Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all my fellow ATV and offroading addicts. I'm already getting amped up for getting out and having fun during the summer of 2010.

Diehard ATV riders

Okay, I thought I was a diehard lover of getting out on the ATV whenever I could with my using it as my transportation to the store when possible, but a couple days ago my dad and I were driving along and there were people out riding their ATVs along the side of the road in 30 degree F weather. Mind you, if I had a good warm snowsuit I would love to do that too, but it was still a bit surprising to see people out riding ATVs so late in the year.

Repair Pal

RepairPal can help you find out more about Seattle auto repair including tune up and oil change for your car or truck.

They offer unbiased repair estimates by independent repairmen, as well as user ratings and reviews: check out the page for the 2005 Acura TL for an example of their reviews, which include star rating system and reviews by people that have had experience with the cars.

Also be sure to check out the MyCar section, where you can manage your car's repairs and maintenance online in a secure and safe record keeping location provided free to use by RepairPal. The MyCar section provides service reminders and safety recall alerts and lets you create separate pages for each car you own. The only drawback I have found - it starts at 1990, so does not help me with our older model Cadillac cars.

Winter nears, ATV put away

Winter is closing in and the ATV is getting put away until spring. I will miss being able to ride the lovely little ATV, but it is too cold in the winter time to go cruising to the store on the ATV. So, I have started getting it ready for winter storage and will have it put away and delegated to occasional road plowing, but not for use in store runs or anything like that until at least next spring.

Time to store ATV

It is that time of year... time to get my poor little ATV all bundled up and tucked away into the shed for the winter. I really don't want to do it, but the thing is not exactly warm to ride in the colder fall and winter months. Wish I could take it to the store and stuff still, but I'd definately freeze doing that. so... time to tuck it in for a long winter's nap.

ATVing in Alaska - need to look up the rules

I rode my ATV out to Wal-Mart night before last to grab some things, not enough to warrant taking a car, but the low cost of gas in the ATV made it a good evening ride to take.

As I was getting ready to leave the store a couple and their kids paused to talk to me, wanting to find out more about my riding the ATV to the store. Apparently they have a couple of ATVs, but like most people they don't consider them transportation and only used them for fishing and hunting. They said that they had no idea what the rules were about riding ATVs around in Alaska, particularly to the store or something.

That encounter got me to thinking about just that thing, so I am going to start doing some more in-depth looking into it and get some official stuff posted here and at AlaskaATV.info for everyone. I'm fairly sure what the laws are, but want to have fully official information rather than just share my "this is what I've experienced" info with folks.

Near Collision

Driving over to the DMV this afternoon to get the Caddie re-registered for my dad, me and him were almost to the DMV when a big red pickup came out of a side road almost directly in front of us and then, the moron, slowed down! He was not far enough ahead to turn out in front of us to begin with and I had to hit the brakes, then the dipshit hits his brakes right in front of me. I'm trying to get that big old Caddie to stop and checking the rear view mirror expecting to be rear ended, but all I can see behind me is the smoke of my own tires trying to stop me like the burn-off at a drag race. Attention back on the idiot ahead of me, who's still braking as if he's fishing for the Cad to rear end him, and I am looking at the ditch thinking "I could floor it and head out there...." Just then the Cad responds to my efforts and stops. About one and a half lengths of it from where I had started silently telling it "STOP STOP STOP!!!!!"

Neither me or my dad thought to check the license plate number of the truck, but I sure wish we had got it. Big old russet red one, pulled out of a side road about half a block out on the State Fairgrounds side of the DMV in Palmer. I still don't know how we avoided hitting the sucker, but I'm really glad we missed him.

Sitting here now I'm looking around the Collision Repair Experts website and the little video gal walks out in response to my search query and apologizes that there are no matches to my zip (no matter what Alaskan zip I have so far tried). I tried entering "Alaska" in their search, without a city prefex, and got a suggestion of "ALAKANUK,AK" LOL! I find it highly amusing that out of all the cities in Alaska, they would suggest Alakanuk, which is way out in the middle of nowhere. And even better, "Alakanuk" is, I've been told, a Yup'ik word meaning "wrong way". There weren't any collision repair places there though. Guess it was the wrong way.

Collision Repair Experts is a website dedicated to creating a network of collision repair experts from auto body shops all across the States. So say someone needs a bodyshop in california (rather than Alaska, which does not seem to have anything listed yet), you just go to the website and enter your zip, or the City, State you want to search - say "Los Angeles, CA", and you get a listing of suggested shops in the area.

The shop listing includes information on how to get to the shop, complete with map, distance from the city you searched for, ratings, reviews, and a deal for helping you in making an appointment with the shop.

Other than not having any repair shops in Alaska currently listed, the site looks like a great place for locating collision repair experts, I'm just glad that I didn't have to locate one myself after this afternoon.