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Ultimate Drive

Took an afternoon off today to test drive BMWs. No I’m not getting rid of the Miata and trading down to a Z4, I participated in the 7th Annual Ultimate Drive for The Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. I did it 2 years ago and had a blast. For some reason the local dealer didn’t participate last year. The idea is simple, you show up and drive a BMW and for every mile you drive BMW donates a dollar. I reserved a spot to drive a Z4 2.5 manual and then a 330 convertible with an automatic. They have a 15 mile loop laid out that they want you to follow so it is cool to see all these gray BMWs with gray & pink stripes driving around. Drove the Z4 first and like the Z3 of two years ago it felt much more solid than my 7 year old Miata and had gobs more torque. It lacked the audible feedback and the tossable feel of the lighter Miata. It was so quiet that I hit the rev limiter several time in first gear and a couple of time in second. After a couple of laps we turned in the Z4 for the 3 series drop top. If I won $10 million in a Lotto I might get a Z4, but the first I’d do would be change the muffler for something that will let me know that my engine revolutions are sweeping through the range. It was about the same car except for the visual differences and a little more wind buffeting from the open rear seats. After that we tired of the sun so took the hardtop version of the same 3 series for a ride. Quiet, comfortable and quick these cars are fun to drive if not a little isolating. With time for one more lap, we tried the X5 4.4. After the first few minutes of seeming to be driving a bus because of the height and breadth of the thing, it quickly turns into another BMW. The V8 scoots and feels quick, but for a heavy tall vehicle it handles the sweeping ess turns of the Riverwatch Parkway with aplomb.

After it was all over it was a relief to get back in the Miata. Sounded just right and the short throw Voodoo shifting were music to my ears and arm. There is no place like home.

Purchased Today: $14.25 in gas
Money spent since 03/03/03: $156.58
Started down, went up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 67

A Modified Echelon

Right after work, we packed the car and headed west, destination, Cartersville, GA. We started with the top down. Kept it down, but put the windblocker on for Donna’s Interstate drive as it was starting to cool off. When I picked up the driving again about 60 miles outside of Atlanta we put the top up as it looked like we were coming to rain. Of course it started to rain at dark, at about the time I started to navigate the dreaded I-285 loop around the big city. On Atlanta’s beltway there are at minimum 5 lanes of road in each direction and at 9:00 PM on a Thursday night they all are quite busy.

I was traveling in the middle lane at around 70 to keep all my options open and ahead I noticed the back of a Miata with one tail light out, first one we had seen in the first 150 miles of our journey. As we got closer Donna said, “Hey, there is a Miata.” About that time I noticed in my left rearview mirror the distinct light signature of a set of barndoors approaching in the lane to the left of me. Almost at the same time as I pulled along side of the one-tailighted Miata, the other one pulled along side of us. I tooted the air horns and got a beep-beep from my right. As the three of us rolled down the road in a modified echelon for a moment we passed a 4th Miata in the extreme right lane. The Blue Angels had nothing on us, too bad it wasn’t a bright sunny day so we could have acknowledged what was happening and drove like that for a while longer.

We arrived at our hotel and base of operations for the next two nights at around 9:30 after 230 miles (and no other Miata sightings.) A brief storm had just passed through the area knocking out the hotel’s cable, but we didn’t care we were tired and just went to bed.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $106.57
Started down, went up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 57

RADIOIO II

To listen to the free stream with Windows Media Player you need a plugin called Abacast. Tried installing it here at home and for whatever reason it doesn’t work. The low band (mono) mp3 stream is still there, but I can’t listen to mp3s at work because it uses an IP address and the network weasels have blocked access to anything with just an IP. In searching for a replacement I found something really close, Radio Paradise, and there stream is stereo. They are also listener supported and if I can get the stream at work I will consider donating something to the cause.

Tickets To The Masters

Tickets to the 4 day Masters tournament are handed down from generation to generation. They have closed the waiting list to get on the waiting list. That is not say they are impossible to get. For a price nearly anything can be had.

My wife and I don’t golf and are not really into following it as fans. We used to go to one of the practice rounds each year in the early 90s, because it was like $5 to get in and you just walked up to the gates on the day and in you went. It would be like living in Indianapolis and never going to the 500, so we went. The course is better looking in person than it is on TV and during practice the golfers are loose and having fun, you could take pictures and get autographs. Always thinking how cool it would be to go to the actual tournament.

Somewhere around 1995 they made a decision to limit even the practice round tickets. Can’t blame them the place was getting too crowded and the crowd was getting boisterous and the traffic jams outside the gates were getting really troublesome. The first couple of years after they instituted the lottery we got tickets, but since then we have been shut out. It seems like the tickets are going to all out-of-towners that come to Augusta and spend big bucks on hotels and meals. Of course the officials claim that it is a fair lottery, but too many of the locals who used to go are getting shut out too. Urban legends have cropped up of getting distant relations to apply for the practice round tickets and then pass along to the locals so they can go.

Tonight my across the street neighbor called and asked if we wanted a couple of tickets to go see the Masters tomorrow. We turned him down. We have nearly all our vacation for the year either taken or scheduled. Plus it is going to be raining and low 50s. If the weather was going to be sunny and 75 we might have burned one of the last two free vacation days we have left free. I wonder if our neighbor will think of us next year or was this our one and only shot at this.

Flash Our Tits

Made it back from the Crescent City. Kind of weird being a tourist in a tourist town after living there a while and then leaving. Some things have changed for the better, some for the worse and of course some things never change. We stayed at the French Market Inn and the web site makes it look a lot nicer than it was. Don’t get me wrong, it was nice and the location was excellent, but it really fell short of the mark in a lot of ways.

We did the touristy things – rode the St. Charles Street Car to the zoo – took the Natchez steamboat ride – went to the Aquarium & Imax – had coffee & beingets at the Cafe Du Monde (3 times) – wandered up & down Bourbon Street – browsed the antique stores on Royal Street – ate seafood – ate “cajun” food and read The Times-Picayune on the Moonwalk listening to jazz and watching the barges go by.. We did *NOT* flash our tits for beads – get our palm read on Jackson Square – take a carriage tour – buy a T-shirt with a dirty phrase on it – get drunk on Hurricanes at Pat O’Briens or take a Voodoo Walking tour.

As Glenda told Dorothy, “There’s no place like home.”

Purchased Today: $18.00 in pizza
(Not actually Miata related so I’m not adding it to the total)
Money spent since 03/03/03: $58.75
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 48

I Took A Day Off

Almost took tonight off too. I have fallen into an old habit – mass market mystery novels. Read one yesterday and I’m knee deep into number 2 today. I have my mother-in-law to thank for this, she also reads the same sort of crap and came back from the library with a stack of about a half dozen of ’em. Yesterday’s book was P is for Peril, as Sue Grafton works her way through the alphabet. Today I am reading Strawberry Sunday: A John Marshall Tanner Novel and tomorrow if all goes as planned I will be knee deep in Janet Evanovich’s Hard Eight, while Stephanie Plum is not a PI like the other two protagonists, she is a bounty hunter who gets thrust into a whole mystery solving thing. My favorite of this genre are Robert B. Parker’s Spenser novels. Man I wish I was half as tough and half quick with the snappy answers as Spenser is.