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Everyone clears a path for L.L. Bean's rolling boot

By Chris Woodyard, USA TODAY
Updated

On the road, everyone yields to The Boot.

That what Cars.com's crew concluded after driving L.L.Bean's giant boot around greater Chicago. Joe Wiesenfelder waxes enthusiastic about the "diesel-powered galosh," which he says is quite well done:

The proportions are close to perfect, and while I expected it to look like a single giant molded plastic piece, details like the real rope laces give it an overgrown realism. (Bean says they're tugboat ropes with a test strength of more than 100,000 pounds.)

I've driven countless head-turning vehicles, but I've never gotten the attention the Bootmobile commanded. People freakin' love it. Smiles were everywhere. Pedestrians shouted their approval, and a few admonished us to tie our laces. (Mothers … .) I pulled alongside a gaggle of tourists, and a white Ferrari 458 Italia nearby might as well have vanished.

He says he, well, actually, the boot, was photographed everywhere he went -- even those snap-happy drivers in the opposing lanes.

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