Year End Blog

Today I went to the DMV again. Seems that I have been there way too many times this year plus The Auto Club's DMV counter. Today was the quickest, although not the cheapest, visit of the year. Back in January my mutant teenager required a visit for his license, his written test, his driving test, the two cars he acquired, and later my two dirt bikes. One of the bikes I have had for several years, but it had never been registered, that took three DMV trips plus two additional visits to the CHP office. That mess required hours of waiting, 40 miles of driving for each of the trips (three total) and much frustration. The second dirt bike took less than ten minutes after a three week wait for an appointment in spite of the fact that there were several errors on the pink slip, wrong name and dates. The lady at the counter said "when did you buy the bike" as the sale date entered had not occurred yet. My explanation was that the seller post dated it as to have plenty of time to register it and she said, "No problem, I will just change it." When using the Auto Club counter nit picking problems can make a simple transaction a nightmare but that will take more time than to explain than I care to spend now.

Last week the high desert was covered with snow and a week later the snow was all gone except for patches . The riding was great as there wasn't any dust, mud or puddles. Mother Nature knows how to drain things much better that the Corp of Army Engineers. When ever the lake bed get wet the rangers close it to protect the surface from all the crazy folks that want to drive on it and make great ruts and holes, plus getting stuck causing more damage. The Southern California Association races cars and motorcyles across the lake bed when it is dry and has been doing that for probably seventy years. My first trip there to see the races was in a new 1956 Dodge. The surface needs to be smooth as speeds exceed two hundred miles an hour on the faster rides. Going really fast on a rutted course is not a lot of fun. Been there done that.