WARNING:

Yeah... weird, isn't it?

Dispensaries (pot shops) were only recently allowed to accept payment other than cash (e.g. credit cards) as the banks didn't want to have anything to do with anything that is "illegal," but Visa decided to start "putting the onus on merchant banks to decide the definition of illegal."

The Obama administration has said they're not going to challenge states that are legalizing it so long as they work to keep it from crossing state lines, keep it away from children, etc. and in fact Obama feels it's important that states go forward with this.[1][2]

The local newspaper has set up a separate section dealing just with pot and has even started up a dedicated Web site about it.

Marijuana - The Denver Post
Denver and Colorado marijuana news, culture and resources | The Cannabist

Yup, sure seems that way...

Maybe I'll come across you More to the point, maybe you'll pull me over for speeding one of these times I drive across Kansas to get to Gary's.

 

Normally I'd say that's not likely to happen as you'd have to get off of I-35 about 42nd Street South in Wichita, just ahead of the toll booth, and then take to the city streets. But, given your propensity to venture off the beaten path (Lake Road & 9 Mile road come to mind) it is quite possible.

 

I (think I) rather liked that little, pudwack town I found myself in after emerging from the bush, it kinda reminded me of when me & my brother took parts of U.S. Route 66 across (I think it was) New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, etc. and we ultimately ended up I think someplace in Arkansas, took a day trip to Memphis before following a coastal road (Mississippi river) up to Chicago. It's really pretty sad what has happened to a lot of small-town America and I find visiting such places a nice escape from big-city metropolis.

The Pixar movie Cars was a large inspiration for that trip....

 

That was Ralston, OK. So far off the beaten path you can't see the path from there. The bridges either side of town the way you/we came in show how isolated it is. I used to go through there on the Santa Fe and there were several businesses, including an elevator where we used to spot cars. But, in true Cars/US66 fashion it has really dried up. The elevator has gone as has the railroad - I can hardly make out where the tracks were.

 

Hmm a bullnose with roadrunner decals and a snout on the front ala Plymouth Roadrunner Superbird would be a fairly ugly unit

 

What was the original industry in Ralston? An elevator on the railroad kinda sounds like farming to me.

American society has become so fast-paced, get-it-now, you really understand this when you spend some time in a small town in Russia where the infrastructure is still what was designed by Communism - no hot water for a month in summer (shut down for maintenance) so you head out to the local paper mill to take a shower there...

It's, like, the day's activity... you have to take the bus (pay some really ornery-looking old and gray woman 10 rubles on the bus for a ticket); once at the factory, get yourself past "security" by flashing the badge of someone who works there, get yourself inside the factory, and you end up in a locker room that smells like an outhouse because some of the toilets have been stopped up (for decades?) yet people insist on pooping in them anyway. I should take some pictures if I'm ever there again....

The entire ordeal takes up half the day; the alternative is a "bath" (sponge bath, I guess) in a Banya [2]- basically, a home-built sauna on the lake where you beat each other with Birch-tree branches while wearing a wool hat [2] (the leaves are said to emit an oil that is good for the soul or some such) and then, depending on your propensity for walking around naked, either jump into the lake (the hot to cold transition is actually an exhilarating feeling) or splash cold water onto the victim.

WAY WAY WAY

 

Ralston's "industry" was farming. As you saw it is very remote and, prior to Kaw Lake going in during the 70's, the Arkansas flooded frequently and that made travel very difficult in that very flat land. So the small towns were hubs for the farmers. But with the lake going in travel was more reliable and the towns dwindled. I didn't see even a grocery store in town and it is at least a 30 minute drive to a decent one.

 

I can tell you that those deep buckets affect aero and MPG quite a bit actually. My truck was born a brick nose. The conversion to bull nose cost me 1-2 MPG on its own with no other changes.

 

I'm not surprised there is measurable difference in MPG. Ford wouldn't have gone to the lengths they went for 87 if there wasn't a gain. Not only did they bring everything flush with the front and rounded the corners, they also added a fairly large chin spoiler to reduce the air going under the truck. Most people don't know that our trucks also had a spoiler available, but it was small in comparison to those developed later and rarely used on these trucks.

 

"not going to challenge states that are legalizing it so long as they work to keep it from crossing state lines"

Yeah, like THAT is working. Almost every pot bust I've had in the last few months has been pot from Colorado. Even in 'official' dispensary jars.

 

To the OP's question; I called LMC last year to get a set for my '85 but they stopped selling them. Summit Racing still has them though.
I'll admit to my ignorance here, I live in Canada and I don't know the laws on headlight/tail light covers. All it seems to be here is use some common sense and don't try driving at night with them on - but of course, common sense isn't as common as it once was, lots of jokers try it. I've asked cops here and they just told me "You can keep the covers, just take 'em off a half hour before sunset when you turn your lights on," and they leave me on my merry way. HID's aren't enforced here at all either, but they should be imo..

 

Thanks Brad.

Back when I said there are ways around it, my intention was to actually have DOT approved driving lights frenched into the bumper and use those as the headlights.

 

That'd be a cool mod. Be sure to do a build thread on it, I'd like to see how they turn out.