AK-Brando

I've seen lots of those in Anchorage. All of them Alaska Cab Co.

Now I have no idea if this is true, or even true of the 4eat transmission in Subarus, but I was told that when it is especially cold you should shift an automatic transmission into neutral while warming it up. This allows the fluid to circulate more than when it is in park. If nothing else, it shouldn't hurt the transmission to do so.

Yeah that was me, but I didn't see you come around the corner. Will have to try again next time. Not sure when we'll be heading to Anchorage next, but should be sometime next month. (note to self: La Mex is closed on Mondays!)

I have to sincerely apologize. I didn't know the downtown La Mex was closed on Mondays (been quite a while since I lived in Anchorage). When I am in Anchorage, I don't have access to the 'net so until I got back to Valdez, I couldn't even get online to post. The trip went well overall, road conditions were pretty good. Coldest we saw (on the van thermometer) was -26 F between Eureka and Glenallen.

La Mex downtown is on the corner of I St and 6th Ave. The easiest way to get there would be to take Minnesota Ave downtown (it turns into I St) and La Mex will be on the left hand corner of 6th. If you cross 6th and turn into the alley behind La Mex you can get into the pay parking lot right next to La Mex. (once you see it you will understand what I'm talking about) I still have to convince my "better half", but I think it's do-able. What time works for everybody?

Snowman - you should have an e-mail inviting you to join Blogger.com. This is the publishing site for the webpage. As far as pictures go, you can either link to them (if you have them already posted elsewhere), or you can upload them to the site through Blogger. I have other webpages on my site already, so don't know how much room I would have available for pictures. If you can keep the size down it should be ok.

There are 3 La Mex's. I prefer either the Spenard La Mex or the Downtown La Mex. The one on Dimond usually has bad service (in my experience). The Downtown one is the only one that serves Prime Rib.

You should have a PM with the password to access the contact list area of the webpage now. Unfortunately, the contact list will have to be manually updated. Once the list gets compiled, send me the list and I can put it on the webpage. If there is any other links or additions I am open to suggestions. If you want to be able to post to the weblog, I will need your e-mail to send you the access info from blogger.com.

We are headed to Anchorage early next week. Have a couple of doctor's appointments on Monday the 17th. Plan on driving up on Sunday, and leaving Tuesday afternoon. Might be able to swing a lunch meet and greet on Tuesday before hitting the road. One of our favorite restaurants is La Mex, but we are pretty flexible as to where to meet.

OK, I have a password in place for the contact list. It's not the most secure password protection, but it will at least keep out the casual browser. It's fairly easy to change the password and wouldn't be too difficult to change every 3 months or so. I can PM or e-mail the password once we get this up and running.

I'll see what I can do. As far as being able to post to the weblog I would have to add (invite) each user on blogger.com before anybody could post to the weblog. I'll see if I can make the contact list private with a "master" password. (I think I can do that)

OK, I wasn't asked to do this, but here is something I came up with. I already had a setup with Blogger, so I just thought that something like this might work for us. It's pretty basic, and the contact list would have to be updated manually. I can add users by their e-mail address to be able to post to the blog. I have no problem keeping it on my GCI webspace, unless somebody has a better place to keep it. I could look into getting a dedicated server and a dedicated name such as subaruklubofalaska.com, but that all costs $$. This way it is free and I am willing to update the contact information and add links to the main page as requested. Let me know what you think. Temporary(?) webpage for SKA

I like the first idea with the words/logo in black or white and the background clear. 4" size sounds good to me. If you are looking for orders, I would take one of each (one white lettering, and one black lettering). I'll re-send my contact info.

The freeze-plug type block heaters work just fine. I have one on our van and in single-digit weather the temp guage starts to move within a minute of starting. A friend of mine has a circulating heater on his Suburban and he has heat coming out of the vents as soon as he starts it. The circulating heaters are usually universal and hook to the hoses between the engine and heater core. Even if the hose sizes are different, you should be able to get adapters for it (if the kit doesn't already have them). I guess it depends on how quickly you want heat as to which way you go. The van already had one in when we bought it, so I didn't feel any need to "upgrade" to a circulating heater.