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update, 8:38pm.

Jason and I left Durham at 11am today. Nice drive and the webcams worked well until we stopped for lunch at Pilot Mountain.

After lunch (which was nice) we started seeing the spinning beachball in Imagecaster, the webcam software that we're using. We couldn't get it to run. Then Jason found that many other apps wouldn't run, including, scarily, disk utility.

We can still connect to the internet and use a web browser, but that's about it. Otherwise my laptop is pretty dead.

We'll see if we can get our hands on a copy of a better disk utility, and maybe set up Jason's laptop to run the cams tomorrow. We'll see. We won't get into Indianapolis until about midnight or later, so I'm not sure how much we'll be able to do tonight.

We'll be headed to Chicago at some point, but don't know if we'll have cams.

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12:17am CT in Joliet... went into Chicago today, wandered around and had a look at some smart cars. Stephanie test drove one. Traffic was hell. No time to go to an Apple Store and I've decided the Genius bar probably can't help me anyway. Doesn't appear to be a hard drive failure, maybe motherboard? Who knows?

May try to set up cams on J's computer tomorrow.

In other news, looks like I am coming down with a cold.

Lots of bugs at the Joliet hotel tonight. Jerry O, Earl, Lisa Herr, many more. We'll have a good sized caravan tomorrow. Desk clerk told us to meet at 9am in the lobby.

9:44am CT: the game plan is for lisa to take the first driving shift, then if we get out onto a more laid back road/area, J can take over driving and i'll try some creative web cam solutions that we've discussed. unless J decides to try them while i'm driving! either way, we'll try and work something out today, if we can.

5:51pm CT: Turned out to be a great day! over aa dozen bugs in the caravan, Historic Route 66 is a very laid back and peaceful road. Much nicer than the interstate.

Lots of stops, highlights included a giant man holding a hot dog (see pictures once i upload them) and the Cozy Dog Drive-In, home of the corndog.

J took over driving after our late lunch and i was able to get the webcam running on his computer! the software i'm using now doesn't handle archiving the way i want, so i'll have to upload an archive at the end of the night, or the trip, unfortunately-- but the live cam should work ok as long as we are, in fact, live.

we're on the interstate now so we can get to the hotel at a decent hour, hopefully we can have a beer tonight and relax and maybe upload some photos.

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0943 Spacepod has left the caravan to visit the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. However, we will attempt to rendezvous with the caravan this afternoon in Kansas.

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1102 Spacepod has left the Gateway Arch for Stanton, MO, where we will get on Route 66, to visit Stubby Stonehenge in Rolla, MO. Many very interesting pictures were taken, which would no doubt amuse and delight. Unfortunately they will not be the subject of the morning's written record of activity.

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1228 Spacepod has exited I-44 at Sullivan, instead of Stanton. After a brief detour to the Meramec State Park, we are on Route 66 and heading to Rolla, MO, to personally experience the cultural anomaly that is Stubby Stonehenge.

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1250 Spacepod has experienced a slight delay. This section of Route 66 is being paved. Several miles out of Sullivan, we sat behind an asphalt paver, gravel truck, and oil truck for several minutes. The delay was brief.

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1550 For some reason or another, the laptop would not recognize the cell phone as a valid USB device after we departed Stubby Stonehenge (officially named "UMR Stonehenge"), but we think we have solved that problem. Time will tell.

Also, we took a break for pictures on the original four-lane concrete Route 66 before crossing the bridge at Devil's Elbow.

Then we ate a late lunch at the top overlooking the Big Piney River and departed Route 66 to join the rest of the caravan, if we can catch them before they reach Tulsa.

UMR Stonehenge was, by the way, more of a statement of appreciation of engineering competence, however primitive (really - who builds a clock out of stone?), than a cultural anomaly. It is highly recommended. Thirty-minute parking is mere feet away, although it is harder to get to if you've never been there before. UMR Stonehenge is located on the inside of a decreasing radius curve if you're approaching from I-44 or Route 66 and easy to miss on the first pass.

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12:08 am - at the motel 6 in Tulsa. we went along route 66 to see the devil's elbow and cross a most charming little old bridge, have a picnic lunch on spacepod's dash, and then we hit the interstate for the rest of the day so we could make it to tulsa in time for a movie at the admiral twin drive-in theater. we tried to catch the caravan but after a few calls it became apparent that wasn't going to happen.

britt and marie joined us at the drive-in for the silver surfer, which was okay, not great.

tomorrow we plan to ride with the group, and we're hopeful the webcams will cooperate the entire way.

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0920 The caravan has embarked for the Rock Cafe in Stroud, OK! We will be testing the weatherproofness (is that a word?) of the camera mount this morning. Some parts of OK received two to five inches of rain last night and it is, in fact, still raining in Tulsa.

There are now seventeen bugs in the caravan.

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1030 We have arrived at the Rock Cafe in Stroud, OK.

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1220 The caravan has departed the Rock Cafe. By all accounts, lunch was good and did not pretend to be something that it was not. It was standard roadside American fare, and it was excellent.

The caravan is enroute to points west, destination unknown.

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1250 Another pod joined the convoy at the last major intersection. There are now eighteen bugs in the caravan.

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1305 For some reason, the entire caravan just did a complete u-turn in the middle of Route 66.

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1340 Our "destination unknown" was the principle domicile of Mr. John Hargrove, who has devoted a substantial amount of time and effort to redecorating the interior of his house in memory of the Route 66 that was.

Reading about the reconstruction, without context, is like looking at a picture without understanding anything about the person who thought what they were seeing was worth capturing on film.

Mr. Hargrove participated in a 100-mile run in 2006, at the age of 62. He averaged a little over four miles per hour, over 26 hours. This does not explain his affection for the Route 66 that was.

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1345 The Round Barn. Many pictures were taken.

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10:56pm, we're in roswell! sorry we did not have webcams or updates today, we did not ride with the big caravan and decided to take a break and just enjoy the drive and the amazing scenery.

we visited the dinosaur museum in tucumcari after spending the night at the authentic Blue Swallow motel (one of the best places we've stayed during this trip), then cruised down to roswell with stephanie, steph and their bug phoebe.

the weather was gorgeous, there was hardly any traffic and it was just the perfect drive.

we're pretty happy with the motel 6 here in roswell (we've never stayed here before) and just got back from dinner at Tia Juanas with everyone who is in town already. a really big crowd!

tomorrow we should have a really laid back today, just need to wash the car and hang out. we're still debating whether we'll run the webcams during the car show or not.

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1:56pm, awards have started! i'll be blogging the trophy winners.

R2K Hall Of Fame: Lisa Herr!!!

MODEL CAR

best alien theme: Chris Hayes

most unique: Rhonda Murry

Model car BEST OF SHOW: Marnie Aaron

STOCK

Top Five:
Christine Hellet
Cori Saston
Richard and Linda Jeffries
Britney Bradford
Shelley Berkit

BEST: Rick Bannister

MODIFIED STOCK

Shannon Slinez
Dee Hooker
Kathy O'Hara
Rome Told (?)
Rhonda Murry

BEST: Tiffany Stallberg

CUSTOM

Joe Barnett
Chris and Kerry Haze
Jerry O'Hara
Antoine Dehon
Sue Isley

BEST: Tina Ferrell

CONVERTIBLE

Anne Green
Karen Talley
Dede O'Daniel
Michael Levy
Jane Cedanza

BEST: Ed Wilder

Best Budvase: Anne Green

Best Exterior Graphics: Ed Tull

Best Alien Theme: Shelley Burkett

Best Toy Display: Alex Chevez

Best Interior: Tina Ferrell

Alien's Choice: Marnie and Rich Aaron

BEST OF SHOW: Isaiah Sanchez

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The above information was blogged live as David read out the names. I do my best with the spelling of names, but every year I get several wrong! If you know of a correction, please post it to the comments and I'll get it updated. Congratulations to everyone who won!

This year setting up the webcams was really a breeze (and we did run the cams as some of you noticed), and Jason and I were really well prepared for the day. We got there early, got a spot under a tree (for shade!), set up camp chairs and had a cooler full of drinks and food. J got breakfast from McD's (which is walkable from the car show) and we both worked on cleaning the car. I think Spacepod looked about as respectable as he ever has at Roswell! It's really too bad I never got him to the body shop to repair his front end issues, and that I never got the interior shampooed as I had intended. I didn't win a trophy (and I think I need to consider entering Stock next time unless I do more to the car).

Jason did a count and we think there were 59 bugs that appeared to be entered in the show, with another six in attendance or parked in the vicinity. So maybe around 65. Not like the old days but it's still a really impressive sight as you can tell from the photos. And the quality of bugs is still very high, with really nice modifications to a lot of them, very clean cars, and people getting inspiration from each other.

Tonight everyone is heading over to the conference center to watch the original Herbie movie on an inflatable (!) drive-in movie screen. I can't wait! That's the best Herbie movie (of course) and I love drive-in. Apparently this is the first time since 1967 that there's been an all-beetle screening of Herbie the Love Bug.

Tomorrow I hit the road to go back home. In the evenings I will probably start uploading the webcam archives, and tweaking the photos on flickr so they have actual captions and are rotated correctly, etc. Just generally do housekeeping on the site. So stay posted and before long it will all be fixed up nicely.

Thanks to everyone who has been visiting the site, leaving comments, watching the webcams, and telling us that they appreciate our efforts! We really enjoy hearing that kind of stuff.

(Oh, and I actually DID win something... the fella next to us at the car show was from a Missouri-Kansas VW club and he handed out trophies to cars that he liked-- including Spacepod! That was really nice!!)