Rick and Jane McKinney have updated their Web site. However, their latest journal entry (dated March 29) actually came online several days later — too late from them to plug their big event Friday in Oklahoma City.

There's not much Route 66 content in the journal, but Rick and Jane's time on the road clearly has jolted their brains and has them thinking in new ways.

The Gallup Independent reports that the nearby Route 66 town of Grants, N.M., soon will be the setting for "Big Bad Voodoo Mama," a low-budget film directed by Christopher Coppola.

In case you're wondering, Coppola is related to Oscar-winning director Francis Ford Coppola — he's Francis' nephew.

About the film, in the words of Christopher's production company, EarsXXI:

"Take one part '70s exploitation action flick, another part wrestling gone wild, blend in some gothic voodoo horror and shake it all together to get the sweet cocktail called 'Big Bad Voodoo Momma,' a modern-day wrestling remake of the classic opera 'Turnandot.'"

Ooooooooh-kay. So why Grants, Christopher?

Coppola said that over the past few years he has visited New Mexico several times and has grown to love the landscape here and the people. When he was deciding where he would do his filming, New Mexico was the top choice and Grants was selected because he wanted to use rural areas.

"I'm planning to do another film in Grants in the fall using the abandoned uranium mines," Coppola said. "After that, I may go to Gallup or Las Cruces."

Coppola reportedly plans to bring his film crew to Grants in late May and will be shooting there for the next 17 to 18 days. 

And what do you know — Christopher Coppola has a blog. 

Stephen V. Funk a few months ago started The Berghoff Memorial Blog, which is named after the landmark Chicago restaurant on Route 66 that closed recently.

The blog describes itself thusly:

On February 28, 2006, Chicago's historic German restaurant, The Berghoff, closed after being in business for 107 years. The Berghoff Memorial Blog is a place to share stories and memories of this beloved eatery. The Berghoff may be gone, but it will never be forgotten.

Chicagoans are still smarting from the German eatery's closing a few weeks ago. One reader wrote:

I'm sorry, I am not sad, I am angry. What kind of moron would close this restaurant after 107 years, and not sell it to someone who would run it? 10,000 people would have bought or leased this restaurant, paid almost anything to keep it just as it was. No more beer and food, sold off all the cool stuff. [...]

Check it the site.

A story in the Santa Fe New Mexican reports on the design suggestions so far for New Mexico's quarter coin. Many of the suggestions have included fairly predictable offerings like chile peppers, yucca plants and roadrunners.

There's this, however:

One entrant described a classic car traveling down Route 66 into a sunset.

Not bad. Maybe somebody can come up with an even more striking design that includes the Mother Road.

If you want to make a stab at a design, you can find the instructions here. You don't have to be an artist; submissions are written. Deadline is May 12. 

My friend Jim Conkle of the Route 66 Preservation Foundation and Steve Maynes, who is spearheading the Route 66 festival that Albuquerque is hosting in June, were in Oklahoma this week to visit with Michael Wallis and the folks at the Will Rogers Memorial in Claremore about naming the Mother Road’s annual MVP award (formerly known as the John Steinbeck Award) after Oklahoma’s favorite son. Jim reports that all systems are go to use Will Rogers’ name in connection with the award.

When the guys got done with their meeting, they came back to Tulsa and met me for dinner at the 5 & Diner, the wonderful chrome diner that Larry and Pat Wofford have put in next to their gorgeous Route 66-themed Harley-Davidson dealership.

Seeing Jim would have been enough of a treat (he is the only person I know who gives Hollywood-style hugs — he scoops me up in a big hug and literally sweeps me off my feet every time he sees me), but Michael managed to one-up him by showing me an advance copy of his latest literary effort, The Art of Cars, which he co-authored with his wife, Suzanne.

I didn’t get to read the text, but I saw the pictures, and they are beautiful. There aren’t a lot of images from the movie itself; most of the illustrations (and there are many) are sketches by the Pixar artists as they came up with the characters and settings for the film.

I had only a few minutes to look at the book, between bits of conversation with Jim and Michael and Steve, but here are a few highlights:

1. There’s a drawing in there that shows a collection of souvenir bumper stickers. Best one: “I kissed Harley at the Sandhills Curiousity Shop.” I want one of those for my car. I might even kiss Harley to get it.

2. There’s a multipage spread on the interior of the Cozy Cone Motel. The illustration shows a sign on the floor in the office that says, “Need a wake-up honk?” and a 1950s-era boomerang table that looked as if it could have been designed by one of Charles and Ray Eames’ contemporaries. There are also sketches showing all the various ways cones were incorporated into the decor in the office and around the premises, including inverted cones that serve as flowerpots (suspended from macrame hangers, which of course thrills my hippie soul) and a collection of cone-themed souvenirs. The level of detail these animators put into the worlds they create is obvious from looking at their sketches and the little notes they write all over them. They had an arrow pointing to a framed picture and a note that said something like, “plain wooden frame.” Nothing appears by accident in these movies. Every microscopic detail is calculated to create a particular effect or elicit a particular memory or emotion from the audience.

3. Visual showing a hood-ornament-shaped mesa with a big slice carved out of the middle of it to make way for the interstate. You see a lot of that in New Mexico, where 66 slips gently around the mesas and rock formations, while the interstate goes smashing through them with no respect for the millions of years of history (and prehistory) that they represent.

4. A photograph near the front of the book shows the late Joe Ranft standing next to a rusty tow truck in Kansas. Michael tells me that Ranft was quite taken with the truck, which became the prototype for Mater.

5. Sketches of previously unseen parts of town, including several marvelous neon signs. One, on a defunct motel, says, “Glenrio Motel.” Down the block from the Glenrio Motel are a couple more heartbreaking images of businesses that didn’t survive the onslaught of the interstates. Art imitates life.

6. After dinner, Michael got the book out again and read part of it to me — a little riff he wrote about the superslab and its impact on 66. Note to self: Buy waterproof mascara to wear to that sneak preview at the governor’s mansion.

In other news, Jim tells me that the 2006 Route 66 awards banquet will include a special writers’ award. Over Michael’s emphatic protests, Jim is calling it the Michael Wallis Award.

Jim is seeking nominations for the Will Rogers Award (for significant contributions to Route 66), the Cyrus Avery Award (for historic preservation projects on Route 66), and the aforementioned Michael Wallis Award. Start thinking about deserving candidates. Details about how to submit your nominations will be posted as they become available.

If you are planning to attend the awards banquet or other activities during the June 22-25 festival, Steve encourages you to visit the Web site, where you can sign up to join the festivities.

Finally, if you happen to be in Tulsa, Route 66 Harley-Davidson has a beautiful mini-museum that’s definitely worth a visit. The exhibits include signage and artifacts from Buffalo Ranch; Michael’s customized Heritage Softail (”the bike I nearly died on,” he says, referring to his 2002 run-in with an inattentive SUV driver); and more postcards, matchbooks, keyrings, and other souvenirs and goodies than you can shake a stick at. They also have a photo booth and pressed-penny machine in the lobby. Even if you’re not a biker, you’ll have fun looking at all the stuff in the shop.

Emily (the Red Fork Hippie Chick)