Hollywood

 

Not really Hollywood, but it was fun to see something being filmed here.

There were a lot of people involved.

One task was making the city look like Austin.

The prop person had fake license plates from the right era.

It turns out they did not want us to take pictures, but if it is online then it is ok to post to my six viewers.

I was not interested in seeing another shoot, but later I heard a rumor that Travis Kelce had been in town.  Sorry I missed seeing someone from my high school.

New Plates

I love the digital plates that allow the owner to personalize the bottom of the plate. The metal plates have dmv.ca.gov and here are some others I have seen.

"Aw, Jim. Robot camels!"
This is from the television show Family Guy.

This Kia K5 has a plate that reads, "Is that a [Toyota] Supra?"

"Making GOOD Happen!"

Sonic the Hedgehog on this wrapped plate. Everything I have found says these are illegal and the fine is anywhere from $500-1000. Maybe because they are made in Germany the company is not shut down.

Some people choose to leave the bottom blank.

November Leftovers

Work back in the days when the playgrounds were open.

This is only a few miles from our house. I am happy to report that I
have not seen any Confederate flags flying in our neighborhood.

The recipe called for pink peppercorns
so I walked down the street and picked some.

I liked this house number so much
I wrote a postcard to the homeowners.

The Kansas motto is, "Ad Astra per Aspera," which
can be translated as "to the stars through difficulties."
It was the first time I noticed it on the license plate.

Events of Yesteryear

If you look at the blog over the years you will see posts about license plate meets (here, here, and here). We were lucky to find one that was not far away and not cancelled.

The house had a regular backyard and an enormous yard behind that.

The fences are covered with plates

including some that are one hundred years old

and many that I had never seen before.

We got there in time for the auction, 

but mostly enjoyed browsing.

So many license plates!

A sad pile of plates.

Interesting to me to see the variety of logos.

I gave into temptation and got a few plates.

One was for a birth-year run and the others were centennial celebrations. A. bought the 1920 plate and a German low-tax plate (maybe a tractor or trailer?). 

As we left we were encouraged to return next year. Stay tuned.

Big Trip

I have written about license plates and written about going to new places. Here is post that combines both.

There is so much negative news about violence and danger in Mexico and I had never felt the pull to visit. At the same time it was odd to have visited places farther away and never visited a country so close to home. Friends described great trips or shared about where they grew up so when my sister and brother-in-law said they would be in Mexico for a couple months it seemed like the right time to take a trip.

Visiting them in the smaller cities of Oaxaca or San Miguel de Allende sounded nice but I did not want to spend my limited time traveling so I decided to visit them in Mexico City. A. and I had a long weekend so we planned a quick trip.

I was not able to photograph all the different plates I saw, but I enjoyed the variety.

This was my favorite.

Another place that I did not know was on my bucket list!

Plates

I do love license plates. I love looking for recently issued plates, clever personalized plates,

and plates that are new to me.

I guess I was not distracted enough because now I have started looking at California tags, too.

Most plates look like this, with the month on the left and the year on the right. This one has last year's blue tag underneath, which is supposed to be removed, but is not so easy to do.

Recently I noticed that some tags do not have the full year written out but have a special logo instead. Maybe these were issued in person and not by mail? Or maybe they are replacement tags?

I have not seen 2021 tags with the logo.

And then there are the people who drive with expired tags.

If you like license plates there are all sorts of sites where you can waste time, like this California DMV site or The Automobile License Plate Collectors Association site.

Edited to add two tags I saw just after posting. I had never seen these tags before and now have something new to add to my collection of photos.

License Plate Meet

It has been almost two years since I last wrote about license plates, probably because the meets conflict with soccer games.  No game today so we made the trip to Upland, a neighboring town.

I am guessing I have driven or cycled by the Cooper Museum at some point,
but today we attended a meet on their patio.

I was lucky enough to take a peek inside and there are a lot of historical artifacts.
I promise to go back and look more carefully.

There was a nice turnout

and a nice selection of plates.

This is the next plate I want, but is not available at a reasonable price yet.

Oh, shoot.  While looking for a link for the Arizona plate I found another plate I want now!
I love the word sesquicentennial.

I try not to dwell on the fact that we got our CA plates a few months too early to get this one.  Sigh.

Automotive Museum

A neighbor shared a New York Times article about a license plate exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.  A similar article was in A.'s ALPCA magazine so we were well read before deciding to visit.  I was excited until I realized that everyone else going wanted to stay and look at cars much longer than I thought I could be patient.  So off went A., a friend, and D.

This seems to be the new way of enjoying a museum - photograph everything!

And they're off...

probably faster in this car (nice that they have cars the kids can climb in)

fuel cell vehicle

This is THE car from Who Killed The Electric Car? (all the others are crushed).

But where are the pictures of the license plates?  Sorry, D. didn't take any.  You can check out some other blogs here and here if you want to see some.