Friday, July 24, 2009

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.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

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.

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Wednesday, July 15, 2009

The 2010 Honda ATV's Are Coming!

American Honda has announced the 2010 ATV and MUV! Check out the article in ATV Rider Magazine on the new 2010 Honda ATVs and MUV products.

The one I have on my "ohhhh I waaaaaant!" list is the Big Red. Be able to seat my dad beside me, the dogs in the back cargo area, and go cruising the ATV trails together checking out the lovely backwoods of Alaska. But... I'm thinking I probably won't be able to get one of them, since the manufacturers suggested retail is over $11,500.

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Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Rain damages Maine ATV trails / ATV Christmas in July Toy Run

I was looking at an article on a Maine TV news website about rains eroding the ATV trails in Maine, and there was a small bit at the end about the local club, Roxbury ATV Riders, having an ATV Christmas in July Toy Run. This seemed much more interesting to me, since I do not live in Maine, so I went looking a bit.

More information on the trail damages, and the upcoming (July 18th) ATV Christmas in July Toy Run, can be found in an article Rains wreak havoc with ATV trails on the Sun Journal website.

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