems that the title of this post is the actual wording of the clue in the contest, so I’m going to post it to make sure our little site keeps popping up at the top of those 1139 Google searches! Because, as noted below, we’re publicity whores who love it when people visit our blog. Y’all can say “Hi” when you stop by, you know! Don’t be a stranger...and good luck in the contest. Scroll on down to get the picture you need.

In other news, Ann and I ran into some Route 66-ers at the Iowa State Fair earlier this month. Ann was wearing her purple Route 66 t-shirt and that ignited a good conversation with a nice couple who are driving it section by section. We gave them the blog address, so hopefully they’ll stop by and check it out, too.

Lucky Sherrie will be paying a visit out west soon, with plans to visit Albuquerque's
Route 66 Malt Shop while she's there. She may be able to swing a trip to the Snow Cap Drive-In on her vacation, too. I think we're all insanely jealous that she gets to visit the Route again so soon after our trip!

Mile 1139 - Need a picture of the midpoint of Route 66?

Thank you to hightek irish lass for explaining the mystery of Mile 1139 to me! If you need a picture of the half-way point of Route 66, please go here.

After reading her comment below, I'm starting to think that we didn't have our identities stolen by those guys in Arizona, and perhaps the video they shot of us was for real! So if anyone else stops by who happens to be doing this contest, let me know if there's an accompanying video that includes any of the four women you see in that half-way point picture!

(To read about that adventure, go here)

Edited to add: Found this one, too! (Yeah, we're publicity whores, what can we say?)

Mile 1139?

Someone needs to enlighten me before I go crazy! A bazillion people have found our blog recently because they've Googled "Mile 1139." Is there some other significance to Mile 1139 (Ooooh, are they a hip new boy band?) or was there recently a clue on Treasure Hunters or Jeopardy about the midway point of Route 66?

Inquiring bloggers need to know!

Get incredibly excited over children's movies and F1 racing stars? Read on!

I know I'm very late with all this, but I went to see Cars over the weekend. I knew it would be leaving the theaters soon and I planned it as a fun solo activity on Saturday. I was happy when my friend Dan volunteered to come and we got in for absolutely free (something about the theater not being up to code for handicapped people--hey, free admission is free admission).

Here's a recap--
Misty eyed moments: 3
Times I wished I was back on Route 66: well over 12
Excited shouts when Michael Schumacher made an appearance: 1
Animated pointing at the screen and saying "Oh, I've seen that/been there!" to my very patient friend Dan: at least 30

We both loved it. I liked the racing part, the story that didn't try to hard, and the charm of the small town, plus all the Mother Road nostalgia. Dan (who's Canadian and doesn't know a lot of the history of Route 66) is a convert and said that he'd definitely do the trip. Since the theater was relatively empty, I got to exclaim loudly about things, and laugh really hard when Luigi and Guido dressed up in their Ferrari gear and when they turned their noses up at the Piston Cup.

I'm going to get the soundtrack and probably purchase the DVD when it comes out. It can join my vast collection of Pride & Prejudice, Alias seasons 1 and 3, LOTR and the Metallica documentary.

But what a fantastic reminder about the treasure of small towns, the importance of supporting local business and the absolute gems of people that are in your life every day. And hopefully it will get more people interested in the Route--it sure did the trick with one Dan Brown!

I'm a ridiculous nerd

OK, I wanted to use my jackrabbit picture as my blogger profile picture (it's a fan favorite here in the office, I know it's going to be in a sermon at some point) so apparently I have to upload it myself and then link to it in my profile. Whatever.

I have this as my default picture on mySpace for right now and must share a funny comment from one of my high school girls:

this is very cute. i think you will have a nice life together. lol.