Picked up a new to me vehicle on Friday. 2006 Xterra 4x4 accompanied by Señor Manuel. Paint and interior are in great condition. Engine and tranny feel great. Reminds me of driving my Wrangler, but with more power (baby). Very truck like ride. This will be my wife’s car as my quarter million mile Tundra is still going strong. Seats aren’t as comfy as my Tundra, but the ride is a bit nicer and much quieter. I’ll be swapping fluids and restoring the headlights and trim over the next week or so. Other than that I’ll leave it be.

DipodomysDeserti
@DipodomysDeserti
Best posts made by DipodomysDeserti
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New Family Truckster
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Appreciation Thread
I’ll start off with my appreciation for @jminer and the rest of you who helped set this place up. We have some Opponauts (this one included) going through some shit this year, and it’s been very uplifting to see people get support on a car forum of all places. Here’s to hoping everyone can harness some of those positive vibes into the New Year.
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Holy mother of s***balls that was close
I’m cruising around on the Harley, and make a left onto a metered onramp to get onto the freeway. I make note of the fancy new Tacoma next to me, also making a left onto the freeway. I check my mirrors as I enter the onramp, making sure no one is riding my ass approaching the red meter light. The teenager in the Tacoma must have been staring at his phone, because he hasn’t even started making the left yet. Good, so I head towards the freeway, briefly thinking I should just blow through the meter since I’m the only one on the ramp. I decide to be a good boy, and slow my roll as I approach the meter, stop, and wait for it to turn green.
Before it does, I hear screeching tires behind me. Fuck. I immediately start to release the clutch, and give a little peaksy in my mirror, just in case I might be able to see death right before he careens into me. As I look innthe mirror, a big white blur passes maybe a foot from my right arm. It’s the Tacoma, and homeboy is the Oppo champ, as me managed to avoid both me, and the retaining wall, correcting his skid and merging into traffic like a boss.
After giving a round of internal applause, I notice there’s another white Toyota, this one a Four Runner, sitting diagonally across the onramp, a couple feet from my rear fender. I give the driver “what the fuck?” hands as I point at the meter light, and he rolls down his window and apologizes.
I get the hell off that onramp, and see the Tacoma getting off on the next exit. Against my better judgement, I decide we should have a chat. Really bad idea, but I figured after two near misses, today is my lucky day, and he probably won’t shoot me.
We stop in a grocery store parking lot a quarter mile down the road, and the kid rolls down his window. I pull up next to it (again, really bad idea, but I was on a roll). The kid is in tears. He starts apologizing, saying he dropped something and looked down to grab it and didn’t see me sitting there. I wasn’t angy, and am starting to question why I even followed this guy. I was filled with adrenaline, but it was “happy to be alive” adrenaline, not “I want to fucking kill someone” adrenaline. I tell the kid I’m ok, but to remember this feeling, and be extra cautious while driving, especially around motorcycles. I give him a fist bump, and head into the grocery store to buy a lotto ticket.
I don’t know what the deal was with the Four Runner. Only thing I can think of is he was trying to beat the Tacoma to the zipper merge, and didn’t realize the onramp was metered. The Tacoma beat him, swerved to miss me, and then inattentive Four Runner driver sees me sitting there as he’s full throttle down the onramp. Thank god it stayed dry all day.
Holy shit, I need a La Croix. Post epic saves.
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Greetings from the Redwoods
Went from 113F in southern Oregon to 60F once we hit the Redwoods. Fantastic camping in these ancient forests. Cutting all these magnificent trees down was one of the biggest of humanity’s blunders. Headed back into the abyss, so I’ll catch you all in a week or so.
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Almost treaded on him
Nearly stepped on this western Diamondback while dropping my kids off at grandpa’s today. My daughter spotted it before I did.
Gramps grabbed his snake stick and relocated it to the desert across the street. The snek was not happy about having his sunbathing interrupted.
It was an exciting morning.
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3k miles in
We’ve driven across Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Washington and Oregon. We lost a turn signal, half a quart of oil and a bit of coolant. The new rad cap has kept the coolant at bay since SLC. We have two more weeks of Montana camping coming up then will probably hang out in the canyonlands for a few days. The dogs and kids are still going strong. Feeling grateful to live in a place that still has open space, and hope it stays that way for a while longer.
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RE: I had a strange incident this weekend that I would like to share.
@dr-zoidberg Those guys buried something in your yard. Go get a metal detector.
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The drivers here can be real asses sometimes.
I had to chase this wild ass off the highway the other day. Ese was all over the road.
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Moto Junkyards: a photoessay
My old lady accompanied me to Bob’s Used Cycles today. This is my Mecca. It’s filled with old rusty bikes and old greasy bikers who know everything there is to know about motorcycles. Enjoy some pics from one of the greatest moto junkyards out there.
Latest posts made by DipodomysDeserti
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RE: Stupid Is As Stupid Does
@Mark-Tucker Arizona plates, so it might be the man himself!
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RE: Tattoos
@415s30 A couple of my friends became tattoo artists, so all of my buddies have at least one really shitty apprentice grade tattoo. My wife’s art isn’t too bad as they were simple designs and she’s been doing henna art professionally for a while, but having her do my kneecaps was not fun. I had some vodka handy for those.
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RE: Tattoos
@Mazda616 I have a few. Arms, chest, stomach, kneecaps, lower legs. Got my first in high school and my last one a few weeks ago. My wife has a tattoo gun and has been doodling some on me lately.
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RE: Say something nice about our favorite President
@bison78 Not to mention the whole 2000 presidential election fiasco.
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RE: Austin Drops Out of Top Ten Places to Live
@ttyymmnn I wish. A whole bunch of them keep moving here too.
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RE: Austin Drops Out of Top Ten Places to Live
@ash78 Yeah, it’s absolutely insane. I have several houses on my street that sold for around $500k in the last two years. I bought mine for $142k in 2009. These are all small, sixty year old houses. I bought my house from the original owner and when I moved in all my neighbors had lived here since at least the mid ‘60s. Not any more! If I sell I’m buying land with water in the middle of nowhere.
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RE: Austin Drops Out of Top Ten Places to Live
@Italia said in Austin Drops Out of Top Ten Places to Live:
@flatisflat I loved living in San Francisco. The city is the best in California for sure.
I hear a lot of people say that about LA, and then I wonder why they chose to move to Phoenix. And by “people”, I mean drunk Dodgers fans.
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RE: Austin Drops Out of Top Ten Places to Live
@flatisflat said in Austin Drops Out of Top Ten Places to Live:
@ttyymmnn said in Austin Drops Out of Top Ten Places to Live:
- San Francisco, CA
This is how I know this list is bupkis.
This one got me: “ San Franciscans are bound by a strong sense of pride in their region; despite the sky-high prices, many residents will tell you that they can't imagine living anywhere else.”
Meanwhile…