Aborted Assault on Atlanta

or A Key Failure

We have Atlantaphobia and really don’t like going to there. It is too dang big with too many people and the traffic is awful. If it wasn’t for the airport offering the best prices on direct flights to Seattle we would would probably never go there. There is only one other possible reason that might make us go there – Moss Motoring Challenge points.

For 2017 we need a Haberdashery. One with a sign. And there is one in the Buckhead section of the Big Peach. There were a couple of other possible points selected for the way over and or back too. Plans were made to drive over Sunday the 28th of May. We hoped that this would lessen the traffic madness levels considerably because 1) it was going to be real early on Sunday morning and 2) it was in the middle of the Memorial Day weekend and a lot of people would be off somewhere else.

By 6:00 AM were were on our way west on I-20. I drove the first leg, but we stopped at the Rest Stop at mile marker 182 to swap drivers. Donna got in the drivers seat and when she started up the CTBNL it almost immediately stumbled and died. She tried to start it again and it would turn over but never start. I asked, “Are you sure you have the clutch all the way in?” “Yesss,” she replied derisively. I asked because 1) she is a lot shorter than me and occasionally in the past she hasn’t moved the seat forward enough so that she could get the pedal depressed far enough and 2) since she retired she hasn’t driven the Miata once (and it is not like she drove it much before.)

I said, “Let me try.” We swapped sides. I slid the seat all the way back, twisted the key and no start. Well crap. Got plenty of gas. Do we call a tow truck? I try one more time. The car still doesn’t start, but this time I notice a brief red flash in the dash. A clue! The light is shaped like a key. Synapses fire in my brain – immobilizer. I took out her key and put mine in, turned it…the car started right up.

I wanted to test my theory, but hesitated. Both keys are the same age, if hers failed, what makes it so sure my key wasn’t far behind. Not wanting to be stranded in a rest area on a Sunday morning, or worse, downtown Atlanta, we opted to turn around and head home before shutting off the car. Because it was a nice morning we took the long way home and it turned out that the aborted trip was more of a Motoring Challenge point success anyway. Haberdashery was worth a whopping one point, but we managed to score 2 points for a Lumber Mill and 28 points for Scrabble Challenge section when Donna spotted a street sign for Jacqueline Dr. while zipping merrily along GA 150, north of Appling, between the thriving metropolises of Winfield and Phinizy.