As I've learned from a bunch of e-mails in the past few months, Pete Pettry is a tireless booster of Route 66. The Mother Road goes through Edmond, Okla., but the town up until recently seems to have expressed little interest in playing up that historic link. If Edmond jumps on board, Pettry will be largely responsible.

Pettry sent me a copy of an article in the Edmond Sun newspaper about his and the town's efforts to boost its link to Route 66 before the state of Oklahoma celebrates its centennial next year. Here are some of the projects that are hoped to be completed:

• Installing brown Historic Route 66 road signs
• Quality, reflective Route 66 road-surface stenciling from Arcadia to Edmond
• Brochures
• Granite markers to mark two historic filling stations, the former site of the Wide Awake Cafe, former site of the Camp Dixie motor court, a circa 1960 Sonic Drive-In, the Territorial School House, and Memorial Park Cemetery, where pioneer aviator Wiley Post and transcontinental footrace winner Andy Payne are buried.

Pettry is trying to raise money from local businesses for these projects. With his energy, I have a lot of confidence this will be accomplished. 

The Detroit News has a very good article about how director John Lasseter and the rest of the Pixar Animation Studios crew set about to creating the characters of its upcoming movie based on Route 66, "Cars." It's recommended reading.

Also, the "Cars" Web site has added Sarge and Fillmore to the showroom. The site also has several new countdown ads. 

Judging by their travel times, the Japanese Geezer Riders rode primarily on the interstate when they took their Harleys from Springfield, Ill., to Springfield, Mo. They did manage a stop at Meramec Caverns, however, mistakenly calling it Jesse James Cave.

The writer for the Mainichi Daily News also mistakenly lists Chicago as the capital of Illinois.

The Sacramento Bee asked readers to share memories of a cherished vacation.

Patricia Robles of Sacramento recalled the details of traveling from California to Oklahoma on Route 66 to see family members during the 1940s and '50s. Read about it here (free registration is required). It includes a photo of Robles and her sister at a Route 66 roadside attraction in the '40s.

The folks at WordPress.com took down this site and many others in the network for about 24 hours on Easter Sunday for what they described as "emergency maintenance."

The timing was good; traffic is usually down sharply during a holiday anyway. I've been pretty happy with WordPress.com and its attentive customer service so far. Hopefully, the problems have been remedied.