Stijn!!

[ted]

weather fine here, only thing broke is this forum?
Did Glen get home yet?

[GH85Carrera]

We got home with no problems about noon on Sunday. It was a cold morning, about 24 degrees. The 911 fires right up, and the rear window defogger sure works. The heater got the car toasty in short order.



I blurred the faces of the three guys since I don't have permission to post their photos. This is the accident scene. I watched as the guy on the three wheeler rolled the trike over on him. We all stopped and ran over there to lift the bike up off of him and to turn it off. We did not want to pull him much at all but he managed to get out from under the bike far enough to lay down. We had to hold the bike up like human tripods to keep it off of him. When the cops arrived they helped block traffic and we helped load the guy in the ambulance. He felt sure he had a few broken ribs.

After he was out of the way, we rolled the bike upright against the hill, and rolled it down to a flatter area to be stable. The cops said they would wait until a tow truck got there to haul it away.

The driver was a 73 year old man from Ohio that came to Arkansas and wanted to drive the curvy roads. As we pulled up behind him I was mentally cussing because he was going really slow, or he was for a car.

He came to a curve, and went clear across the road, fortunately no oncoming traffic. He went off the road, and into the ditch. He was riding along the ditch and up the embankment and it rolled over on him. Six feet further was a concrete culvert. He landed on a lot of leaves. He said his wife used to ride with him, but she said she was too old to do that anymore. He also said she will kill him when he gets home.

[pete3799]

Happy (belated) birthday Glen. Mine was on the 9th (69 yippee)
Just watching the weather......possible snow in OK today?
Had flurries this morning. A couple of inches forecast for Wed.

[GH85Carrera]

It snowed for 4 or 5 minutes. HUGH flakes that looked like snow bombs. They vanished as they hit the ground as it is still 37 degrees. We might get an inch overnight, or just a dusting.

Happy birthday Pete!



The parking lot at our hotel.


The security chain did not fill me with much confidence.

[GH85Carrera]

I looked at the odometer as I parked in the garage at home. We went 800.3 miles. I will call that a 800 mile journey.

Two guy drove down from northern Michigan. Several from Colorado. Lots of fun and interesting people there.

[Porsche-poor]

Morning all. It's cold here for sure. Probably make mid 40's today.

[GH85Carrera]

Tomorrow we get to go get our "Real ID" driver's license. Oklahoma, like several states resisted the feds decree that real ID style driver's licenses were required, and they delayed. The feds kept extending the deadline. Finally it is happening. Of course the state has lots of reasons for the problems it has made in providing the new equipment and making the new licenses.

We have to bring several things to prove we are really us, and that we still live in the same place. A passport is just one item! To get a passport requires a lot of identification, and should be enough in my book. We have to show something like a voter ID, and a utility bill that shows the mailing address is the same. I have saved several utility bills and we both have our voter ID cards.

We have to make an appointment at a place in a small suburb near the round barn on Rt66 to get it done. The local tag agents are overwhelmed and are not taking appointments sooner than a month out. The equipment and supplies to make the new license is in short supply. It is just nucking futz. It has been this way for over a year.

Our current DLs expire at the end of this month.

The real pain is for new drivers. They are having to make appointments 6 months out. Of course it is all blamed on covid and supply chain issues. Yea right.

[Porsche-poor]

Not sure when that takes over here but we will have to do something. We have passports and TSA precheck with global entry so we should be ok for a bit.

[GH85Carrera]

Soon the FAA will require a real ID to get on an airplane. I presume a passport is enough, but why carry a passport around for state to state travel. To get into a federal building will soon require real ID.

It is just insane it is so difficult to get it done in populated cities. To get a driver's license renewed that is not real ID is a simple process. Just the magic ju-ju of real ID is a challenge.

[Flieger]

Mine wasn't too bad- got it done just before the DMVs closed for Covid which was lucky since my license was up for renewal. Just read the list of stuff you need carefully, make an appointment, don't make any other plans that day, and bring reading material.

[GH85Carrera]

Max, whatever the Orange County, LA DMV is like, think the orders of magnitude small. In Oklahoma we have a system of private enterprise for tags and driver's licensees. The all compete for customers. This is going to be a small building, with 6 or 8 chairs, and nicely appointed. Pleasant friendly employees and we have an appointment at 9:30.

We have local tag agents, but all their appointments are gone withing minutes of the new scheduling. I don't understand how they have not fixed that in over a year. Anyway, we are going to a little town just outside of the suburb we live in. Think of a suburb of a suburb right on Rt-66. It is not far from here, and we can get there in 15 minutes. There is a maybe two traffic lights, that are a right turn for us, to get there. Just some stop signs. It is all very rural.



It is two blocks from the round barn.

Hopefully all goes as expected and I will report back later.

[Porsche-poor]

Morning all. Good luck Glen.

[GH85Carrera]

That was painless.

It is a 16 minute drive with one right turn traffic light, and a pleasant drive in the country side. We had a 9:30 appointment, and walked in 8 minutes early. My wife walked up and said we had an 9:30 appointment, and an pleasant young lady moved from the seat she was in to the one at the DL window. Hand over the paperwork, and lots of data entry on her part. Sit down, have the photo taken, left index finger then right index finger scanned for a fingerprint, answer questions about organ donation, voter registration, and such, and we walked out at 9:40 done. We keep the old DL for now, and they mail us the new licenses.

Not very expensive, as the total cost was zero. Since we are certified geezers at over age 65. They have about a dozen chairs, but at 9:30 on a Thursday there were only two other people there and they were getting car tags, and another lady was helping them.

My wife did a meet up with a friend of ours that lives in that area. My wife was giving away a plumeria stem for her to have a plumeria next year.

Our licenses are good for another 8 years, so we will not have to do this for a while.

[Flieger]

Wow that sounds way better. I'm actually in Ventura County but it's not much better than LA.

[GH85Carrera]

One of the nicest men I ever knew, Orren Mixer, built a ranch along Rt-66 and populated it with longhorn cattle. He had a ranch that he loved and did not want to move, and it took an act of congress to make him move so they could build a lake. He has over 400 acres, and he traded a painting for a new bulldozer to move some hills around, and to move his LARGE sandstone boulders into part of the entrance. He lived to ago 89, and is missed. His kids live in the house now.

He was an amazing western artist, and charge 25 grand minimum for a painting of a customer's horse or a commission of scene. He had a back log of people waiting up to 8 years for a paintings. He painted two of Ronald Reagan's horses for the POTUS.
I miss him more when I drive past his beautiful ranch.

He gave me a few posters of paintings and personalized them with a signature, and even did a little sketch by the signature.

[Porsche-poor]

Morning all. Off to go play struct drafter. Its 28 this morning. To cold to go out and play.

[GH85Carrera]

We are up to 31, and snow flurries. Hopefully the snow is going away now.

[Noah930]

Originally Posted by Flieger

Wow that sounds way better. I'm actually in Ventura County but it's not much better than LA.

Last year I went to the Thousand Oaks DMV--made an appointment and all--because I thought it might be faster to upgrade to a Real ID. It took just as long, and we got there with only 4 or 5 people in line in front of us when we arrived.

[GH85Carrera]

I was curious what an 8 year driver's license would have cost us if we were young whippersnappers and not geezers as defined by the government, (over 65) and it is $80 per person. Thank you very much, I will take it. I like the price of free to me.

They gave us a B&W laser printed version of the DL and a "temporary" license until the new one shows up in the mail. I may stick it in the El Camino, but I am not going to be moving it from car to car. I have not had to show a cop my DL in over 40 years, so I am not real worried about it. Worst case, I do have to present my DL, I have my old one that is valid until the end of the month. No doubt the computers know I have renewed, and the real ID is on the way.

It is not much of a concern.

[Porsche-poor]

Morning all. Nice short weekend spent with the grand kid. So I didn't get much done.