Route 66 in Tulsa: Ryan Chiaverini interviews journalist, author, voice actor from 'Cars'

TULSA, Okla. (WLS) -- Ryan Chiaverini's 2026 Hyundai Palisade parked in Tulsa, Oklahoma for the latest edition of ABC7 Chicago's series "Pier To Pier: Celebrating 100 Years of Route 66."

There, he interviewed Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Wallis, whose 1990 book "Route 66: The Mother Road" is widely credited with reviving interest in "The Main Street of America."

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"I wrote the book because I was tired of people talking about the road in the past tense; I knew that fully 85% of it was still there," Wallis said. "I was out on the first tour with an entourage; the publisher had to go back to print three times before I got to Santa Monica."

Because of Wallis' impact on Route 66, he was someone Chiaverini was hoping to talk to while on his pier-to-pier trip. Oscar-winning director John Lasseter secured Wallis as a consultant on his 2006 animated feature "Cars" for Disney/Pixar because Route 66 is featured prominently in the film.

"When 'Cars' premiered 20 years ago this year in 2006, business on stretches of the road went up 35%," said Wallis, who Lasseter tapped to voice the character "Sheriff" in the franchise.

Wallis was also brought in to help Disneyland Imagineers create Cars Land at Disney California Adventure Park. Visitors there can see echoes of Route 66 everywhere they look in a sprawling area that mimics the small town in "Cars."

"It's 12 acres of Radiator Springs," Wallis said.

Route 66 winds through eight states and many towns from Chicago to Santa Monica, but Wallis says he doesn't see borders or city limits when he imagines the road. He sees one continuous community.

"(William) Blake, the great philosopher and artist said, and it's so true, that 'roads of improvement are straight roads but the crooked roads are roads of genius,'" said Wallis. "And that's what the Mother Road is."

"Pier To Pier: Celebrating 100 Years of Route 66" is sponsored by Hyundai

Disney is the parent company of ABC7 Chicago.