Mini Wiper Blade Fun

Back in October, the first time we drove the Mini in the rain, we found out that the wiper blades squeaked/squealed when they do their job. So I did a search on the North American Motoring Mini Forum and found that the most recommended replacement blades seemed to be the Bosch Icon, so I bought a pair from Amazon.

On a side note, is it really too hard to design it, so the wiper blades are the same length? Mazda didn’t have a problem with the Miata, it uses two 18″ blades. Our recently departed Hyundai Sonata had a 24″ drivers side and an 18″ passenger side blade. The Mini? An 18″ blade for the driver and a 19″ one for the passenger side. (I wonder if on the right-hand drive version of the Mini those are flipped?)

Two days later I got some really nice replacement blades that will not go on our 2013 Mini Cooper. This is because in the middle of 2012, Mini in their infinite wisdom, changed the standard hook ends on the arms to a straight connection and forgot to notify Amazon. So I boxed the Boschs back up to return them and headed to the local parts store. Of the 8-10 different kinds of wiper blades they had hanging there, none of them included an adapter for the Mini’s straight-ending arms.

When we got home, I went back to the forum and re-did my search for wiper arms. This time instead of stopping after the first couple of threads and posts, I dug deeper and discovered that there really isn’t an off the shelf aftermarket blade that’ll work on the 2013 and up cars. I ended up buying some stock blades from a forum sponsor ECS Tuning.

While perusing that site, I discovered that they actually sell a kit to change from the earlier style to these new-fangled aero blades. Is there a 2-ounce weight savings involved here? Am I crazy for considering going the opposite way and getting the older hook-ended arms next time I need wiper blades? OK, maybe I am crazy for wanting to go backwards (and I probably won’t), but for someone like me who drives longer than he should on crappy wipers, finally decides that enough is enough and buys news ones on a rainy day, it is a little unnerving to not be able to walk into the local chain auto parts store and get some replacements.

18,000 Sea Gulls


A picture of what looks like about eighteen thousand seagulls standing patiently in the stream of the lowering tide waters waiting for food to come to them. Taken on our very chilly Christmas morning walk on the beach.

While on the trip home from Hilton Head on Christmas day, in downtown Martin, SC, the Mini past thru the 18,000 mile plateau.

Merry Christmas From the Island

Ladybug in front of the Conference Center at the Hilton Head Beach & Tennis Resort


Please accept – with no obligation, implied or implicit – my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable tradition of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your preference.

In addition, please enjoy a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2018.

Shrimp Anyone?


Foggy morning walk along Folly Beach and it wasn’t until we were almost alongside this shrimp boat that it became visible maybe 100 yards off the shore.

When we went out to dinner tonight at the Skull Creek Dockside Restaurant, Donna had the stuffed shrimp and I had Frogmore Stew that included a half pound of shrimp. I wonder if they came from that boat we saw materialize from the fog.

I Wonder

Last night Donna and I went out to get some pizza at Apizza di Napoli. The owner has made it his mission to make the most authentic Neapolitan pizza possible. The oven is built to the correct specifications and he choses his ingredients so that the restaurant can stay certified by the actual Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana.

We do love the wood fired pizza with the light crust and fresh taste. But we hate the service set up1, it is unlike we have ever run into before. You enter through the front door, you are greeted at the counter, escorted to a table and handed menus. So far so good, you then get instructed to read over the menu and once you have decided you return to the front to order and pay. When the food is ready they will bring it to your table. In the beginning after paying they pointed along the side wall and told you that is where you should pick up your plates, silverware and napkins.

At least now the plates are brought to you when they bring the food and the silverware and napkins are already on the table. Because a lot of people would not bring the menus back up to the counter when they ordered, they have attached a little sign to the napkin holders to remind them. Donna looked at the sign and said, “Shouldn’t that say please be kind and return the menus?” I looked at it for a second, a light bulb illuminated above my head and replied, “Nope, that is the owner being cute.” “This place used to be a movie rental place back in the last century.”

I wonder how many customers get the reference?

25 Years Ago – Winter 1992

Below is the back page from the Winter 1992 Miata Magazine. I looked through the whole issue looking for just the right thing to add here, and while included the usual stuff, letters with questions, a camparo with a 1959 Mercedes Benz 190SL, a Club Chapter spotlight (Tar Heel), it seemed like there were actually more ads than content. So here you have just some of the fancy things you could buy for your Miata way back at the end of 1992.

Click on the image to get a bigger view. You can then enlarge the pop-up image to a much larger size by clicking on the symbol at the upper left to bask in all the glory of early 90’s goodness. Like a Coil Cellular Look Antenna, so you can pretend you had one of those big ticket mobile phone things.

Some of these things were actually very useful and within a few years were built into the car by Mazda, like the trunk shield and door sill protectors. A few were worthwhile like the window sandwicher to protect the easily scratched vinyl back window and the rear deck bags to practically double the trunk space for long road trips.

One of the first things I did buy for the front of my first Miata was one of the black mesh grills. I still run one today and it has protected the A/C condenser coil from innumerable leaves, grasshoppers and 2 low flying birds. As a bonus, it looks better than the open mouth on the NA & NB. Plus, I am almost embarrassed to admit, I bought a pair of those black leather driving gloves too.

Saturday in the Swamp


Saturday morning we headed out to get a few last minute Motoring Challenge points. We got a Haberdashery, Sorority/Fraternity, a Natures Giant and a Hero/Villain for 4 big points. This is the second time we have taken a photo of the sign at the entrance to the Congaree Swamp. This year we are using it for Nature’s Giant, but in 2014 it counted for a point as a National Park.

We now have 233 points out of a possible 257. Of the 24 remaining points, if we are lucky and diligent, we will get eight of those. Even if we managed to snag all 24, we still might not end up in the top 3 anyway. Some folks may have a higher possible total because of the scrabble points, those that find 3 words that total more than our 92 points would finish ahead of us.