I woke up to a Good Friday in Flagstaff, Arizona, in a motel on what is left of the historic Route 66. They still post it here as “66” with the highway shield, but in a light brown color with the words “historic Route 66.” It’s not an official highway number you can find on a map, but it is a route you can still travel today if you have the time and the patience. There are numerous books out with guides to discovering the sights and segments of the old road.

Chandler had me drive some of it and we found a section that took us a ways out of town — a two-lane road with patches of concrete that had not been covered over with asphalt, and driving over it brought back that hypnotic “flump flump” of the tires over the uniform seams in the concrete. After talking about this for a while, I finally realized Chandler was searching for something — he was looking for the town of Radiator Springs, the fictional city from the Pixar movie, “Cars.”

According to an article in the “Route 66 News,” the real city that best resembles Radiator Springs is Tucumcari, New Mexico — “a small town that boasts a bunch of vintage motels, a Mexican restaurant shaped like a sombrero, lots of neon lights, a Route 66-themed grocery store, and the well-preserved Odeon Theatre, which still shows first-run movies.” If you love the movie, “Cars,” like I do, you will appreciate the article which ties characters and themes in the movie to those in real life — that rich part of small town America that the Interstate passes by. As the article so well concludes, “Life begins at the off-ramp.”

Perhaps this is what we are all seeking… Chandler … you … me: life at the off-ramp — getting off the fast track of what we are after and focusing instead on the life in front of us that we already have. These are the things that give our lives meaning. I’ve wondered a number of times along this trip so far if I could afford the time and expense, but then I consider the quality time it is affording me with Chandler and I realize this is one of those priceless things MasterCard can’t touch.

Maybe our next road trip will be to travel the old 66 to Tucumcari.