The Homeschool View
Route 66
By Hunter Fell

September 23 , 2010

As a homeschooler, I’ve had my fair share of field trips, but my years as a roadschooler gave me some of my favorites, including traveling the amazing stretch of road called Route 66, or America’s Mother Road.

Route 66 stretches from Chicago, Illinois, to Santa Monica, California; and though portions have been covered over, we enjoyed tons of Americana nostalgia from Lake Michigan to the Pacific Ocean.

While exploring Route 66, we watched Disney’s movie “Cars” several times, comparing their portrayal of this historical time to the real thing. If you never knew it contained a history lesson, you may want to watch it again after reading this article.

The movie opens with Lightning McQueen – a race car and star of the show talking to himself in his transport trailer, a mach truck named Mach. That has nothing to do with Route 66 yet, so let’s fast forward. Hmmm, Interview? Nope. Rusteze? Nope. Flashing stoplight? Wait go back. Ahhh, here we go – Mach begins to doze off on the road when a bunch of hotrods, looking for laughs, soothe him to sleep with a little Kenny G. As Mach runs off the road, McQueen rolls out the back of the trailer and awakes to find himself alone, on the highway, with no idea where Mach is. In search of Mach, McQueen races along a parallel road, Route 66, and ends up in a tiny, nearly abandoned, vintage town called Radiator Springs.

Towns like this don’t see a lot of action… anymore. However, in Route 66’s heyday, they thrived and “Cars” illustrates this well, showing what happened to towns such as Radiator Springs once the interstate came along and took tourists away from their cool, art deco buildings. Buildings like Flo’s V8 Café, and Ramón’s Body Shop are strewn – and thankfully being revived - all along the Mother Road.

Due to McQueen’s reckless racing through - and destruction of - the town, he’s sentenced to community service in Radiator Springs. McQueen is forced to stop racing through life and comes to love the simple beauty of the town and the heart of its people – something one can miss if speeding. The next time you need to slow down, pop in “Cars” and enjoy a simpler time as seen by these highlights:

The mural that says ‘Radiator Springs - a Happy Place’ depicts murals which abound on Route 66 – believe it or not, some even offer mural tours.
The scene when Mater takes the parking boot off of Lightning and he zooms off to freedom (he doesn’t know they siphoned his gas tank yet) - you see a mountain range in the distance that looks like cars that have nosedived into the ground. In the movie they call this the Cadillac Range; but in reality it is a famous Route 66 tourist attraction called Cadillac Ranch where a line of Cadillacs are buried nose first into the ground for your artistic pleasure – you bring the cans of spray paint and supply the graffiti to this ever changing art exhibit.

The sign by Radiator Springs Curios - the yellow one with the old car on it that says ‘Here it is’ - is a takeoff of a sign for the Jackrabbit Trading Post in Joseph City, AZ. We each had to get a picture while riding this monstrous bunny.

The Cozy Cone – Sally’s newly renovated motel – replicates a chain of motels out west that are shaped like teepees.

I feel fortunate to have visited many of the buildings that Disney replicated for the movie; as well as, had the opportunity to meet some of the people who inspired “Cars” characters (watch the extra features on the DVD) such as:
Floe (the car who owns the gas station) was inspired by a fun and friendly waitress at the Midpoint Café – a restaurant which is exactly halfway between the two ends of Route. 66 and known for their ‘ugly crust pies’ … yum!

Mater was inspired by an actual old tow truck – though we met people in two different areas who adamantly claimed theirs to be Disney’s inspirational truck.
I don’t have room in this column to mention all of the wonderful people and roadside attractions along this famous highway, but the best summary I can give is from the scene where Sally & McQueen drive to the edge of a cliff, and watching the interstate traffic below Lightning exclaims “Wow, look at that, they’re driving right by; they don’t even know what they’re missing!” Sally replies, “Forty years ago that interstate didn’t exist. The road didn’t cut through the land, it moved with the land - it rose, it fell, it curved. Cars didn’t drive on it to MAKE great time; they drove on it to HAVE a great time.”

I hope you take time to enjoy the “view”; and if you have questions about Route 66, want to make other field trip suggestions, or have column topic ideas, contact me at dillsburgbanner@dillsburgbanner.net.

As always, thanks for reading The Homeschool View.