The Western swing band Cow Bop is going from Chicago to L.A. on Route 66. Like it did last year, it aims to get there by performing, bartering, selling CDs and living off the kindness of strangers. They’re hoping to get by-the-mile pledges to support the Jazzmasters Workshop, a group which mentors to kids through music.

Cow Bop has made it to St. Louis. I suspect the band’s music would be a good fit in the Western swing cradle of Tulsa. Here’s the site and online journal so you can keep up with their activities and progress.

For a long time, I thought the only pedestrian tunnel on Route 66 was in Sayre, Okla. Now I’ve recently found that there’s one in Chelsea, Okla., and another in Odell, Ill.

Odell and the Illinois Route 66 Association restored the Odell Station, and now they’re trying to restore Odell’s pedestrian tunnel. As usual, tireless Illinois Route 66 preservationist John Weiss is leading the way. Here is a link to the story on the proposed tunnel project.

Apparently, the thing is buried. No wonder my wife and I never saw it during our 66 trips through town.

Are there any other Route 66 pedestrian tunnels of which I’m unaware? If you know of others, feel free to chime in with the comments link on this post.

Dennis Kinch is walking from Chicago to L.A. That’s no small feat. What makes it more impressive is that Kinch suffers from chronic pain. He’s doing this not because he’s a masochist, but because he seeks to raise awareness of chronic pain for the National Pain Foundation. Here’s Kinch’s story. Here’s the site where you can keep up with his progress. So far, he’s walked 200 miles and has about 2,200 to go.

I hope he can make it. The site’s FAQs say that the route is “mostly flat.” But I don’t think anyone who’s driven it in the Ozarks, the Oklahoma hills between Tulsa and Oklahoma City, most of New Mexico and much of Arizona would think it’s flat. Plus he’s starting when winter is setting in. Dress warm, Dennis.

At least the Route 66 community seems to be rolling out the welcome mat, as evidenced by Kinch’s last journal entry. He met Illinois Route 66 guidebook author John Weiss and Illinois Route 66 Association member Marty Bilecki and toured the Route 66 Hall of Fame Museum in Pontiac, Ill.

It sounds like Kinch is feeling the magic of 66 that so many others of us have felt.

If you go to the Web site of the rock band Living Things, you’ll find a player link in which you can watch its first video, “Bom Bom Bom.” In the video, you’ll see a few images from Route 66, including the Buckaroo Motel sign in Tucumcari, N.M., and an interstate exit sign for the Route 66 town of Texola, Okla., which isn’t a ghost town, but it’s close.

Oh … the Living Things album, “Ahead of the Lions,” is the best hard-rock album I’ve heard this year. Just think of AC/DC mixed with the MC5.

In the past few months, I’ve been watching the progress of Steve Vaught, who’s trying to deal with his obesity and other issues by walking across America. Much of his cross-country path is on Route 66. He’s experienced some good times and bad times during his journey, which have been duly recorded on his Web site, thefatmanwalking.com.

The latest post in his journal came from the Route 66 town of Elk City, Okla. It’s most moving post, which you can read here. I’m no psychologist, but I suspect Vaught gained some clarity and peace during his brief time in western Oklahoma. What happened to him makes me proud to be a Midwesterner and a Sooner.