Winding from Chicago to LA, more than two thou­sand miles all the way, Route 66 is still the place to get your kicks. If you’d like a break from cookie-cutter restau­rants and lodg­ing options, this fabled road remains lined with home­spun busi­nesses and attrac­tions that can only be missed if your eyes are closed.

Connecticut’s Weir Preserve and Weir Farm National Historic Site will host their 17th annual Halloween Owl Prowl on Friday evening, October 30, 7:30–9:00 PM.

On the heels of the PBS pre­sen­ta­tion of America’s Best Idea, a doc­u­men­tary on the national parks by Ken Burns, the National Park Service (NPS) has devel­oped the web­site Plan Your Visit to America’s Best Idea (Your National Parks): Fall, Winter, Spring 2009—2010 to help vis­i­tors find activ­i­ties, events, and com­mer­cial ser­vices at NPS areas dur­ing the fall, win­ter, and spring months.

To kick-off the National Park Service and the National Park Foundation’s cel­e­bra­tion of the national parks on September 26 — National Public Lands Day — the Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island will for the first time, open to the pub­lic for a spe­cial evening tour and pro­gram event on September 24 and 25, 2009. As part of the fes­tiv­i­ties, atten­dees will expe­ri­ence a sneak pre­view of Ken Burns’s new doc­u­men­tary The National Parks: America’s Best Idea pre­mier­ing on PBS the fol­low­ing evening.

Visiting Yellowstone Park in the fall has been one of the best kept travel secrets for sea­soned park trav­el­ers. This is the time of year when the sounds of the rivers and thump of the ther­mals replaces the sum­mer sound of summer’s stream of pass­ing cars.