Add another one to the long list of "Cars" movie product tie-ins: Tide.com is offering a free "Cars" beach towel with any combination of six Procter & Gamble fabric and home-care products.

If you saw some weird things happening to Route 66 News in the past hour or so, I apologize. I tried to revamp the site and add a customized header late last night, but wasn't able to finish before the Sandman visited. I finished it this morning, and suffered all the technical trials and errors to go with it.

It should be mostly done now. I used a customized Regulus theme offered by WordPress.com, which gave me the opportunity to use my own image for the header. The image above is a Route 66 shield painted on the road near Amboy, Calif., that my wife Emily shot a few years ago. She's the one who also made the header for me.

I've also categorized the links more and moved stuff around. The Route 66 Properties for Sale is no longer a page, but a post with its own link, on the side. I deleted the Route 66 associations page and put those links on the side, too, with its own category. I deleted the Route 66 Towns page because, frankly, I didn't think it was all that useful.

If you see anything amiss or want to opine on the site's look, e-mail me (see the About Me tab) or let 'er fly in the comments section.

During a trip home in January to see the old homestead in Illinois, I decided to drive most of my way back to Tulsa on U.S. 54 and see what old motels, old neon and roadside kitsch I could find.

U.S. 54 is about 1,200 miles. Its western terminus is at El Paso, Texas, and goes through New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Illinois. I started at the beginning, at Interstate 72 near Pittsfield in western Illinois.

I stayed overnight at the Green Acres Motel in Pittsfield, which is a clean, comfortable place built in the 1960s that goes for about $40 a room. And it has a fabulous neon sign. The desk clerk said a film crew had shot the neon sign some years ago, but she couldn't remember what movie.

One of Pittsfield's other jewels is the Cardinal Inn Cafe, which boasts not one, but two terrific neon signs. I ate a hearty breakfast there after a restful night at the Green Acres and found the cafe populated mostly by early-to-rise farmers.

Pittsfield also has the Zeno Theatre in its town square. It doesn't look prosperous, but it is being restored by a nonprofit group of volunteers. I think the group took its inspiration from the restoration of the Roxy Theatre in Shelbyville, Ill.

Heading west on U.S. 54 out of Pittsfield on a cold, cloudy morning, I encountered in the middle of nowhere the Clark 54 Drive-In, which is still operating (217-285-2805).

Below is the narrow bridge over the Mississippi River that goes into Louisiana, Mo. My father hauled farm implements over the bridge on a flatbed semi. The bridge was so narrow, it had to be barricaded to oncoming traffic for a couple minutes until he was able to drive to the other side.

Here are the remnants of the Shady Rest Motel in Laddonia, Mo.

In the main business district of Vandalia, Mo., I found the Vandalia Hotel. It's not only used as lodging (nine rooms), but as a restaurant.

As I approached Interstate 70 at Kingdom City, Mo., I saw some Route 66 flags flying next to a big retail development that resembled an Old West town. This was Nostalgiaville, which describes itself as "the coolest '50s and '60s store anywhere." Here is its Web site.

The sky started to clear and the sun came out. Unfortunately, this was about where U.S. 54 turns into a four-lane highway. Except for some scant old alignments, there was little to see until you went south of Jefferson City. Development from Jefferson City commuters also had obliterated much of the old road landmarks.

Around Eldon, Mo., you started to see the kitschy influence of the Lake of the Ozarks. Here is the Randles Court, which is a motel and a restaurant (573-392-5661).

At Lake Ozark, you are practically assaulted with roadside kitsch. Here are two Muffler Man specimens.

West of Lake Ozark, I was rounding a bend near the small settlement of Weaubleau, Mo., when I was stopped in my tracks by a bunch of well-kept motel cabins. This is the Weaubleau Motel, which was built in the late 1940s. I spoke briefly to the co-owner, Ron, who said he had done a lot of fix-up work on the cabins in recent years. The cabins go for $37.50 a night or $160 a week. It gets filled by many lake vacationers, he said. The phone number is (417) 428-3516. Places like the Weaubleau Motel are becoming increasingly rare, so check them out while you can.

I saw a few more old neon signs and old motels along the rest of my stretch of U.S. 54 across Missouri, but nothing too special.

But entering Fort Scott, Kan., I found the well-maintained Azure Sky Motel, which rents for $26.95 a person and $36.95 for two. The Lads have run the motel for 25 years (620-223-6410).

I continued on U.S. 54 through Kansas until I turned south on U.S. 169 to head home to Tulsa. I'm hoping I'll complete another long stretch of U.S. 54 soon.

Listings have been moved to this page here.

The Springfield (Ill.) Journal-Register published a story about John "J.J." Bouma Jr.'s fundraiser and awareness-raiser of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — aka Lou Gehrig's Disease — by driving Route 66 in a Corvette.

The reporter took more of a local angle by interviewing a local farmer who has the disease, but it sounds like Bouma's campaign is doing extremely well.

"Our original goal was to raise $66,000 for our local ALS association in Michigan and we're already up to $220,000-plus," Dobson said. He speaks on behalf of Bouma, whose ability to speak has been hampered by the disease.

For those who want to donate, Dobson suggests donating to the closest local chapter …

Bouma has a Web site here that he and his group keep updated regularly. 

Phil Patton of the New York Times interviewed a number of people about the production of the upcoming Pixar film, "Cars," including Michael Wallis, who gave out a few details about the two Route 66 tours on which he led the Pixar crew.

A tour guide and author of "Route 66: The Mother Road," among other books, Mr. Wallis led the Pixar crew along Route 66.

The most lovable character in "Cars" is Mater, a rusty tow truck with the voice of Larry the Cable Guy. That's Mater, as in "Tow-Mater," an aptly cornball pun. Mr. Wallis recalls the time and place he was created. "There was an old wrecker in an empty lot by Route 66 in Galena, Kan.," he said. "Joe Ranft, the studio's head of story and a key member of the Pixar team, stopped and noticed it, and Mater was born."

Acting as a consultant for the Pixar team — Mr. Ranft; John Lasseter, the director; and other top animators — Mr. Wallis played Beatrice to their Dante.

…
The cars tend to types. George Carlin plays Fillmore, a VW bus whose front license plate suggests a beatnik's goatee. Sarge is a Jeep, Flo a waitress (inspired, Mr. Wallis says, by a real waitress, Dawn Welch, at the Rock Café in Stroud, Okla. [Editor's note: Welch is the owner, not a waitress, of the Rock Cafe.]). A 1957 Motorama show car, Flo boasts (through chrome lips) of selling "the best gas in 50 states."

…The sheriff of Radiator Springs is a 1949 Mercury, and its voice is Mr. Wallis's. The author is delighted with his role. "That car has always been one of my favorites, and it fits my personality," he said. "My rapidly whitening mustache looks more like that Mercury's grille every day."

…

Bypassed by Interstate 40 and other modern highways, Route 66 — the pieces that remain — has been reborn as a tourist road. Real motels and restaurants served as models for those in Radiator Springs, like the Cozy Cone Motel and V-8 Cafe.

"They saw the teepee-shaped motels and gas stations," Mr. Wallis said in the rawhide tones he uses on his road tours. "They felt the wind through the winter wheat. They gulped it all in."

…

For Route 66, Mr. Wallis loaded the animators into rented white Cadillacs. "We rode three big new Detroit sleds," he said. The animators decorated the cars by attaching items found on the roadside: sheaves of wheat, bunches of thistles, sunflowers, snake skins and a road-kill armadillo. "We called this stuff Okie hood ornaments," Mr. Wallis said.

At trip's end, he said, "We buried it all in the high desert," adding: "We had a ceremony. I spoke some words and one of the animators, Bud Luckey, played a few bars on his harmonica. I'll never forget it."

In other news, Goodyear announced it would recast its famous blimp into a Lightyear blimp temporarily in honor of its involvement with "Cars." Lightyear is the brand of tire in the film.

Here's a look at the altered blimp below: