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Mini Leaf Tour Wrap Up

cross posted from mastersmiata.com
Members Attending: Brian & Donna Bogardus, Rudy & Patti Wilmoth, Larry & Rita Garner, John & Jackie Nicholls and Ernie Bloom.

Alternate Title #1 You Should Have Been Here Last Week

Two weeks prior to leading the leaf tour Donna and I ventured to the northwestern part of SC looking for places to go and see colorful leaves. We saw some color, but enough brown and bare trees to make us rethink the traditional all day affair we usually present. There was no sense driving all that way and spending all that time to be all disappointed.

So last week, we drove on a closer to home, shorter in time loop that provided a fall sampler in the mid state area. It included breakfast at a favorite mom & pop breakfast joint, a nice drive to farm for a small no admission fee corn maze and a very back road drive to see colorful fall foliage. We felt we had a sure winner and everyone would be home for lunch instead of the usual after dark return.

In the chilly near dawn of this Saturday we were pleased to be joined by 4 other Miatas for our fall drive. Two cars had their tops down for the short drive to breakfast at the Airport Cafe near Twin Lakes Airport in Trenton. As we usually do everywhere we eat as a group we made ourselves right at home by dragging some tables together. That is just fine with the folks who run the cafe as it is definitely a help yourself kind of place. When they are busy you should feel perfectly free to pour your own first cup of coffee while you wait on your food.

After eating, a couple more cars lowered their roofs for the trip to the corn maze at Hickory Hill Farm. I had made up sheets of paper with a map of the route on one side and a list of directions with intermediate mileage numbers on the other side for everyone. It was also especially important for Donna, my navigator, to have one because we had only driven the route once and didn’t want to lead everyone astray. Ahh, the best laid plans…

On one longer stretch of road I must have carried a one when I didn’t need while adding the odometer reading to the leg mileage because I missed a turn and didn’t realize it for sure until too late. But luck was on our side as I realized when we came to the next stop sign that I knew where we were and knew how to get back on track with little fanfare. It just meant that we would take a tour of downtown Edgefield instead of a rural loop around it. Seeing as we were a small group, everyone was just following the car ahead, so only one person even noticed the detour.

I noticed that, as we pulled up to the 1/2 acre corn maze that Donna and I had chased each other all around inside of last week, it was already in the process of being plowed over. The maze is part of the dairy farm’s every Thursday in October open house where they give tours and have other activities for $5. Today was November 3rd and they had wasted no time getting back to farming. I had tried to call on Friday to see if the maze was still going to be up, but the number that I got off Google was for a private residence.

No really big deal, it was a pleasant day and a good spot for a leg stretch. While some folks wandered about the half standing maze others shopped at the self service fridge for fresh milk, both regular and chocolate. As an example to show you how the love of a small open topped sports car can bring wildly divergent personalities together, two different couples were picking and shucking the dried corn off the standing stalks to take with them. One wanted them to feed the cute deer that wander out of the woods behind their house into their backyard and the other wanted them for their backyard as well, but they are used it to lure squirrels to their deaths by BB gun.

The last leg of the journey was a 50 mile route through the Sumter National Forrest to get back to North Augusta and the end of the tour. This is where we had found some really awesome color, but because of 7 days time and the winds of Hurricane Sandy there was virtually nothing but brown and the ever green of pines. To keep thing interesting anyway I threw in a close call with the back end of an Edgefield County Sheriff Deputy’s car who pulled out without looking and a missed turn that had 5 Miatas pulled off to the side of the road in the middle of nowhere only to have a nice couple in a pickup, dressed for a wedding, stop and ask if we were lost.

Alternate Title #2 Is That With a Y or an I?

Back at the corn maze Larry mentioned that a friend and ex club member was showing his Cobra at the CSRA Road Angel’s fall car show at Hooters on Washington Rd, so a plan was formed. One car (Nicholls) made a quick stop at home to drop off milk, one car (Ganers) made the longer trip to their house for the same reason and one car (Wilmoths) just went home. Five of us wandered around a gawking at the cool rides in all shapes and sizes for about an hour and were getting ready to split when the Garners returned and we all decided to have some lunch.

Hooters was naturally jammed what with the car show, college football on the dozens of TVs and the nattily attired servers, so we grabbed one of the only free tables and ordered some drinks. Our waitress introduced herself and after she left none of the guys were sure if she spelled her name with a Y or an I even though she was wearing a name tag.

When Brandi returned with the drinks and took our food orders we all made sure to notice that it was with an I. The food was, surprisingly, not bad. Donna enjoyed the crab legs and I’d order the grilled fish tacos again. None of us bought the official Hooters calendar that one server was hawking, even with the promise that she could get the girls to sign our copy.

When we got to the car show I bough 6 tickets for $5 for the 50-50 raffle before I knew that you had to be present to win and they wouldn’t call the number until around five o’clock. We asked Brandi whether she would still be around at 5 that afternoon and she said she’d be just about getting ready to go home. So to go along with the standard tip I gave her the raffle tickets and said, “Good luck.”

After lunch the Donna & I, John & Jackie and Ernie returned to our cars to head home leaving Larry & Rita to enjoy more of the car show.

I wonder if “Brandi with an I” won the 50-50.

Fuelly

I’ve been keeping track of the Sonata’s mileage on Fuelly since January. I have recorded 35 fill ups in that time frame and have averaged 29.7 MPG. Some other fun stats include: $3.29 Avg. Price/Gallon, $44.94 Avg. Price/Fuel-up, $0.111 Avg. Price/Mile and $1,572.88 Total Spent on gas. The last couple of times we’ve filled up the Miata I’ve been checking the MPG figure and it has been pretty darn good too, so tonight I added it to my “garage” on Fuelly.

You can now see the average MPG for both cars in the left sidebar. Odd coincidence, after the one fill up the Emperor’s figure exactly matched the Purple Whale’s 35 fill up figure of 29.7. The EPA says the Sonata should get 22 city and 35 highway while the Miata was rated at 22 city, 28 highway, so I expect the Miata’s average to drop some as time goes on.

Free Identity Theft Protection For Everyone

The South Carolina Department of Revenue’s database was hacked into by some Russians (see I told you they were awesome hackers.) So if you filed an income tax form in the state in the last 4 years someone, and more than likely more than one someone, now has your Social Security Number and or your credit card number. 3.6 million Social Security numbers and 387,000 credit card numbers are on the loose, meaning that many folks are at risk for Identity Theft and maybe some shopping done with their credit cards.

The breaches in the SCDoR computers occurred back in August and they didn’t know it until October 10th. They fixed the problem by the 20th and then the public was told about on the 26th. I bet the only reason we found out at all was that some newspaper or TV station got the info and the State had to go public.

To help ease the minds of 3.6 million taxpayers the state is going to provide 1 year of Identity Theft Protection from Experian (ProtectMyID.com) for free. Let’s see, how is that going to work, the state is funding the program, the state gets its funds from the taxpayers like me, so I’m really paying for my own ID Theft Protection. Not only will I be paying for my own, but I’ll be paying for a whole bunch of others folks as well, here is why.

It was announced that to get the theft protection you needed to call a toll free number to get an activation code. Go ahead and try to call a toll free number around the same time 3.599999 million other people do and what do you think will happen, that’s right, a busy signal. They announced that they were adding more operators and now instead of a busy signal people were getting a recording saying call back later because they were experiencing a higher than normal call load! Duh!

Yesterday I was going to try and give the number a call, so I did a Google search to find out what it was and I landed on a Columbia TV station’s webpage that had the number. They also gave out the code that you got when, or if, you finally got through to the number: SCDOR123. Not anything special that proved you were one of the 3.6 million, just a code, SCDOR123, that sounds like the director of the South Carolina Department of Revenue’s secret password (and maybe that is what got us into this whole situation to begin with.)

Because they are not checking to actually see if you might have been affected by the hacking before giving out a code to sign up for protection, any Tom, Dick or Harry from anywhere can sign up with the code of SCDOR123. So now the state, and by extension me, will probably have to foot the ID Protection bill for over 20 million folks. If you would like a year’s worth of free ID Theft Protection just go to http://www.protectmyid.com/scdor and enter the code SCDOR123.

You’re welcome.

Oh Yeah, That Makes Up For It Alright

In Saturday’s mail there was a letter for me and the return address read Red Sox Nation. “Oh,” I thought, “Maybe this is a refund.”

Inside was a letter with as close as an apology as anyone would get “Thank you for being a part of the Red Sox Nation program. While it was a challenging season for all of us, the continued devotion and passion make Red Sox Nation unparalleled in sports.” Also enclosed was a Johnny Pesky replica baseball card, a 2012 Red Sox Nation sticker1 and the ability to download a couple dozen photo highlights2 from this season.

Oh yeah, that makes up for it alright.

1. There has been one of these every year until this year when it was replaced by a nifty Fenway Park 100 Years sticker.
2. Some might say that that is all the highlights they had this season.

Leaf Blower

The 10 year old leaf blower is getting awfully hard to start, half dozen pulls minimum and my gas line repair is now spouting fuel around the tank hole when I press the little bulb thing. Its noise level is an assault on the ears, so much so that I wear ear plugs and Donna has to be in the opposite yard from me when I use it. Time to replace it.

Earlier this year we bought a battery operated Black & Decker string trimmer & hedge trimmer. They work pretty well, so I thought maybe we could get the B&D leaf blower that uses the same 18v batteries. It would be quiet and light with no dripping flammable fluids. I read the reviews online and the biggest negatives about the unit were it was kind of weak and used up batteries.

Weak might be OK because all I would be using it for would be blowing off leaves and grass clippings from the back deck, the front sidewalk and the driveway. Batteries shouldn’t be an issue as I already have 3, one came with the string trimmer and one plus a bonus came with the hedge trimmer. Home Depot had some in stock and at $75 worth a trip right after work.

Boy was the box small. It fit in the Miata trunk along with both our lunch boxes and Donna’s purse. When I got home I snapped on the the two tubes and plugged up one of my already charged batteries. I started with the back deck and it seemed like I was cruising along blowing leaves everywhere, but it was having trouble moving the acorns around. The battery was drained by the time I was done with the deck. Hooked up battery number two and headed to the driveway. The small scattering of leaves danced out of the way, the acorns not so much. On the smoother deck it did get them rolling, but on the rougher concrete surface it was like they were super glued down.

Came inside, disassembled the thing and packed it back in its box. After dinner we went back to Home Depot and spent $150 bucks on a new gas powered leaf blower.

Mmmmm, Pizza

There is a new pizza place in town and we were excited to eat there, but our excitement was tempered some after our first visit.

We were pulling back into Aiken after our trip the Florida a couple weeks ago when I noticed that the long rumored wood fired pizza place was actually open. We took a sharp left turn into the parking lot. The place was sparsely, but tastefully, filled in with 5 booths along the window and 6 tables between the booths and the open kitchen. We stood in front of the entry area where the cash register was and waited to be seated. The girl behind the counter motioned us forward and explained we ordered there, paid, and then the food was brought to you. You want a drink? “Chose from these fine beverages,” as she sweeps her hand, Price Is Right style, across an array of Coca-cola products. I select a Coke Zero and Donna declines any, and asks for water. We are handed styrofoam cups and instructed where to get ice. It was right over along the side where you also get your silverware.

The pizza was great and worth the hassle. Sort of.

Turns out they had just opened their doors for a soft opening a mere 4 days before. Hopefully some of the rough edges of their service would get smoothed out as they get more experienced.

Well, we wanted pizza tonight, but weren’t real confident that they had worked out all the kinks, so I was sent over to pick up a pie to go. They did have a working soda fountain machine, so you get a wider selection of soft drinks and you don’t have to scoop ice out of a metal pitcher with a red solo cup. There are now four young girls working there instead of one, but the whole enter, stand around near the door while looking at the menu before ordering and shuffling off to a table thing still exists.

Unfortunately the greatness of a wood-fired oven baked pizza when placed in a cardboard box and driven 1.7 miles is severely diminished. Fortunately, it is still better than the frozen take home or chain delivered version. Barely.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1180

Skaneateles

We went to watch polo this afternoon and took along the new guy at work. The weather was perfect, sunny and low 70’s and the game was awesome. It was the finals in an 8 Goal* Tournament and after 5 of the 6 chukkers the score was tied 7-7. The final ended up being Skaneateles 12, Hutchinson Farms 9. Vaughn grew up around horses, but had never seen polo, so he had a great time. We couldn’t have asked for a better game either, usually when we go to a polo match we are lucky to see 10 goals scored total.

*The goal total is not an indication of how many goals the team should score but a player handicapping/ranking system.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1177