Without realizing it, I guess I must have a fascination with license plates or something.

Just look at all these articles I've written about license plate oddities and other little known facts...

This list is updated regularly to reflect the latest pageviews and Comments, as well as others' links to the articles which appear in the Car & Driving category at TheFunTimesGuide.com.

A visitor to this site (from Australia) contacted me after he read this article I wrote about oversize loads.

He also sent me a bunch of pictures showing some of the super-sized vehicles that he works with on a daily basis!

In his own words:

I actually do this kind of thing for a living in Australia and I like when I see or hear that someone is impressed with the size of the machines I transport around the country.

Here is his story...

Finally! A way to deal with Road Rage.

(It's kinda fun, too!)

I posed this question "What "games" do you play while driving?"... some time ago in the GasBuddy Forums (you get "points" just for posting questions/answers in the forum), and while some took it too seriously and didn't see the humor in my question, I did get a number of interesting games that people play while driving... see below.

First, it would be helpful if we could all acknowledge one thing: Yes, we should all be paying attention to the ROAD when we're driving, rather than "playing games"... especially during rush hour traffic.

But sometimes (like on LONG, boring drives) you've got too much road to go and not enough to keep you going. It is THOSE times when "driving games" come in handy. Likewise, "playing games in the car" can be a lifesaver for parents with kids who endlessly ask "Are we there yet?"

Here are some of the fun car games others submitted:

I'm driving home from work the other day, and I notice something "strange" with the car in front of me:

Truth is, being stuck in traffic gridlock during rush hour often lends itself to some of the most interesting photo ops!

If it is, and I'm in your town, you can bet I'll notice it!

For some odd reason, I've always (since college) checked the license plates on the cars in front of me to see whether they're expired or not.

I have no idea where this skill will get me in life, but it's a compulsion I can't seem to quit.

My daily drive goes like this:

On the Bob & Tom Show the other day, they were talking about games played while driving...

One guy called said he played "Poker" with the numbers on his odometer -- he currently had a pair of 7's.

Another guy played "Scrabble" with his gas gauge. He currently had an "e" and an "f".

The next caller took "dashboard Scrabble" to a whole 'nother level when they combined the gas gauge letters with the speedometer letters, giving him an "m", a "p" and an "h" -- from which he managed to spell "HEMP" and it was a double-word score!

Okay, that's all well & good -- makes for some entertaining rush hour drive talk -- but it actually reminded me of a driving game that we DID play when I was growing up....

What the?...

Doilies? On the headrests???

I guess on the list of 101 Things You Can Do With Doilies is: "place them on the headrest of your car"!

(Okay, that link goes to 101 Things You Can Do With CDs -- which is cool in itself -- but there's also a clever doily reference.)

I'm afraid these people are just too hip for me.

However, there IS a limit when it comes to doilies...

Tips for saving your brakes when driving down steep grades, including how to use "engine braking" instead of pressing the brake pedal to slow your vehicle down.

We just returned from a trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee -- home to the Great Smoky Mountains.

Many of the roads between tourist traps (I mean "sightseeing destinations") are INCREDIBLY steep and winding. Some roads wind UP one entire side of the mountain, then require that you drive back DOWN a narrow winding road on the other side.

Needless to say, with the amount of traffic over the 4th of July holiday, and the sheer number of mountains which exist in the Smokies, we had SEVERAL occasions to test our downhill driving skills (AND our brakes!) this weekend.

There must've been about a BILLION cars all traveling single file down those narrow mountain roads -- all attempting to spot the biggest black bear in the Smokies (well, more on that later)...

"It's An Automatic... I Don't NEED To Downshift, Right?"
Wrong.

There are times -- even in a vehicle with automatic transmission -- that you SHOULD manually downshift. Those times are: When you are driving down steep hills.

Sure, I'd seen it done before...
On our family vacations growing up, Dad would drop the old-fashioned dashboard gear shift lever down a notch every time he went down a steep winding hill. Then kick it up a notch at times. Then, back down again. He played this fancy game of gearshift knobbing virtually every time we drove from Indiana to Florida. (Come to find out, this was usually while traveling through the mountains of Chattanooga, Tennessee.)

Back then, I thought it had more to do with the fact that we were pulling a boat trailer than it did with actually saving our brakes.

Fast-forward some 30 years... and I find myself being properly educated about the use of "2" and "1" on my automatic gear shift. And this applies to ALL vehicles... not just those pulling trailers.