That's a story in itself. My first call after the crash was to some friends of mine that live in nearby Mammoth Lakes. I was kinda midway between Mammoth Lakes and Bishop and looking for a shop recommendation. They recommended a shop in Bishop. A call to AAA revealed that they would tow the car only 7 miles, and I was a good 25 miles from town at least. And since it's an AWD Subie, it must be towed on a flatbed, so this was going to get expensive.

So a tow truck driver finally shows up (after 3 hours!). Turns out he was not the one that was going to tow me, but he was headed home to Mammoth Lakes from Bishop and wanted to chat.

"Have you got comprehensive on your car?"

I do. He explained that they would cancel the AAA call and make it an insurance call ... that way it would be completely covered. The guy from Bishop showed up moments later and the two of us rode back down to Bishop with my car on the flatbed.

There is no approved State Farm repair facility anywhere near Bishop ... the nearest is Ridgecrest. So my options were to tow it to Ridgecrest and choose one of the two approved shops there (at no further cost, and with the repairs lifetime guaranteed by any approved State Farm shop), get it repaired in Bishop (no national guarantee and perhaps out of pocket costs), or have it towed to Los Angeles (beaucoup towing costs).

Turns out a friend of mine is was an insurance adjuster in Ridgecrest, so I called her to get a recommendation for one of the two Ridgecrest shops. Turns out her ex-husband owns one of the two, and does great work, so that's where it's going.

It also looks like the damage will be 3.5-5K, and even with the salvage value, that is probably not enough to total the car. That's good, because I really do love my car ... I have no interest in replacing it any time soon.

Thanks! I'd love to, but I've got a professional conference I have to go to this w/e. Snoozer. There had better be internet access in the meeting rooms, or I'm going to gnaw my fingers off.

Thanks! You know ... if I ever retire (rather than just kicking off right here at my desk, fingers frozen on the keyboard), I intend to ride my bike to strange places, take pictures, chat people up and write about it. I do love adventuring around.


You know how the whole Biker395 thing got started? I wanted a junk e-mail addy, and rather than use my name, I picked the moniker "Biker". Of course, that was taken, so it suggested Biker2006, Biker95763, Biker23 ... all kinds of stuff. But because I have this thing about the Eastern Sierra (and US395 rolls right through it), I chose Biker395. And it's now become somewhat of a moniker. Kinda strange.


We are on the lookout. With all the other snafus of the weekend, infesting our house or our place in Mammoth would really be icing on the cake.

Oh, and an interesting side note I forgot to mention. When Rick and I were driving home, we actually passed Laura and Bob on Highway 14. I leaned out of the window and waved ... knowing that it would set them off wondering ... what the hell happened to the blue Subie? Lol. It was a weekend of funny coincidences!