A woman approaches James Peterson’s 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz, a chrome- and gold-emblem encrusted red ruby of a car. The woman is a spectator at the 36th annual Forest Grove Concours d’Elegance, set in the rolling farm country and fir forests of northwest Oregon.

There's an old marketing principle called "the wheel of retailing," the wheel turns when originally low-priced retailers upgrade their merchandise and services thereby creating a competitive opportunity for new discounters and thereby continuing the process.

As gasoline flirts with $5 a gallon in some places, more than a few people are pressing their collector cars into service as their daily, or possibly “more than occasional” drivers.

John Steinbeck’s Route 66 was a miserable place. A bare road of desperation, families fleeing the Dust Bowl poverty of Middle America for a shot at economic salvation in California.