Benson County
Abandoned as of 4/06

Fillmore, ND is in Benson County, about 20 miles SE of Rugby, the geographical center of North America. Fillmore reportedly had 150 citizens in 1920, but that declined to 74 by 1960 and today Fillmore is home to only two part-time residents.

When we arrived, we were surprised to find Fillmore may just be the best North Dakota ghost town we’ve run across so far.

There is a defined Main Street in town with vacant buildings staring each other down from opposite sides of the street. There are many vacant homes too, not to mention two vacant churches.

The townsite pictured here is actually the second townsite to bear the name Fillmore. The original townsite several miles southeast is now wiped from the prairie.

Like most ghost towns in North Dakota, Fillmore was another casualty of the decline of the train and the rise of the automobile.

CLICK PHOTOS TO ENLARGE

The case is turning into an investigation of what happened before he got into his car, and maybe not an accident investigation…..

No alcohol..but anything else?…..And where his injuries consistent with a car accident or a domestic dispute?….

And it looks like he’s lawyering up….

Stay tuned for more……

Let me start my experience in a different way

Typical story … is when you go and take advice from anyone about FIAT … you will get a standard answer .. “FIAT eh? No … it has not got resale value, no spares, no service … and there is nothing in FIAT” .. I hope I am right.. )

I had the same experience, when I first decided to got with PALIO after I sold my TurboJet Indica in 2008.. Like everyone, I love carz and I try to learn and understand more about them … I am not just a Driver …. I give my 100% love towards my cars…

I finalized on FIAT Palio 1.3 MultiJet Diesel Engine – SDX version – Furnace Red. I would like to share my ownership report with you .. and here it goes ….
 
This horse is powered by 1.3MJD which produces 75 horse-power @ 4000 rpm, which is also used in Maruti SWIFT, Tata Indica Vista, Tata Indigo Manza, FIAT Linea and FIAT Grande Punto…Torque is less when compared to other cars, where it delivers 184NM. Swift generates 190NM and Punto 194NM.. This means the pickup / peppiness is bit less…But, this did not bother me, as I drive slowly and don’t like to be kicked . It takes on the road smoothly with good road-grip and stiffness. No matter, how hard you hit the peddle… you will be safe in this bullet proof tank. PALIO is nothing short of any small tanker when it comes to body.

Ride and Handling:
I believe this is the only car which is tooo strong in ride and handling. Amazing dynamics, this gives more confidence when driving on highways with 120+ or in city with 20+. No worries about cornering, very solid movement. Its difficult to explain, one must feel in Palio.
Rating: 10/10

Fuel Efficiency:
1.3 MJD is known for fuel efficient and environmental friendly engine which is BS IV certified.
I drive at a contant speed with less braking and more control with accelerator and clutch and with 100% AC ON. This returns me of 16.7 kmpl within BANGALORE City and 18.5 kmpl on HIGHWAYS (Mixed Mode). This is quiet impressive and less pressure on my pocket
Rating: 10/10

Interiors:
I have been reading in many articles, that the dashboard of PALIO is dated. Yes, I agree, does that mean lack of required features!!! lack of plastic quality !!! No .. I am not just defending by this statement, I mean it. I have no problems with interiors. There is a two tone dash in Palio, which looks more spacious and all buttons are ergonomically placed.

Good Cabin space for 5 adults. Good leg room and headroom for front passengers, superb headroom and leg room for rear passengers. 360lts of boot space is more than adequate for this hatch. I have had no problems till today in these aspects.

NOT SO GOOD: FIAT has compromised too much for SD / SDE version when compared to SDX version. FIAT does not offer even digital clock on SD / SDE version.. . ;-( this is bad.. Missing 60:40 split rear seat.

SOME ISSUES FACED:
 - Dashboard Vibration at lower RPM’s (I tried to get it fixed 4 times, later, I got adjusted to it and have changed my driving style to avoid vibration heheheh )
 - Front Co-passenger door rattling sound (This was later fixed by Service Engineer)
 
Rating: 07/10

SERVICE:
FIAT !! SERVICE !!! oh! no .. pathetic… THIS IS THE USUAL SENTENCE U HEAR FROM MANY FOLKS!!!! RIGHT!!!! HOLD ON!!
I have a different story to tell you.. Its real story and not reel…
As most of the customer face, I too faced some issues with my car.

1st - AC Condensor was damaged and it was not detected during PDI (Pre Delivery Inspection). I got this replaced with 3 days as Warranty Replacement..
2nd - I have given my car for service for 4 times now and each time I feel I am being treated with good respect and honour and as well this holds good to my car… Even HE FEELS PROUD.
3rd (important – related to parts) – Unfortunately, I met with an accident and was happened to get some of the parts replaced. This took me not less than 2 weeks to get Surveyor inspection (from insurance company), Assessment and to get parts. I used to get status through email from Concorde Motors, Bangalore and from FIAT, Pune every other day. Doesn’t this seems to be strange from FIAT and TATA. Yes! I too felt it! But, this is truely amazing.

Rating: 10/10 (STRANGE )
Snapshot
- I have covered 24000 kms in just 12 months.
- 4 Services completed (3 free service + 1 paid service)
- Average Fuel Efficiency in CITY – 16.7 kmpl (100% AC on)
- Average Fuel Efficiency on Highways – 18.5 kmpl (100% AC on)
- Average Serivce Cost (1250 Rs / Service.. Considering 4th Paid Service that includes labour)
- Accidental Parts Replacement Cost (74000/-)
 1.AC Condensor
 2.Radiator
 3.Intercooler
 4.Front Bumper
 5.Cross Rail (Exterior and Interior)
 6.FAN Assembly
 7.Painting
 8.Tinkering
 9.Labour

Let me tell something about CONS
- No Rear Split Seat (60:40)
- No ABS / AIRBAGS
- No cupholders for rear
- No Builtin ICE (Can be used from Punto)
- Not much of storage space

OVERALL OWNERSHIP: SUPERB … Touchwood…

What others do we have from the library right now?

BUNTING, Eve – Hurry, Hurry this one hasn’t been read all that much. same words repeating over and over apparently don’t “keep” my guys! It’s a sweet story of a baby chicken though!

STURGES, Philemon – I Love Trains! huge hit – my guys LOVE trains! This is one that K will “read” back to us

DEWDNEY, Anna – Llama, Llama, Red Pajama K liked it, but the whole time was worried about the llama and why his mommy wasn’t coming…He actually looked fearful throughout the book, probably not one that I’d recommend until they’re older if they’re a “sensitive” child

BARTON, Byron – My Car because they’re boys, they LOVE this book. Simple words, sentences, bright colors “blocky” pictures – if it weren’t worn out already from the library, it’d be worn out by us

BAICKER, Karen – You Can Do It Too! K has really enjoyed this book and has enjoyed MORE putting it into practice with B. He’ll do something and say, “You too, ‘B’…” So sweet

Das Facelift zum Porsche 911 Carrera ist gerade mal etwas älter als ein Jahr und schon halten sich nachhaltig die Gerüchte um seinen Nachfolger.

Immer wieder tauchen Berichte und Bilder von Erlkönigen auf.
Dann heißt es, der neue würde nicht mehr als 911 sondern als 991 ins Rennen gehen. Das wäre wohl das schlimmste für jeden Porsche-Fahrer. Denn so schlecht sieht der Neue ja gar nicht aus.
Bei youtube findet man die ersten Videos:

The Crew definitely wishes we could get our hands on this baby.  We’d hit the beltway and go pedal to floorboard!

Carl Black Chevrolet will be the world wide exclusive outlet to offer the official BlakRoc Chevy Camaro.

The 2010 Chevy Camaro speaks for itself with its sculptured body and passionate engineering that left nothing to be desired. Carl Black has simply added the sizzle to match the passion and creativity of the BlakRoc project.

From the ground up, the BlakRoc Camaro has been equipped with sleek, stylish accents that tie in with the BlakRoc brand. Starting with the BR logo inlayed front and center.

Blacking it out turns up the heat. The windows are tinted, the taillights are smoked, and even the Chevy bow tie goes dark to complete the look. The Black on Black classic combination subtly comes to life with flat black racing stripes front to back with the BlakRoc logo inlayed in metallic on the hood and rear spoiler.

Interior includes the BlakRoc logo embedded in custom design kick plates and black on black BR logo custom embroidered on center console.

The BlakRoc Chevy Camaro is now available for purchase.

via BlakRoc’s website.

Pro Golfer, Tiger Woods , is standing by his wife, Elin Nordegren……

He has admitted that the accident caper is his fault…he has not spoken to Florida Highway Patrol officers (he is not required to )……

In his statement Woods never denies having an affair…Rachael Uchitel, named by the media, has denied having a liaison with Woods.….

Then why is he apologizing for making a mistake?

The PR campaign is beginning……

As well as being rich repositories of unintentional humor, bad translation, and bizarre imagery, sometimes the websites maintained by Chinese automakers offer a freshness of perspective that just can’t be duplicated by any domestic companies. Perhaps because they’re not jaded by decades of intense exposure to expensive advertisements and slick marketing campaigns, the Chinese companies seem freer to explore and experiment. These are the Top 7 examples of how creepy, innovative and amazing ways the Chinese car companies advertise their product:

GWM’s Hover

Downloadable “wallpapers” from any automaker can be a bit on the strange side, but GWM really has a couple of special examples. We don’t know what the Hover model is per se, but we do get the impression that it isn’t scared of bats.

Another interesting, though less visually funny note about GWM, is the pop-up “Declaration” it has attached to the main page of its site.

BYD’s F0

Soldiers, dead and naked angels, a sappy love song called (we’re guessing), “Love Has It All,” BYD’s minisite for it’s F0 city car is truly a wonder for the digital age. We have no idea what’s going on here, we’ll confess, but the F0 site allows for users to select between any number Dali-esque sub menus featuring the car. The imagery is as rich as it is impenetrable, and a nearly limitless selection of tiny pop-up menus can keep a bored office worker entertained for hours. The F0 certainly is, “Just Cool.” Try to find each of these items on our F0 impromptu scavenger hunt:  A Beatles song, a bunch of tulips, a comic book car crash, and a six-pack of giant bullets. Good luck.

Brilliance’ s BC3

As a whole, Brilliance has one of the more sober, straightforward, and useful consumer sites of the Chinese automakers we’ve seen—but it can’t get away without a little fun. This commercial for the BC3 runs on an infinite loop at the top of that car’s info page, showing a flowing dance between automobile, and driver, and ocean. That’s usually a combination we seek to avoid.

Chery MPV

A Flash-based game that will confuse and entertain for at least 90 seconds, Chery’s “Can Not Dull” asked you to pilot a random selection of objects (football helmet, orange half, top hat, etc) out of the path of a murderous, and rather quick Chery MPV of some sort. High scores for originality and wonkiness of title (what the hell does Can Not Dull mean?), low scores for actual gameplay.

JAC Trucks

Inspiring, seriously scored, badly translated videos about light and medium duty trucks driving through ridiculous conditions of all types. A love of trucks clearly connects Chinese and American culture.

LIFAN’s culture statement

Some highlights from Lifan’s extended statement of company culture, pure gold:

• Pure gold fears no fire.
• It is careful to be of high quality,it is half-hearted that quality is poor.
• If one does not work hard,he is not Lifan people; If unhappy and well rewarded, who wants to be Lifan people?
• Lifan’s deadly enemy is itself if Lifan disappoints itself.
• No Famous Brand,our motorcycles are just like a pile of scrap iron.
• HONDA and YAMAHA run around,what should LIFAN people do?
• There are 3 ways to gain profits; to monopolize we have no seat; to speculate is out of beat; to stick on R&D, we shall have our meat.
• Career in lifan, Insurance for one.

SouEast Montage Delica

This one’s got a little bit for everyone. A Pac-Man rip-off with awesome sound effects. A sweet collection of video’s, including this one of the world’s single most badass off-roading minivan the Delica. And, well, more pictures of that awesome Delica. Enter with the risk of never leaving again.

Tata Turns Profit

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091127/bs_afp/indiabritaincompanyautotatajaguarearnings

On November 29, 1910, the first US patent for inventing the traffic lights system was issued to Ernest Sirrine.

The photograph below, courtesy of Historic Pittsburgh Image Collections, shows one of the early traffic lights.

What the police officers saw at the secene  of the accident/incident is not what is going around on the net’.….and the advice going out to Tiger Woods is, get your story out….now….it could cost you…..

More….…..

Pembina County
Inhabited as of 7/06

Bathgate, ND is in Pembina County, about 15 miles south of the Canadian border. It was founded in 1879 as Bayview, but was re-named for the Scottish city of the same name when the Post Office was established in 1881. Today, Bathgate has a small population numbering in the dozens.

Bathgate’s peak population was just under 900 in the 1890’s.

The most impressive building in Bathgate is the former North Dakota School for the Blind which was founded in 1908 and continued to operate until 1960.

We had the pleasure of speaking at length with one of the residents who was quite forthcoming with the history of Bathgate, and the locations of its now lost structures. He also expressed his dismay at how quickly Bathgate’s current property owners demolish the buildings in town once they’ve been vacant for any length of time. Sad that more don’t recognize the value and heritage of the structures that remain standing.

We’re told the original townsite extended out to about 13th or 14th street.

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Burleigh County
Vacant as of 5/04

Arena was founded with a rural post office January 23rd, 1906. It is said to have had a peak population of 150 around 1920, but had withered to 35 residents by 1930.

 It is now abandoned.

Although there aren’t any residents in the immediate vicinity of the town, there is a yellow house on the townsite which had blankets hanging in the windows, suggesting it was used for something relatively recently.

The road leading south out of Arena is a short, scenic drive, bordered tightly on both shoulders by a couple of small lakes. 

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Arena Main Street – Before and After

The golfer may have hit a hydrant coming out of his driveway…..But it seems Tiger Woods got his face scratches from his wife…not the car…..

Things may have gone like this……it’s 2:30 in the morning…..Woods, and his wife Elin Nordegren are having a not so pleasant conversation about reports of him spending time with this woman, Rachel Uchitel in New York…..his wife angry and hurt lashes out at her husband, who does not strike back, but gets the car keys and leaves the house…only to be so out of whack that he drives into a hydrant that he knows is at the end the driveway…the wife may have in fact been chasing him with golf club when she heard him leave the house and smashed the window before he hit the hydrant ….how he got of the car only both of them can tell…..that’s my guess…(just a guess, okay, I’m home in New York people )

Anyway… it’s the day of the internet people, and it seems like the one of the world best golfers has some explaining to do………

To his wife…and the public…who adore him…but now know he’s a man…and is human…….

From a 1961 Chrysler 300G that I found in a lot behind a chain link fence in Longwood, FL.

300G

First off, no new car this year.  The Jeep now has 20,587 miles on it, the rain gutters suck (he says on another ridiculously rainy day) and the 3.8-liter V6 is anemic below 1,800 rpm (which is more noticeable when you short shift at 1,500 to improve mileage), but the mileage is quite a bit better than I expected, as is the ride quality (though, make no mistake, it’s still a Jeep and bouncy and harsh over rough pavement) and, overall, I am quite happy with it.  Yes, there could be a little less hard plastic, and a little more padding here and there, but it’s even more civilized than I expected.

There are times when I still miss the Suburban for its automatic transmission, long wheelbase, and hangar-like cargo carrying capacity, but I do not miss the sub-15 mpg mileage, 42 gallon gas tank, and repair bills we surely would have incurred at 180,000 plus.  I try not to think about the “Cash for Clunkers” credit I might have gotten, or the additional discounts and rebates that I might have benefited from, though the Wrangler has been one of the least discounted models in the Chrysler-Jeep lineup.

So, Thanksgiving worked out well enough.  I only missed the target dinner time by about thirty minutes, yet still managed an almost complete traditional (well, for our family, anyway) Thanksgiving dinner almost single-handed.  A brined roast turkey with sage and onion bread stuffing, gravy (made with homemade turkey stock), mashed potatoes, butternut squash purée, thyme braised carrots, green bean casserole, and homemade whole berry cranberry sauce.  A bottle each of Chardonnay-Viognier and Pinot Noir, desserts from the grandmothers, a little football, and “A Charlie Brown Thanksiving” rounded out the day pretty well.

There was nothing really challenging in any of the elements of our Thanksgiving dinner, but having all of them ready more or lesss at the same time was a challenge with one oven and four burners. I had less of it done by Wednesday night than I wanted, but got up at 6:30 Thursday and had everything but the carrots and turkey done by 10:30. Anyway, like I said, it worked out well enough, and our eldest got to spend some time at home with us and her grandparents before going off to spend much of the rest of the weekend with her friends.

Our Black Friday got off to a later start than in recent years, though we have never been among those waiting for stores to open at 5 a.m., or earlier.  The stores we went to and the mall were all busy, but not nearly as busy as we have seen them in years past.  Some of this might be attributed to the weather which, for the second time in two weeks, is practically typhoon-like.  Even so, it’s probably not the sole reason we had no trouble finding parking spaces reasonably close, spent little or no time waiting in checkout lines, and actually had an arm’s length in any direction between us and other people in the mall.  We’ll be out again tomorrow and will see if better weather (and being Saturday) have any effect on the size of the crowds.

We’re closing on 100 years since Henry Ford ushered production-line manufacturing of automobiles. The 1973 Porsche 911 beats all for simplicity, engineering and design.

Just a observation….not far from where I live I went to check a new vehicle because mine comes off lease in three months…..I went to look at a Honda…..

There is a Chevy dealer across the street…….

The Honda dealer was standing room only…the Chevy dealer had sales people standing around……

Just a observation…..that’s all….