When You Lock Yourself Out Of Your Car

Well... I never thought it would happen to me, but I managed to lock myself out of my car.  After about 20 minutes of trying with a wire hanger, I remembered the giant rust hole in my floors.  The rest is history.  Take a look at the video.  How many have you been here before?  Let me know your stories in the comment section.

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Why I Don't Watch Roadkill Anymore

If you’ve seen this blog before, you probably have seen a few episodes of MotorTrend’s show Roadkill. It’s about two guys, David Freiburger and Mike Finnegan of Hot Rod Network, who build unique automotive creations and put those rides to the test. Road trips, dirt tracks, and so on. 

As a fan of the American version of Top Gear, I fell in love with this show from the very beginning. It was one of MotorTrend’s most popular shows on YouTube when Angus MacKenzie announced that the channel would be bringing out new content. Roadkill soared in popularity. The episode “Rat Rod VS Lamborghini Aventador” has over 53 million views (the channel’s second highest viewed video). They also have 1.4 million followers on their Facebook page. 

Well, MotorTrend changed. They stopped putting full content on their YouTube channel, and now have everything over at their own platform call MotorTrend On Demand (MTOD), which is a platform you have to pay for. I get it. As someone on YouTube myself, YouTube changed a lot recently, and it hurt a bunch of people. The problem is, it really hurt the little people. MotorTrend has 5.8 million subscribers. I assume they felt something too, and probably didn’t have as much creative control over the ads that they wanted. 

MotorTrend On Demand was releasing the most current episode of Roadkill for free, and then when the next one was out, they would lock the previous one. I am the kind of person that has to watch things in order, even if it’s not needed. So, from the very beginning, I never missed one episode. Well, I missed one one day before it got locked. I haven’t watched one since. If this was something I paid for from the beginning, that would be a different story, but this was a change after years.

I’m all about what something is worth. I do believe the price is fair, but not when it always used to be free. Foe reference, the price is currently $4.99 per month. It’s a principle thing.

Any time a preview video is shown on YouTube, the subscribers vent and tell their frustration. Same with ads on Facebook. They only place that seems to be tolerable of MTOD are more of the people who like the Roadkill Facebook page.

One of their ads on Facebook for MTOD.

Roadkill helped me get through rough times. You know: life. We all have our ups and downs. Well, when I had downs, Roadkill would ALWAYS get me to laugh. Between the way Freiburger and Finnegan interact with each other, to the way their cars always break. I would always have the biggest smile on my face. I guess I won’t any more. 

I know I’m just being cheap, but when the expectation is set that Roadkill will always be free, you expect that. 

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Rotting in Style - 1967 Plymouth Belveder II

I haven’t made a Rotting in Style post in a while, but Alaska is always on my mind. Four years ago, I was walking around the streets of the small town Skagway, Alaska, my favorite place ever. I came across this in someone’s driveway. 

This is a 1967 Plymouth Belvedere II. It really caught my attention for two reasons: its condition and the fact that it reminded me of the car the bad guys drove in the 1997 movie Dukes of Hazard Reunion, which was one of my favorite childhood movies. I’m still not sure what car that was.

I can’t tell you much about this car. I don’t know what engine it had, the history behind it, or anything like that. This was just a random find that I walked onto someone’s property to film.

It is missing the trim on the side, but what I can be sure it does have is one hubcap, lots of rust, and moss. Moss grows on every abandoned car that I’ve seen in Alaska. It has a V8 badge on the hood, but they only offered V8s in this car: a 273, 383, 318, 340, or 426. Being a four door, I would assume it has one of the smaller ones. 

Another car full of moss: Abandoned 1979 El Camino 

The exterior had plenty of surface rust. There was a pretty big gash on the passenger side of the car. The interior was average for a car of its age. I don’t know when the last time it was driven. Based off the moss, dirt, and other signs, it looks like it has been sitting for a while. It’s not the most iconic car, but perhaps that makes it even more interesting to see sitting abandoned. 

It was raining quite a bit that day, but it didn’t stop me from having a good day, and enjoying the amazing sights that Alaska had to offer, including this old school American steel, which remains Rotting in Style. I have plenty of other Rotting in Style videos and posts for you the check out on my blog and YouTube channel, and there are more to come. Don’t forget to like us on Facebook, and be sure to follow us on Twitter. Thanks for stopping by! 

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