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The Purple Whale joined our automotive stable at the end of last April, approximately 9 months ago, and since then we have put 12,000 miles on it.
From the time the Emperor was new in November of 2003 until the Sonata showed up in April 2011, a total of 7 years and 5 months, we drove it, our only car, for 120,000 miles. If you break that down into miles per 9 month period it comes to a little bit over 12,000 miles.
So on the surface it looks like our driving habits haven’t changed much, 12k miles around every 9 months, but not really. The Miata, in that same April 2011 to January 2012 time frame, has also been driven 5,000 miles. This means our cars have been driven 17,000 in the past nine months. And it is not because I’m driving one car and Donna is driving the other, when one car is moving the other is parked.
I guess I’m going to have to go back and read this blog for that time period and see if we have traveled more than normal.
Started down, went went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1106
The unseasonably warm weather continues and at the risk of having a blizzard hit Aiken, we really have had a very mild winter so far. We drove the Miata in to work today for the second day in a row. Tonight we are supposed to have a LOW of 51°, which is only a couple degrees lower than our average high for this time of year, which is why tomorrow we may even get to ride to work with the top down.
This morning while stopped at the bank to take some cash out for breakfast at DD the Emperor’s odometer stopped at exactly 125,000. Which, coincidentally, is the exact same amount of sugar granules that Dunkin’ Donuts sprinkles on top of my favorite breakfast item there, a Coffee Cake Muffin.
Started up, went down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1102
I know it was nowhere near that many, but sometimes it feels like that when you are walking in circles, kicking over leaves, looking for and not finding a cache.
We set out this morning with a list of the 13 geocaches left in the 47 cache Risk Series. Those were all that were loaded in the GPSr so we couldn’t get distracted by other near by hides. We were out for 9 hours, walked almost 4 miles, drove almost 150 miles and found 8. There were 3 DNFs and 2 we couldn’t even attempt. One, the final cache, World Domination, we were lacking 3 numbers in the coordinates. Those 3 numbers would be found inside the other cache titled, Capture The Flag. We couldn’t find that one because its coordinates were wholly located inside a random cache in the series and it must be one of the three we couldn’t find today. Maybe next weekend…
Yesterday was a car-less day as we rode the tandem to work and when we got home we just stayed inside for the rest of the evening. The temperature Friday morning was anywhere between 35 and 38 depending on which weather source you believed. Whichever one it was we know it was down right cold bike riding in. The only thing that got really cold were our hands, which prompted a stop at a bike store in Augusta to buy some winter cycling gloves.
The Emperor passed through the 124,000 mile mark not long after leaving the garage for our trip this morning.
Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1092
Well, its happened again. Changing the accessory belts on the Emperor has resulted in belts squealing at a high pitched 123,00Hz. This time it is both belts. Yesterday evening when we were coming back from the mall one of them just started squealing for no apparent reason. It lasted for about a minute before I pushed in the clutch and it shut up.
Today on the way home from work, for a test, I hit the A/C and was greeted with a nice squeal, later tonight I got a squeal when making a tight turn, so the second belt that runs the power steering pump is a bit loose too.
As I pulled into the driveway this afternoon the odometer hit the 123,000 mile mark.
Guess we are going back to see Steve on Monday.
Started down, went up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1077
 That is about how many times I’ve been disappointed with the Red Sox this season. There won’t be any more of them until next year though, as last night, as they have done most of all of September, they managed to grasp defeat from the jaws of victory in the late innings to a team they should have beaten. This pretty much sums it up.
While on a short trip to top off the Emperor’s tank for a weekend trip, it passed through the 122,000 mile mark.
Part of the land donated for the Phinizy Swamp was an old dairy farm, these silos are all that remain.
On the drive home from work today the Emperor notched past 121,000 miles. Up until that fateful day in late April when the Emperor got a new brother we had been racking up a thousand miles on him at the pretty regular rate of 1 a month, but this last one took seven weeks. Could there be some behind the scenes palace intrigue brewing? Does the new Prince have it’s eye on taking the throne as the most favored vehicle of the Kingdom of Bogardus? Stay tuned.
Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1029
Yesterday the Brian & Donna Buy A New Car Tour came east both physically and figuratively. But first a couple of house cleaning issues.
1) Yesterday I mentioned the Red Sox were 2 and 10 after their win, but they were actually 3 and 10. After today’s 8 to 1 win over Toronto they still have the worst record in baseball at 4 — 10, but jumped to second to last in run differential.
2) Somewhere near Riverwatch Parkway and I-20 on the way home from Augusta yesterday the Emperor eased past the 120,000 mile mark. That is an average of 1.85 miles for every hour we’ve owned it.
Our last car test drive event was over in Augusta and consisted of all Korean cars, yesterday we stayed closer to home and shopped Japanese at Honda Cars of Aiken. And while there actually were only 106 new Hondas on the lot, it seemed like there were 120,000 to choose from. As we walked through the showroom door we were instantly greeted by someone and we said we were there to test drive a couple cars. He said he was a manager of some sort and he would get us a salesman. True to his word, within seconds, Brad arrived and asked what were we interested in. We wanted to drive a Civic Coupe and an Accord Coupe. Brad asked what color and we told him it didn’t matter as long as it was a base LX model, but when we buy one it’ll be blue. He came back in less than five minutes with a dealer plate and a key (we like this experience better already.)
First up was a Civic in Royal Blue Pearl. This is the smaller car and the equivalent to Hyundai’s Elantra and while not nearly as swoopy in styling it is still a nice looking car. We are both instantly 100% more comfortable in it than the Elantra. Right legroom for me as the driver is acceptable, but the left leg is stopped short by the dead pedal (which should be easliy remedied by just taking it out.) There is a large digital speedometer above and forward (almost a HUD) of the large tach and other gauges, interesting and slightly quirky. We start our drive and I take a turn off US1 towards Graniteville and at the stop sign I ask what is considered a reasonable test drive. Brad replies from the back, “Whatever you want.” I briefly consider a left turn up Chalk Bed Rd, but Donna says we need to cross some railroad tracks (a convertible’s nemesis), so I take a right and drive through “downtown” Graniteville. This is a great test because along with those railroad tracks there is one section of road that probably started life as concrete sections, like those found on some interstates, so we got to drive over all those seams, cluh-thunk, cluh-thunk, clu-thunk. Each transition is felt and heard in the car, not as rough as a Miata, but definitely inexpensive, small car-like. Overall we both like the car, it is small, but really the right size for us. Donna is almost sold, but I have a couple of reservations. Including the very lame, “They are too common.” On any given day, there are probably 150 cars in our company parking lot and 3 or 4 recent vintage Civic Coupes and at least twice as many as that of Civic Sedans.
Next up we drive an Alabaster Silver Metallic Accord Coupe. For a car that appears to dwarf the Civic, the interior room in the front of the Accord feels exactly the same size as the Civic (and the numbers bear it out.) The dash is more my old school liking in that there are a two large circular analog gauges (tach & speedo) surrounded by a temp and fuel gauge with an odometer in the middle bottom. The extra 600 pounds of this car make drive through bumpy Graniteville much smoother and quieter, more what I was looking for in a new car. That extra 600 pounds of the Accord over the Civic is almost exactly offset by the 50 extra horsepower it has, so the seat of the pants acceleration feel is about the same. Neither is probably much quicker than the Miata in a straight line, but there is not the same sense of speed as in the open topped car (which is both good and bad.) When we get back to the dealer I pull it along side the previously driven Civic. Donna jumps in the driver’s seat of each car for crucial short driver test. Amazingly she feels she has a better sense of the knowing where the front of the larger Accord is compared to the Civic. We look inside at each trunk and just like in the interior, there doesn’t appear to be any more room in the Accord’s than the Civic and the Civic’s is shaped better. We both like this car too, me more than Donna.
We thank Brad profusely and take home a Civic and an Accord brochure along with two of his business cards, one for me to call if we decide on the Accord and one for Donna to call if we opt for the Civic.
It is a tough call between the two. We both like the looks of the Civic better and the Civic’s blue is nicer shade too. The Civic is the right size car and really all we need. As a plus it is $5k less in price, but to me it rides much choppier and noisier, sort of like it is $5k less. Now, comparing the Accord Coupe to the Genesis Coupe, is where the whole thing falls apart. The Hyundai is about the same size car, but doesn’t look as bloated. The Genesis is a rear wheel drive with 210 HP and because it is turbo charged, a much flatter torque curve with the peak appearing at half the RPM of the Accord. The Genesis Coupe is a sports car and the Accord Coupe is a sheep in wolf’s clothing.
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 998
The Emperor passed the 119,000 mile milestone just outside Thompson, GA this afternoon on his way home from a geocaching adventure in northeast Georgia. We marked off three State Parks, three Counties and two DeLorme pages in two days on one tank of gas.
RE: The picture above, “What were you thinking? Where are you driving to?”
Started up, went down, back up, down again, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 967
Stubby is the February 2011 Free Papertoy of the month over at Custom Paper Toys and is fairly easy build with only 4 pieces. I didn’t particularly care for the slogan that was being espoused by the original, so I changed it to something that is more office work related.
When putting it together I had the hardest time getting the pencil point inside the hexagonal shape of the pencil. I actually had to reprint the body a second time and attacked the build from a different direction before successfully getting it together with the flaps inside. Tonight when I linked the toy’s web page I noticed that the originator’s construction showed the pencil tip flaps on the outside. I had wondered why the flaps were rounded in shape…
I am also currently working on Stubby the Rocket which is a papercraft model by Robert Nava of the “mascot” of Tor.com, a Science Fiction site. I hope to be finished by this weekend.
OK, that was only 2 Stubbies, so I’m 117,998 shy, but the Emperor is not, he ticked past that mileage point on the way to work this morning.
Yesterday Donna had a dentist appointment and I gave her one of my Minimimmoes to give to the receptionist. Tonight we went out to eat and I left another Minimimmo on the table when we were done (I also left a monetary based tip too.) I guess I’ll make a few more and just leave them about haphazardly about the CSRA.
Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 939
Red Puffy Clouds
This sunrise is from last Friday morning in the ASCO parking lot.
Calories
The approximate number of which I have consumed in the last five days at work. Half of them on Tuesday at the annual salaried Holiday Pot Luck Luncheon. The other half from grazing while wondering the plant. Ahhhhh, tis the season.
Miles
The number of miles the Emperor passed by on the way to Krogers this evening.
Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 915
 It started 22 days ago as a white spec Miata racer, $100 worth of Sharpies later and Mighty Mike has a masterpiece of Dude Craft.
On the way home from work today Donna and I stopped in and checked on one of our caches. Someone had DNF’d it on Monday and we wanted to see if it was still there. Even though we knew where we hid it, it still took us 5 minutes to find the thing. Probably because there were around 115,000 pieces of pine straw on the ground since we hid it back in April. Also the GPSr read 18 feet away when I was standing right over it.
A couple miles away from the cache the Emperor passed through the 115,000 mile mark and as if to put an exclamation mark on the event the low fuel light lit simultaneously.
Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 896
Tonight’s meeting of the MMC was hopefully the last at Little Mexico for a long time. When the President picked this place he had good intentions as it fit the requirements we were looking for in a “permanent” home for our meeting, i.e. central location and visibility of the parking lot from a high traffic street. Trouble was the food is Grade B Mexican, but it was only envisioned as a meeting place with sharing of a couple of hors d’oeuvres over business chat and unfortunately (or fortunately depending which side of the plan you were on) the drive to a restaurant for dinner after the meeting thing never caught on.
Donna had a chicken quesadilla and I had a carnitas dinner in which the pork was fattier and somehow drier than what we normally get at our local Mexican place. Along with the meat and tortillas it came with pico de gallo, refried beans and about 114,000 grains of “spanish” rice. Which is coincidentally, the mileage achievement the Emperor passed on the way there.
Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 879
Another weekend, another lake in another state park, this time it’s Lake Murray at Dreher Island State Park. We were in this neck of the woods doing the final bonus cache in the SC DeLorme Challenge. When we left the state park we were 9 finds for the day and I told Donna we needed 1 more for 10 and that would give us a total of 525. We stopped outside of Saluda and grabbed #10. When I got home and logged all our finds, i turned out I miss counted, we now have a total of 526. Ooops.
I’m not sure exactly how many gallons of water are in Lake Murray, I bet it is a lot, but I do know that the Emperor passed the 113,000 mile mark on our way out of town this morning.
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 864
Diet 7-UP was on sale at Walgreen’s starting this morning so we hightailed it over there to pick some up. The price of four 12 packs for $11 with a bonus of a $2 coupon for use on your next visit was about as good as it gets. We managed to make it to the store with the top down, but had to put it up to go inside, which we expected because for the first time in about a month we are going to get some rain. There were only three on the shelf, which we expected and why we hustled over there early on a Sunday, but the the guy running the place offered to check in the back, he came out with one, which we didn’t expect. On the way home the Emperor passed the 112,000 mile point, which I expected, because we went the long way home just for that reason.
We started yesterday morning with a 4 mile foray into Hitchcock Woods. They were having a “Festival of the Woods” with lots of programs, events and demonstrations. We would have liked to have seen the raptor demonstration, but knew we wouldn’t stay long enough for it because it didn’t start ’til after noon. So we just opted to hike in from one end and end up at the Show Ring where all the action was, just to see what we could see. As we got close to the ring we came across a few folks horseback riding. I thought maybe I’d snap a photo or two of them, but my camera wouldn’t come on. My first guess as to why was that the battery was dead. That guess was confirmed wrong when I opened the battery door, the battery wasn’t there. It was home still plugged into the charger. Oops.
We ended up yesterday with a 2.9 mile walk around Phinizy Swamp in Augusta with the MMC. The staff of the Swamp offer a full moon walk a few times a year, but we had the place to ourselves because we are special and one of the docents is a club member. Even though it was not the actual night of the full moon and we were stuck with just a waning gibbous with 95% of the visible disk illuminated we all had a great time. Because it was still pretty dark we thought we saw silhouettes of several types of egrets, maybe an owl and possibly an alligator. We did see a small possum as we had to use a flashlights beam to shoo him away from the boardwalk we were both were on.
Because we were a few minutes early for the Club meet up, Donna and I roamed the deteriorating parking lot of the deserted Regency Mall and grabbed 3 geocaches.
Started down, went up, went down, back up, back down, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 843
We did our grocery shopping this evening and on the way to Kroger the Emperor passed the 111,000 mile mark. By the time we got home and I checked on the Red Sox they were losing nine to nothing after three innings. Didn’t bother to waste my time listening to the game, so I went into the living room and Donna and I watched the eighth and last episode of Series 1 of Life on Mars.
After that, hoping for some sort of miracle comeback I checked in on the FRS and was excited to see that they had scored two whole runs, unfortunately the Blue Jays had scored 7 more runs making the final score 16–2.
Oh, and Dustin Pedroia’s return to the starting line up lasted all of three games, he went back on the disabled list today. I don’t know what they will have say over at Baseball Prospectus tomorrow, but I’m marking down the Sox’s chances at the playoffs at about 10%. (This morning they stood at 20%)
Go Rays!
Started up, went down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 798
Here are six of the nine MMC cars that made the trip to Edgefield for breakfast today. I looks like the life-size statue of Strom Thurmond is orating around 110,000 words, perhaps recreating his famous filibuster, longest ever by a single senator at 24 hours and 18 minutes in length nonstop, in opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
As we arrived at the start point for the trip this morning the Emperor past the 110,000 milestone.
Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 739
Thursday morning on the way to work the Emperor blinked past the 109,000 mile mark.
Thursday night I was surrounded by 109,000 conversations from a couple thousand people. There is that old joke about going to a fight and a hockey game breaking out, well a half dozen of us from the MMC went to a beer bash and a baseball game broke out. It was Thirsty Thursday and small beers were just a buck and a huge chunk of the crowd took advantage of the offer. Donna and I bailed after seven innings to ensure we beat the inebriated to the roads.
Today we threw about 109,000 pieces of candy to folks along a parade loop in Trenton for the 40th Annual Ridge Peach Festival.
Started down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 689
One hundred and eight was sort of an adjunct to TDTVS’s famous numbers (4 8 15 16 23 42) because that is what they added up to and that is how many minutes you had between entering them into a computer terminal before bad things happened. 108,000 is probably how many times the number and execute buttons were pushed by Desmond during his little over three years down in the Swan Station hatch when he was doing the entering.
I wonder what I should do with my eight LOST links in the left sidebar now that the show is over, delete them? Yeah, probably. So what would be a proper mourning period before moving them? Simple, 108 days. Guess I’ll add a countdown for it…
One hundred and eight thousand is the number of miles the Emperor had traveled when we got almost to work this morning.
Started down, went up, back down, up again, down once more, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 643
We went out to do some geocaching this morning, back over on the new bike/hike trail along side the new section of I-520 that we covered part of last weekend. That section had 8 caches and this section had one until yesterday evening. The second was published late last night and this morning no one had logged it as found yet. With all the FTF Hounds around here we didn’t expect to be the first, we were sure someone already had and just hadn’t logged it yet. Didn’t matter one way or the other, we didn’t find it and no one has yet either…We did find the other cache though. We just didn’t have our geo-mojo working at all today and ended up with just three finds to go along with our three measly finds.
Now there are three caches on that section as part of our mission was to place a cache along that stretch of trail. It is out in the wild, just not published yet and like the rest of our hides it should be an easy find for folks. We think we are going to head out tomorrow morning and place a couple more out there. We scoped out a couple of likely spots. One of which we eliminated when on my way back down the embankment I slipped on the newly planted grass and did a slo-mo face plant at the bottom.
After giving up on the caching we stopped in downtown Augusta at the Greek Orthodox Church to have some lunch. We had bought a meal ticket last Monday when we ate at the local Greek place. The half chicken meal with sides was just the right size for us to split. On the way home we detoured through North Augusta to get some ice cream at the Pink Dipper, but all I had in my wallet was a buck, so we had to stop at an ATM. As I pulled to a stop at the bank I noticed that the Emperor’s odometer was sitting at exactly 107,000. In honor of that I tried to withdraw $107,000 from the ATM, but apparently that was above my daily withdrawal limit, because it only gave me $40.
Started down, went up, went down, up, down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 619
Once a year Donna and become golf fans, we watch the Master’s on TV. I guess because we have been there in person…
On our way home from Georgetown this morning we made two quick caching stops to pick up the last DeLorme pages we needed for the eastern part of the state. And just outside the town of Eutawville (YOO • tah • vil) the Emperor passed the 106,00 mile mark.
Started up, went down, back up, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 588
I have been using a Just One Club Card for years and it has kept my wallet slimmer. There were 5 stores on it, but recently we added a Staples Reward card to our repertoire, so I went and made up a new justoneclubcard.
Tonight shopping at Krogers I went to use my new card and the scanner wouldn’t read it (at the pharmacy nor at the checkout.) Now what? Like a bonehead I tossed out the old card before testing the new one. On top of that I have no idea where the original cards may be.
I did notice that when I print the card from the JOCC site it is a lot smaller than it was on my old card so I enlarged it by 120% to fill the card better. I was careful to use the pixel resize mode so that I wouldn’t get a blurry enlargement and I printed them out on the laser printer. Maybe I need to blow it up in nice round numbers? I wonder if 200 times will still fit on a wallet card?
On the way to work this morning the Emperor reached the 105,000 mile mark.
Started up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 572
 I am either way behind in blogging about the oil changes on the Emperor or just way behind in actually doing one. My routine has been to change the oil every 3,750 miles, which is exactly twice as often as Mazda recommends and while I’m at it I rotate the tires from front to back. But the last time I mention an oil change was on September 6th, which judging by my Miata Mileage posts would put it at around 95.5K or about 9,000 miles ago!
This Saturday I’m going to do the oil change slash rotate the tires thing. Unless I forget to buy oil or it rains or…
Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 551
Donna is making slow, but steady progress towards normalcy, but she still is using the restroom a lot more than usual. Consequently she is washing her hands a lot. This means that they are exceedingly dry and chapped with numerous cracks and splits in the skin. Towards the end of the day these really start to hurt. Tonight I put 104,000 band aids slathered with neosporin on her hands. Actually 104,000 is the number of miles the Emperor passed through on our way out to do some shopping today, the number of band aids was closer to 10.
Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 538
 We were gone for 12 hours, basically from dawn to dusk. A couple miles out of Aiken the Emperor passed by the 103,000 mile mark. Drove 325 miles total, probably 45 with the top down, and spent $22.50 on gas. We ate breakfast at Hardee’s, lunch at Jack’s Cosmic Dogs and dinner was chicken salad sandwiches Donna had made and we took with us. Walked around 2–1/2 miles of the West Ashley Greenway. We found 12 caches (a personal best) and DNF’d 2 (pretty much average.) Crossed off Charleston County and Pages 59, 60 & 61 from our South Carolina Challenges.
So were the hot dogs worth the trip? Yes and no. They were My-T-Fine and if I’m ever in the neighborhood again I’ll definitely stop by and try another variety, but I probably wouldn’t hop in the car drive straight there, eat a dog and drive right home.
Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 529
We went to Kroger this evening to buy supplies for the 4 day Christmas holiday we have off work, needed the stuff to make a Paula Dean breakfast quiche we saw her do yesterday. Plus various other things to keep us fed on Christmas Day because the Weather Channel is telling us we have an 80% chance of T-Storms on the 25th.
Apparently Wednesday is Senior Discount Day because the cashier took 5% off our total when we checked out. The demarcation line is 55 and even though I still have 9 months to go until I reach it, I didn’t correct her, I’ll take any $2.38 break on groceries I can get. Must have been all the gray hair in my beard, couldn’t have been the thinning hair on my head because that was all covered up in a Santa hat that I wore all day.
On the way home I noticed that the Emperor was a few miles north of the 102,000 mile mark…
Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 513
 Returned from home Florida today in a marathon 13 hour 607 mile drive, making 8 pit stops along the way. Two for meals, one for a snack, two for gas and 3 just for driver changes. Somewhere south of Orlando the Emperor passed through the 101,000 mile mark. Total mileage for the trip — 1608 miles.
We are always careful about checking for Clemson home football games before heading into the SC upstate, but completely forgot to check for a University of Florida game before planning our route home. We were “forced” off of I-75 near Ocala by the rapidly multiplying Gator fans on their way to the game. Turns out it was for the better though, as we got to retrace some of our route down along some fantastic rural central Florida roads in the opposite direction.
Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 499
 Just shy of Bowman, the Emperor, Donna and I split a candy bar in honor of his latest mileage achievement.
From Aiken, SC to Pooler, GA it is 136 miles as the Google flies, but we traveled 288. Along the way we visited an honest to God (pun intended) Abbey with real monks and stuff to look at 47 different nativity scenes in media that varied from rolled newspaper to stainless steel. We geocached in 3 different counties, finding 5 and DNFing one. We had Japanese for lunch, American for dinner and we are spending the night in a hotel that doesn’t have ice machines.
Tomorrow we cross into the other world where you can’t get sweet tea to drink, but you can get a paperweight made of a baby alligator head encased in lucite, the glorious Sunshine State, Florida.
Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 481
Just south of Abbeville on the way home from a washed out caching/leaf peeping trip the Emperor passed the ninety nine thousand mile mark. Right now he is backed into the garage with the door partway up and a light shining on the vampire teeth…
Started up, went down, back up, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 464
 Saturday the MMC took a trip to Winnsboro to visit the South Carolina Railroad Museum. This weekend there was a visiting steam engine to give that old time feel (and smell) to your train ride. We combined the Club’s monthly breakfast with the train event, plus following the hour long train ride we drove to a nearby town for lunch making for almost a full day Miataness.
After lunch Donna and I went our separate ways from the group because we had an alternative agenda, that’s right, geocaching. Before leaving we made tentative dinner plans with another MMC couple to meet in Lexington at the Uno Chicago Grill at 5:30 to complete the Trifecta (all 3 meals out.)
Got all caught up chasing camo’d containers in the north central part of the state and ended up not being able to make it back to Lexington in time for pizza with Rudy & Patti. We were disappointed on two levels. With the dreary day and approaching of dusk we opted for the more direct way home from where we were and resigned ourselves to eat in Newberry at whatever place we could find. Luck was on our side though, willing to dine in a Hardee’s or a Subway, we stumbled on The Flying Pie on Main St and had a wonderful pizza about half way between the thin crust of West One in Hendersonville and the thick Chicago style pie in Lexington.
Saturday by the numbers:
299 — Miles driven on the day
98,000 — Total miles now on the Emperor
1 — Tank of gas used
5 — O’clock wake up call
14 — Hours from leaving home until returning
58° — High for the day, 20 below normal
9 — Cars in a line (7 Miatas, 1 Boxster and a Jeep)
11 — Mile train ride (5–1/2 under steam power)
100 — Pounds of coal burned by the train per mile traveled
8 — Caches found
3 — SC County Challenge caches and
2 — DeLorme Challenge pages finished
Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 437
This morning we took a little trip downtown to St. Mary’s School’s Annual Chocolate Festival. We didn’t consume anywhere near the 97,000 calories that were on display at the bake sale tables. It was probably somewhere between 97 and 970 because all we spent on cookies and brownies was a buck and a quarter.
We spent $11 dollars on used books. Donna bought 16 kids books for nephew James at a quarter a piece and I bought 3 hardcover books. The one book that cost the most, nearly 50% of our book expenditures was Lee Child’s 2007 Jack Reacher tale, Bad Luck and Trouble.
I’m 150 pages into the 370 page book, it’ll probably be finished before tomorrow night. Chapter 13 starts like this:
At six the next morning Reascher went up to Neagley’s suite. He found her awake and showered and guessed she had been working out for an hour. Maybe in her room, maybe in the hotel gym. Maybe she had been out jogging. She looked sleek and pumped up and vital in a way that suggested there was a whole lot of oxygenated blood doing the rounds inside her.
After the festival we took the long way home via the bypass so we could drive by and look at, quite literally, the biggest thing to ever happen to Aiken. It has been the talk of the town since last weekend when the 300 foot long 1.89 million pound transport carrying a giant generator parked along the side of the road east of town. There is a photo in this article from the local paper, but you cannot get any idea how big this thing is from it. Plus in addition to the transport rig there is about a 1/4 miles worth of support trucks parked along with it.
Somewhere during our excursion the Emperor passed the 97,000 mile mark.
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 412
96,000: Saturday while leaving of town the Emperor crossed over that many miles.
398: Number of the Emperor’s top transitions since 10/24/08
194: Total number of caches we’ve found so far.
37: Number of caches we have DNF’d
14: Number of SC Counties we have found caches in.
11: Number of pages of the SC DeLorme Atlas we have found caches on.
7: Number of minutes left until the next episode of TDTVS2 starts.
Started up, went down, back up, down again, still down.
Just like the last semi-major mileage milestone, this one was past on the way to the Stricker Mountain Home (I’m thinking that may need an acronym.) Only this one was about 50 miles further away in Spartanburg, not right here in Hendersonville.
With what is arguably one of the best bullpens in the American League, why oh why is the back-up shortstop pitching an inning of relief? (I know it is a 9–2 blowout the wrong way, but still…)
Even though there was a lot of rain around the state we made a good proportion of the drive up with the top down. We probably could have made the whole trip with it down, but I chickened out as we came into NC.
Started down, went up, back down, back up, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 366
Didn’t notice it until we got in the car this morning that sometime last night just before we got to the hotel the Emperor passed over the 94,000 mile mark. Leaving the Red Roof Inn to come over to 607 Carriage Commons Drive I looked down and the odo read 94006.
Our plan was to visit the Western North Carolina Nature Center this morning, but the rains came down so we opted to try and find something indoors to do, so we spent an hour in the Asheville Welcome Center, most of it waiting for Allen to try on shirts off the clearance rack before ending up at the Grove Arcade. We then spent another 45 minutes sitting in rocking chairs while Allen bought a recliner for the living room.
Lunch was at Donna and my favorite place in downtown Asheville, Doc Chey’s. Aftr eating we walked in the rain to the next block to visit a Mast General Store (where Allen bought a straw hat.) With the rain showing no sign of letting up we just drove back to Hendersonville. Where it was sunny!
Allen went off to arrange delivery of his chair and Diane, Donna and I went into downtown H-ville to give St. Frank a new home at the Hospice Home Store.
Allen and Diane are of the Jewish faith and the previous owners of the Stricker Mountain Home were Catholic and left behind a 4′ tall concrete lawn statue of St. Francis of Assisi outside the front door. They weren’t sure what to do about him and I said let’s pop him in the trunk and donate him to the Goodwill, failing that we’ll just leave him on the side of the road as a corner monument. Neither of the two ladies were keen on option 2, so we donated him to the Hospice Store.
The Emperor had the top down all day in the rain, but he is as dry as could be because he is in the garage here while the four of us have been tooling around in the rental Pontiac Vibe.
Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 314
 While circling the Lowes Motor Speedway loop road looking for the registration building, the Emperor rolled past the 93,000 mile mark.
Today’s mission was a resounding success. We spent the morning watching all variations of cars race around 3/4 of the big oval and a t-shaped infield course at the Speedway. Lunch was a taste bud tantalizing mixture of red beans and rice with andouille for me and stuffed shrimp for Donna. That was after our appetizers of Crawdaddy Fondue Dip for her and Rat Toes for me (don’t worry, I saved you some Mark.) We found some nice light hikers for Donna that were cheaper than expected and we snagged three caches (1 at the race track and 2 near the mall.)
I even have the film I kiddingly promised, but it is so lame I won’t post it. I decided to use the camera and take a short video of our friends Miatas as they went by. The movie consists of about 3 seconds of cars flashing by and then the next 12 seconds are of my (and Donna’s) feet and legs as we walk away from the fence. I forgot to push the shutter a second time to stop the movie…
Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 279
Tonight was the monthly MMC meeting and we gathered at a place called River House in North Augusta. It is a Thai restaurant with some “American” food on the menu to please the unadventurous.
Donna got the Pad Thai and I got the N-3 (which means it was four small words that had an odd, to my eyes, combination of letters that I didn’t even try to pronounce) which was a dish of ground beef and vegetables in a mild curry sauce over rice noodles. Both meals were delicious and plentiful enough that we only ate half and brought the other half home for tomorrow’s dinner.
It has been a rainy day, but we tried to go to and come home from work with the top down anyway because when we started each trip it wasn’t actually raining. Both times we didn’t even get halfway before having to put the top up. After the car club meeting it wasn’t raining, so naturally we put the top down for the ride home not expecting to make it, but we did. I did put the top back up at home when we got in the garage because it was pretty wet when it was folded back in North Augusta.
Just as we approached the restaurant the Emperor ticked past the ninety-two thousand mile mark.
Started down, went up, back down, back up, down again, up once more, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 229
Looked down this morning on the way to work and I noticed the odometer read 91047. When did that happen? Over the weekend? Some time in the last couple of days?
I couldn’t stand it any longer, upgraded WordPress to Version 2.7 tonight and to top it off I added a new look (with still some tweaking to do.)
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 200
 While traveling the roads of Nebraska, New Mexico and eastern Colorado you will see various forms of this sign. This picture is from New Mexico, but my favorite is from Colorado where it reads WINDS MAY BE GUSTY. While they probably hope you interpret the sign as “WINDS MAY BE GUSTY”, for some reason I read it as “WINDS MAY BE GUSTY”. Like they weren’t sure there was such a thing as gusty winds.
Trust me though, there *were* gusty winds and they were powerful enough to make it difficult to drive in a straight line for me in a Mustang. I imagine it was a lot harder on 18 wheelers and motor homes to stay in their lane.
More often than not, less than a 1/4 mile after the gusty winds signs there was a big sign giving a toll free number to report suspected DUI drivers. Just how were you supposed to know? Everybody was bobbing and weaving…
Before I got to the end of our street on the way to work this morning the Emperor flashed past the 90,000 milestone.
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 176
We made the trip east this morning for Breakfast With Laurie. For grins I decided to look for an easy geocache in Florence somewhere near the Cracker Barrel where we meet to maybe entertain us after eating Pecan Pancakes and Eggs in a Basket. Much to my surprise there was one real close, like so close it was actually at the Cracker Barrel. Q is for Quackers. How did I know? For one, its location on the map placed it right at the intersection of I-95 & US52 and secondly this phrase from the description: No rocking chairs were injured during the making of this cache. Looks like we wouldn’t even need the GPS for this one.
And it was a good thing we didn’t need it, as for some reason this morning I couldn’t download the data from the web site to the unit. I tried from both geocaching.com and the Garmin site with no luck. I tested the plugin and it said it was fine. I rebooted the PC. I turned off the GPS a couple of times and it still didn’t work. When we got home from breakfast I finally got it to work by reinstalling the firmware on the Venture HC.
About 4 miles east of the thriving metropolis of Salley, SC the Emperor crossed the 89k miles in service mark.
Oh, yeah, about that cache, we found it no problem. Thanks to the clue — Let this not wash you up for the day, the description of the cache — You are looking for a black magnetic key holder and the logs — I had to get over my shyness about sticking my butt up in the air. It was under an old timely washing bucket with a mechanical wringer in between two rocking chairs on the porch of the restaurant.
Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 144
 We went grocery shopping on Friday afternoon and I bought a small bunch of 4 bananas. Buying bananas always seems to be a chancy proposition, invariably they are either bright green or so ripe they are fit for nothing but an ingredient in banana nut bread. Friday was my lucky day (or so I thought), as the bananas on display were the very definition banana yellow.
Saturday morning I went to peel one of the bananas and I knew I was in trouble because the skin was thick and hard to tear. Ever hopeful, I took a bite, big mistake, it was tough as shoe leather, I spit it out and threw the rest away. Using all the brain power I could muster I determined that these pieces of fruit were not ripe and decided to skip Saturday’s banana and wait until Sunday before eating another.
By Sunday the peeling process was slightly better and the banana was almost al dente, but I choked it down anyway. No banana this morning and I am hopefully that by tomorrow they will be really ripe.
The only way I can explain it is that these bananas have been genetically altered so that they turn yellow when they really should still be green.
The Emperor flipped past the 88,000 mile mark on the way home from Augusta on Saturday.
Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 128
 We traveled straight to Florence on the interstate to have breakfast with Donna’s cousin (Hi Laurie) and came back entirely off of it. Last night we looked for someplace along the return to catch a walk in the woods, Pointsett State Park fit the bill perfectly. While trying to follow the photo copied trail map we came to where we thought was our additional loop and started along it. It took us about a 1/4 mile before we were positive we were following the park’s border fire break and turned around. Sure enough, about 50 yards down the rejoined trail, there was the plainly marked Hill Top Loop. We are definitely going to make a return trip to this park the next time we are over this way.
Somewhere southwest of Columbia the (recently sponge bathed) Emperor passed through the 87,000 mile mark.
Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 105
 It isn’t feeling like Christmas around here, the past 4 days it has been in the middle to upper 70’s which is about 15 degrees above normal. A front is passing through tonight which will bring cold weather, for a day, then it creeps back up so that by Christmas Day it will be back in the 70’s.
This morning when we got in the car to head off to the woods for a nice little hike, I looked down at the odometer and it was square on eighty-six thousand miles. Because we rode our bike on Friday it must have turned over to that mark as I pulled into the garage on Thursday after work.
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 75
 Just about 5 miles outside the touristy St. Augustine, Florida the Emperor passed by 85,000 miles. We stopped in for a brief visit and all those ubiquitous trolleys were nearly empty of tourists. We parked in the lot of the Fountain of Youth, but were too cheap to spend the $7.50 each to get in, so we asked for a tourist map of the town so we could find our way around. We parked at the visitor’s center and the next place we were too cheap to pay admission ($6 ea.) into was the famous Castillo de San Marcos. We did take the walk all the way around the perimeter of the fort and that was good enough for us.
We then wandered the old city and almost didn’t need to eat lunch as a couple of the restaurants had people handing out free samples to entice us into eating there. The pizza nearly had us, but we ended up at Casa Maya and we’re glad we did, the food was fantastic.
Tonight we are staying at the Longboard Inn, a B&B in New Smyrna Beach (I wonder where the old one went?) It is only a few dollars more expensive compared to the Holiday Inn Express outside of Savannah we stayed at last night, but the breakfast will be leaps and bounds better (cinnamon bun excepted.)
Started up, went down, back up, back down, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 62
Taunting me.
I have nothing really in mind for a post and staring at mostly empty title box and the vast expanse of empty text is not really helping me conjure up something. The only thing I have to write about is the oh so exiting news that sometime yesterday the odometer on the Emperor easing over the eighty-four thousand mile mark. And that won’t take up much space, as you can see.
Last week on the way home from work we stopped at Regions Bank and made the last payment on the Miata. The check has cleared, but we are still waiting for the title in the mail. Now if only my wife would let me have that “extra” $300 a month to spend as I wanted… 
Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 38
 Saturday was the MMC Leaf Peeping Run of which I was the leader. We met at the Cracker Barrel over in Augusta. The restaurant was packed with people eating breakfast, but only two other couples were members of the Miata Club, seems the rest of them were just there coincidentally. After eating we headed west and north to the upstate of Georgia (with a brief foray into South Carolina) to see the colorful trees. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of us driving the windy back roads enjoying nature’s beauty, but there was just our one car from the Club, seems the rest of them were just there coincidentally.
The weather was absolutely perfect for leaf peeping and the roads were mostly uncrowded. We ended up at Black Rock Mountain State Park near Clayton, GA where the club has visited several times before on these excursions. Instead of opting for the mega-meal at the Dillard House just up the street we drove the 35 miles to Clarkesville (where the rock group the Monkees are from) to eat at Zanzo Italian Cafe where we you get the best Italian food this side of, well, Italy. Two words: Baked Ziti.
Somewhere in northern Georgia, the Emperor zoomed past the eighty-three thousand mile mark.
We got home a touch more than 12 hours after we left it, tired, wind burned and completely satisfied. We would have gone right to bed, but seeing as we were going to get an extra hour of sleep, we opted to watch episodes 8, 9 & 10 of Season 2 of Mad Men.
Started up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 15
 Tonight we watched episode 5 of 82 of TDTVS. It was the one we should have watched on Friday, but we weren’t home, we were in Myrtle Beach and I forgot to bring the DVD.
Finished up the weekend today by taking the long way home and snapped 10 more PO Portraits giving us a total of 23 for the 3 days. We are now 93% finished with the project and all that remain are the ones right around Charleston and the 6 military bases in the state.
Somewhere west of Branchville the Emperor cruised past the eighty two thousand mile mark, so when we got home I gave him a well deserved royal bath.
Started up, went down, went up, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 370
 On the way home this morning from our visit to Aiken’s Makin’ (the city’s big craft show) the Emperor passed through the 81k mark.
Because we enjoyed the Jesse Stone flick Stone Cold so much yesterday we decided not to wait on Netflix and went to the local video store to rent the remaining three. Then we watched them all this afternoon. No self control. I think I’m going to get me ball cap with a big PPD embroidered on it.
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 340
 Tonight was the annual Bug Splat Rally for the MMC. Our slightly early start and the two brief rain showers we ran through on the loop conspired to make bugs scarce. Prize awarding was sketchy at best and as a matter of fact the Cleanest Car and Most Bugs Awards were given out based on pre-rally car conditions.
The rain was obviously my fault as I washed the car this morning to make the Emperor look pretty for tonight’s Club gathering. In mid Bug Splat loop His Highness crossed the Savannah River and crossed the 80K mile mark at about the same time.
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 288
 We got up at 5:00 AM and headed southeast, destinations: Dorchester, Ridgeville, Summerville, Summerville, Ravenel, Hollywood, Edisto Island, Adams Runs, Jacksonboro, Cottageville and Round O.
Just before crossing the bridge over the intercoastal waterway in the South Carolina Low Country at the intersection of No and Where, the Emperor ticked past the seventy-nine thousand mile mark. Somewhere within 25 miles either way of that event a young male bluejay tufted titmouse committed suicide by flying right in front of us. He was given an un-proper burial (i.e. dumped) under a bush along the side of the Adams Run, SC Post Office.
I didn’t listen to the ballgame on Thursday or Friday and the FRS beat the MFY. I watched the game yesterday afternoon and they lost. Tonight they are playing on ESPN and I figured that if I didn’t watch they might win like Thursday or Friday. I’m listening on the internet and that might be the wrong thing to do too, as the Yankees are up 1 to 0 in the second. Maybe I should quit listening… Nine o’clock on USA are new episodes of Law & Oder: Criminal Intent, followed by In Plain Sight.
Oh, word of advice, if you live on a hill and your neighbor has a pool, don’t forget to set your parking brake.
Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 235
 The MMC was “float” #30 and Gnorm was there to make sure we parked in the right spot, in front of the horses and a few participants behind the DJ Man.
This morning when we got in the Emperor to meet the club for breakfast before the parade, the odometer read 78,000 miles even, which is coincidentally the total number of pieces of candy tossed out of the 4 cars to the crowds lining the streets of Trenton, SC today.
This afternoon we watched the last four episodes of Season 3 of House. Instead of waiting to watch Season 4 on DVD when it comes out in August, I thought I’d try my new TV Gizmo and watch it online. Can’t, sorta. All that are available on Fox or Hulu are episodes 1,2,13 & 14. Seems as if they are rerunning the show during the summer and only want you to see it on network TV.
Which leads to a full review of said Gizmo — pretty much what I said before, OK for video, sucks for text. Will I probably get my forty bucks worth out of it? Yep.
Started down, went up, back down, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 215
 This morning Donna and I had our annual eye exams. First the doc shines a really bright light in your eyes while telling you to look every which way. Then one of his staff Divas of Torture drops a combination of drops in each eye which makes your pupils dilate until it looks like you have no corneas. Then once your eyes are wide ass open the doctor returns and shines a really, really, really bright light in there. Niiiice. Afterwards all you can do is spent the 5 hours inside a darkened house because a mere 60 watt bulb appears to put out about 77,000 lumens.
While entrapped indoors this afternoon I did mount all the shiny new chrome bathroom racks and such. The wall on the left as you enter the bathroom looked so good that we hated to put the door back up because it totally hides it. If it was just us we might have got away with it, but occasionally we have people over and they might not be so comfortable doing their business without a door to hide behind, so I put the door up.
Somewhere between Egypt & Guyton, GA the Emperor cruised past the 77,000 mile mark. I kept my eyes peeled, but didn’t see a welcome to Egypt sign. If I had I would have stopped so Donna could have taken my picture in front of it. I need another image to add to the Travels with Brian gallery.
Started down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 163
The contractor is done. Well, all except for he’ll be back next week sometime to install the bottom molding around on the outside of the new walls of the small bathroom. He left behind a few little things that need to be taken care of, might be easier for me to go ahead and take care of them, but I might just leave them for his return. There is one part of the bathroom wall that didn’t get totally smoothed out, probably missed it because it is hidden by the usually open door. The light fixture above the mirror was wobbly and I asked him to tighten it down, but it didn’t get done ( I fixed it tonight.) There is a crack in the grout in the corner seam of the stand up shower, that he touched up today with just some success.
The one that is most noticeable was not within his control. We bought Price Pfister porcelain cross handled faucets for both showers and one for the bathroom sink in the big bathroom for two reasons, 1) we like the look and 2) they would match our already existing faucet in the small bathroom. The existing one works in a manner such that you turn both knobs counter-clockwise for on and clockwise for off. We were thrown for a loop when we started to use the new shower in the small bathroom. This set works by turning the cold counter-clockwise for on and the hot clockwise for on. Now in the newly completed big bathroom at least the shower/unit controls are identical to the ones in the shower of the other bathroom, but incredibly the vanity faucets are just the opposite of the shower units, you turn the cold clockwise for on and the hot counter-clockwise. So now we have to learn how to operate 4 separate faucets in three different manners. I hope I don’t scold something important.
Today on the way home from work the Emperor reached the 122,310km (76,000 mile) plateau.
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 132
 The Emperor passed through the 75,000 mile mark just east of Columbia on I-20.
After breakfast this morning we hopped on the interstate and headed east not getting off until somewhere north of Florence on I-95. We then spent the rest of the day traveling the back roads of rural northeast South Carolina nabbing photos of Post Offices. We ended up the day with 14 captured. We even had to stop at a library in a city along the way to find a PO we had a map for (we were looking north of town instead of south)and one that we didn’t (even though I have an image of it on the thumbdrive.)
The rude employees at a Subway in Lake City did us a favor. After we walked out in disgust, we ended up at a Mexican place, La Bamba, that was terrific. Their Carnitas were scrumptious and the ice cold Dos Equis was much better than any fountain drink available at the other place.
Tomorrow morning — Cinnamon Bun.
Started up, went down, back up, back down, went up, went down, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 117
 Donna is in the other room watching the 2008 World Figure Skating Championships on ESPN. Tonight was the Ladies Short Program which Italy’s Carolina Kostner won.
I am in front of the computer watching the NCAA basketball tournament. With 28 of 32 1st round games played in the “Big Dance” I have correctly picked exactly half, which leaves me nearly dead last and in the company of people with names like Susan, Lorrie, Kella & Jean…
We went back to Augusta today to order our tile for the bathroom. Afterwards we went back to the Home Depot in Evans to try and get a look at the top color for the vanity we have picked out. The floor tiles are grayish-blue and there is a stock color by the company that makes the vanity we have picked out called blue pearl that we wanted to see. Our Home Depot in Aiken had a sample of every other color but that one. When we told the tile lady that we really did want to see the vanity top before ordering. She asked what the color was called and when we told her, she said we have a sample of that and she showed us. It was a lot more black than the blueish tinted web photo, but it would definitely work.
I still wanted to see what Pegasus called Blue Pearl because it might be completely different. Well the nice new big store in Evans did have the color and lo and behold it was just like what they had at the tile store. As we walked the bath aisles there was a vanity sitting in the middle of one that looked awfully familiar. Wait a minute that is our vanity! It was at a reduced price because it was damaged. There was a whole section with that style stuff in various sizes, including the desired 48″ one. These things, according the HD web site, are online order only, what’s this store doing with them?
Donna went up to the service desk to ask if we bought it here would they transfer it to our local store. The person wasn’t absolutely sure, but delivery would be expensive for us because of our over 25 mile distance from the store. We weren’t buying just then, so we figured we would ask that question at our store later. Big mistake, the people at our store knew even less. They even doubted that the store in Evans had what we saw with our very own eyes.
We have got a 10% off coupon (Thanks Patti) and it would be nice to take advantage of the discount on that high priced item. It has to be used on a single in store purchase, so I guess we will need to figure out how to do that. Unfortunately in this case a Miata is not as good as a pick up truck because of the objects size. We may have to borrow a friend on this one.
On the way back from Augusta the Emperor passed the 74,000 mile mark.
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 86
 Tonight was our every four week haircut appointment. Because one of the stylist’s other appointments didn’t make it in both Donna and I got got taken care earlier than we expected. Which left us enough time for her to make a Pampered Chef party over in Augusta. I drove her over and stayed behind at John & Carol’s house while she and Carol proceeded to go to the “party.” Soon John and I were joined by exiled husband of the hostess of the party. John grilled burgers and us guys hung out, chatting about guy things and watch the History Channel show, Modern Marvels: “Trucks.”
On the way back from Augusta, somewhere on I-20, the Emperor hit the 73,000 mile mark.
Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 51
The “Gang of Six” meet tonight at Miyabi Japanese restaurant in Augusta for dinner. We had a 5:30 reservation and it is a good thing, as Donna and I arrived first, a couple minutes after five, and there was already a wait for walk-ins of 45 minutes.
Every one is seated at tables of 8, so we six are joined by a woman and her 5-year old son. They sat on the same end of the table as Donna and I and the little boy was very well behaved. Turns out they have eaten here before and it his favorite restaurant, even more so than McDonalds. He even ate with chop sticks (although they did have training wheels.)
If you have eaten at one of these places, you know the drill, a chef comes out and cooks in front of you. There are slashing knives and flipping spatulas. There is copious amounts of food cooked in a lot of butter and soy sauce. He sautees up some vegetables and then brings out this giant bowl of white rice and inverts it on the grill. It is the size of a basketball, I bet there are 72,000 grains of rice there. After it is separated into 8 parts, each serving is 3 x 6 x 2″ thick. Finally the meat is cooked and added to your plate, the pile of food in front of you is now enough to feed a small African nation. All 3 couples left with enough stuff in a to go box for lunch for two for another day.
For dessert we had homemade raspberry yogurt at one couple’s home and discussed everything from Presidential campaigns to Japanese after market parts for Miatas to whether Gene Simmons either aced the previous evening’s Celebrity Apprentice challenge or maybe marked himself for firing next week.
On the way back to Aiken the Emperor clicked over the 72,000 mile mark.
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 1o
 Would you believe 7,100? How about 710? 71? There are probably somewhere between those last numbers decorating this spectacular Christmas tree on the back wall of my cubical/office. It is two sections of mesh net lights that go on the shrubs in front of a house. They used to grace our old artificial tree, but now that we have a smaller tree they are obsolete. When I first put them up I just hung them as a big ol’ rectangle. It looked awful, but I didn’t know what else to do. When my wife showed up for lunch she suggested the tree shape by letting the top panel hang from a center point. Smart girl.
 We gathered some small bits of discarded valve parts for decorations, but more was needed. So I brought in a box from the attic at home that contained all my old drafting supplies from way back in the day — pre-computer. I probably have the only tree decorated with circle & lettering templates, pencils with different grade leads, technical pens of varying line widths, a compass for drawing big circles and a pocket protector. Plus there are even some small actual Christmas ornaments on there.
On the way back from checking the MMC P.O. Box in North Augusta tonight the Emperor clicked over the 71,000 mile mark.
Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 495
 Which is over 191 years worth, neither I nor the condo balcony I was standing on when I took this photo will ever see that total, the Emperor won’t make that many either, but it had traveled over that number in miles by late this afternoon.
Donna and I went to bed around 9:30 last night so we were up at the crack of dawn, literally. After breakfast we postponed our usual walk on the beach because it was quite chilly and windy. Instead we hopped in the car and drove to Bluffton, Hardeeville and Ridgeland to take Post Office Portraits. Our little loop brought us back to HHI where we ponied up the $5 for a day pass to nab the missing Harbortown branch PO on the Sea Pines Plantation.
Along the way we made several stops, ostensively to shop for the few remaining folks on our Christmas list, but I think Donna and I made out better than anyone. Our last stop was a used book store near the entrance to Sea Pines where we both got a couple of hardcovers to read. One of the ones I got was the latest Robert B. Parker Spenser novel which some one had just brought in today.
Right next door to the shopping center the bookstore was in was a Sticky Fingers restaurant. The one in Augusta had catered a lunch at ASCO when we had some visitors in and those who had the food said it was good. Being lunchtime Donna and I, let the car sit and walked the 100 feet over. It was 12:30 on a Saturday and there were two cars in the parking lot. Both in the back. One cook and one waitress? I was a little hesitant to eat at a place were we were the only customers, but it was a chain, so it couldn’t possibly be awful. It wasn’t. We split a lunch combo plate which consisted of 2 big ribs, a pulled pork sandwich, some beans and some slaw. Everything was tasty except for the slaw which was bland which means we would, if the opportunity strikes again, eat at a Sticky Fingers again.
Late afternoon found us at Donna Horsman’s house for some grilled chicken, roasted new potatoes, green beans and salad. We hadn’t seen Donna since attending Jerry’s memorial service back in May. She, with the help of her daughter, has continued to manage the 18 condos at the Beach & Tennis Resort and will for at least one more year. I think it helps keep her busy and mind off the loss of Jerry the Condo King. I guess I’ll have to start referring to Donna as the Condo Queen and Lisa can get the “title” of Condo Princess.
Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 481
Last night we turned the clocks back and took advantage of that extra hour to sleep it away. But somehow, even though we got moving this morning at the “normal” time, it seemed like we were an hour behind all day.
Might have been the time we spent walking around at the Cowpens National Battlefield or it could have been time spent walking a block of downtown Gaffney looking for a Post Office or it could have been the time spent circling Newberry looking for a lunch place before ending up at Taco Bell or maybe it was…
Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me.
We pillage, we plunder, we rifle, and loot,
Drink up, me ‘earties, yo ho.
We kidnap and ravage and don’t give a hoot,
Drink up me ‘earties, yo ho.
I told her not to do it, but she did it anyway, Donna switched the channel over to USA at 8:00PM tonight and another 20 minutes were lost — watching the beginning of TDPM.
Somewhere between Carlisle and Union the Emperor kicked over 69,000 miles. With 3 weeks to go until HRH’s 4th birthday he may even reach the 70k mark before then.
Started up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 468
 We set out to get the remaining eight Post Offices in the northwest part of the state and ended up with 9. Midway between Travelers Rest and Liberty we passed right by a mystery CPU. I did a u-turn and went back to get a photo. The closest town to us then was Dacusville, but it didn’t have a Post Office. Donna wrote down the address and this evening when we got home I looked for a Post Office in that town, none was listed. There was a new CPU for Easley that wasn’t on my original spreadsheet, the addresses matched. We have 299 PO photos taken, but we now have 162 to go as the state total just got kicked up a notch. About halfway through our loop we detoured up to Caesar’s Head State Park to see if any of the leaves were changing, they weren’t. The photo above is the view from the lookout near the ranger station, that granite faced mountain off in the distance is Table Rock Mountain with Pinnacle Lake in front of it.
Somewhere south of Calhoun Falls on SC81 the Emperor passed through the 68,000 mile mark.
Started up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 444
 The Emperor passed through the 67,000 mile mark not too far from the Oconee Nuclear Station. We stopped in and photographed Gnorm sitting on a concrete block just outside the plant. He really liked the looks of the round water tower that had rings around it so it took on the appearance of an atom. In case you can’t read the words on the yellow tag, it says, Radioactive Material, RWP Required for Entry, Notify RP Prior to Entry, Authorized Entry Only.
We finished up taking pictures of all the fish we could find and ended up missing only two (well, three because we just have a picture of the empty base of one.) All 46 photos can be seen in my Flickr photo set: Fish Out of Water 2.
On the Post Office front, we did 13 this morning and 7 more tonight. May do some more on Sunday morning before heading home (may not either.) So it will take me a while to sort through and post them.
We also brought along my Godson Gnorm and snapped about 10 travel log photos of him that will need to be tweaked and uploaded to Flickr! as well.
Started up, went down, back up, back down, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 413
 At least that is how many it seemed like as the peleton streaked by us yesterday afternoon in Greenville. It is also the mileage milestone that the Miata moved past this afternoon somewhere south of Laurens, SC.
We took the “long” way home today by circling north of Duncan before heading south to visit 9 more Post Offices for photographing. That made a total of 33 POs for our three day trip. Going to take a while to get all of those photos edited and online. I know I’m going to have a heck of a time remembering anything unique about every one of them for captioning. Good thing we are not going anywhere next weekend.
Even with all driving, picture taking and bike race watching I still had time to finish one Spenser book and start another. This one won’t make the Spenser’s Crime Buster Rules page, so I’ll post it here:
There was no answer when we rang the bell. The house had that stillness that had Paul had mentioned. In the interests of not looking like a jerk, I tried the doorknob. It was locked.
“I already tried that,” Paul said.
“It’s a Dick Tracy crime stopper,” I said. “Always try the door before jimmying it.”
“Great working with a pro,” Paul said.
Started up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 376
 We are at 221 South Carolina Post Offices. About half. I say about because when I started this and made up my spreadsheet of all the POs in the state I came up with 460. How accurate that total will turn out to be is not clear. Ther are 9 military bases that I’m not sure I will be allowed to waltz onto to just take a picture. There is a Greenwood Post Office I know exists, but isn’t on the list because it is not listed on USPS.com. How many more are there that I don’t know about? How many are listed and aren’t there anymore?
So far, four are MIA, including the one that is supposed to be at 4708 Sandy Run Road (see attached photo) that we tried to find today. On the USPS web site this is called a Hampton Post Office, with a name of Crocketville. As you can see it doesn’t look much like a Post Office. Probably was one when Crocketville was a real town and not just a marked section on SC63 east of Hampton, but no more.
There are 3 Post Offices listed for Walterboro, two of which are north of town and not too far off I-95, so it was decided to get these two before getting the downtown PO. The best laid plans… We got on I-95 heading north and after a 1/2 mile there were orange signs warning of an accident ahead. Then we got one of those display boards that said there was a detour around the accident at the next exit. Then with three miles to go to the exit, traffic came to a standstill. We crept along with 65,000 other cars to the next exit. Donna suggested we give up on this PO because of the traffic, so we got off the northbound exit, looped right back on the southbound and shelved those Post Offices for another time.
Our other failure this weekend occurred in Beaufort on Lady’s Island. We couldn’t find the address of 10 Sams Point Rd. There was a shopping center with a Publix that might have been it, but there was not any USP signage out front (nor an address either.) There was a shopping center kind of parallel but it was on a different road. We looked there and didn’t find anything either. Now that we are home and see that that road is called Sams Point Parkway it may need another visit. This is not a hardship in any way because this is just a stone’s throw away from the other reason we went south to Beaufort besides Post Offices, Barbara Jean’s crab cakes.
About 10 miles from home the Emperor passed through 65,000 miles.
Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 337
 What the heck is this?
Another Carolina Car Trek car. This is one of two in the thriving megalopolis of Society Hill, SC.
Somewhere north of Chesterfield, SC the Emperor drove through the 64,000 mile mark. We have eaten out twice today, but I can’t talk about it because I just got through watching Feasting on Asphalt II. They spent two days around New Orleans and what they got to eat made anything I had today look and taste like soggy Ritz crackers.
Spent Today: $49.70
Year to Date: $1713.42
Meals out, 99 of a possible 642.
At Cousin Laurie’s house we meet up with some of the same cast of characters as you can see in this photo, AKA the Midlothian McGraths, who were visiting as well. I found out that I had mislabeled the oldest and middle daughters in the photo. I’m pretty sure I’ve got them correct now.
We snagged 4 Post Offices this morning on the way up to Chesterfield; Hopkins, Gadsden, Eastover and Horatio. The first three have been at the top of our Most Wanted List for a couple months now, but because of where they are located (in the middle of, and on the way to, nowhere) it took a concerted effort to get them photographed. We are planning on an even dozen for on the way home tomorrow because if we get that many our captured total would be a nice round 200.
Started down, went up, back down, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 309
 We were back in northeast South Carolina hunting Post Offices. Knocked off 16 more, bring our total captured to 184 out of the total of 460. I was stopped by a freight train twice over the weekend, once on Saturday with Donna’s cousin Susie and her daughter Katlin in a Jaguar XJ8 and on Sunday with Donna in the Miata.
The visit wasn’t all fun and games though, we were there to offer what moral support we could to Donna’s cousin Laurie because her husband Ted was in the hospital. Ted’s lifelong health issues had final caught up with him. Diabetes and a bad heart caused an early retirement. The diabetes led to weakened kidney’s which finally gave up after a his last heart attack necessitating dialysis. When we visited in March they were still struggling with getting the home dialysis to work right and Ted reminded us of how Donna’s mom had gotten towards the end. When we stopped in last week the both of us were shocked at how far he had deteriorated. He fell out of bed on Tuesday and was hospitalized in Florence at the McLeod Medical Center. Ted passed away early this morning.
While traveling west, somewhere east of North, South Carolina the Emperor moved past the 63,000 mile mark.
For dinner we both had a bowl of Won-ton Soup and an Egg Roll, while we split an order of Jade Chicken (don’t know if this is a regular Chinese restaurant dish or just got it’s name because we were eating a place called Jade of China.)
Meal Cost: $13.90
Tip: $2.10
Spent This Meal: $16.00
Year to Date: $1509.70
Meals out, 85 of a possible 585.
Started up, went down, back up, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 278
 Concord, NC to Aiken, SC. We managed to ride with the top down until we got to Chesterfield, SC to visit Donna’s cousin Laurie and her husband Ted. When we left them at around 11:00 it was already over 90º. After passing through a rain shower with the cloud cover still intact we finished the last 30 miles with it down again. It sure is fun visiting places, but it is great to be back home. Some trip notes:
- When I got in the car this morning the odometer read 62005 for the 3rd milestone of the trip, didn’t notice it last night when we parked.
- Total mileage for the trip: 2,637.4 for an average of 240 miles per day. Even though it didn’t move at all for a day and a half in DC and our hotel in CT was only 6 miles from the house.
- I filled up with gas 11 times or about once a day. The highest price paid for gas was $3.40 in Yorktown Heights, NY and the lowest was $2.88 in Clear Brook, VA. Average cost for the whole trip $3.15 (premium fuel.)
- Don’t ask about mileage because I don’t track that. I will do some quick math and see if it over 27 MPG. If it is, everything is OK.
- Signs on the side of the road in Connecticut warned that the fine for littering is $219. Why the odd figure?
- We took money out of a free standing ATM machine in a hotel lobby and the fee for using it was $3.05, not the usual two bucks. I can understand $3, but why the extra nickel?
- Public restrooms are scarcer up north compared to around here. So sometimes we had to get creative.
a. The first floor in hotels will always have restrooms, just walk in like you belong there.
b. We used the restrooms just inside the entrance of the Newton, NJ hospital when asking around downtown failed to turn up any place to go.
- At one hotel restroom break we even grabbed a banana off the breakfast bar, because the place we had stayed at didn’t have them. So if you are bold enough you should be able to walk right in and get a whole breakfast at most places.
- I bought a hooded sweatshirt at Furman U in Greenville on the way up. It served me well at altitude on the Blue Ridge Parkway and in the unseasonably cool CT weather, but will now be exiled to the back of the closet until November.
- I managed to finish one paperback book on the trip, good thing I was a quarter of the way through when we started.
- High-speed internet access was free everywhere we stayed and ranged from very marginal in a middle of the hall room in the Farmington Inn to excellent in a room at the end of the hall at the same place.
a. Last night’s started good and got crappy later in the evening. Even tried the Cat-5 cable which professed to having a 10Mb connection wouldn’t do crap. Maybe there is a download throttle…
Didn’t take any pictures today either, so for your entertainment, I present a shot of the Colonnade at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, VA froom yesterday.
Started up, went down, back up, back down, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 263
 Or 61,000 Carousel Horses.
Today we all piled into two cars and headed over a couple towns to Bristol and visited the Carousel Museum. I am not as big a fan of carousels as others in the group, but it was a very interesting couple hours, mostly due to our guide. She was only two years out of high school, but her knowledge and interest in the subject as well as a natural way with us, John Q. Public, made the subject almost exciting.
This evening Donna and I went over to catch up with a boyhood chum and his wife who we hadn’t seen in a while. We had a good time catching up on the events of the distant and recent past. Unfortunately a lot of the discussion centered around the foibles of our being upper middle-aged.
The Emperor clicked over to exactly 61,000 miles as I pulled into the hotel parking lot tonight.
Started up, went down, back up, back down, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 249
 Today the three of us visited the National Zoo. It is just a $1.40 Metro ride from the station near our hotel/Sally’s apartment. We got there around 9:00AM and just walked right in. Cool, my (and your) tax dollars at work. Maps of the zoo are free, but there is a mandatory $1 donation. Stroller rental is free, but there is a mandatory $11 donation.
After three hours we had seen about 90% of the place and what was once cool and sparsely attended had became hot and crowded. Time to go. When we got off the train back in Rosslyn we had lunch at a Red, Hot and Blue BBQ place just up the street. The rest of the afternoon was spent at rest nursing the blisters on our feet. Because lunch was bigger than we expected, when the three of got together at Sally’s place for the evening meal it was just cheese, fruit and crackers.
Tomorrow it is off to Connecticut. My Mom’s Obituary was in today’s New Britain paper.
A couple of catch-up items from the trip that I forgot to blog about on their respective days:
1. Wednesday in Asheville After dinner we went to a Marble Slab Creamery for dessert. Whenever I get ice cream I always get some sort of coffee flavored dish. I also love malted milk balls, but when combined as ice cream and a mixin they subtract from each other’s deliciousness. Note to self, don’t do that again.
2. Thursday on the way to Salem The Emperor passed through the 60,000 mile mark.
Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 235
 Alternate Title: Down on the Farm.
The Single-A farm in Greenville, South Carolina. The Drive are affiliated with the FRS and to show the love, last year they opened a new stadium with the same dimensions as Fenway Park in Beantown (including a 30′ high Green Monster with manual scoreboard.
Because we are traveling we are eating out. Breakfast with the MMC at the Sunrise Grill in North Augusta. The joint we were supposed to meet at at 7:00 AM had changed their opening hour from seven to eight recently leaving us locked out in an empty parking lot. No worries mate, we just moved the show a 1/4 mile up the street. Half a waffle and two eggs for her, western omelette with home fries for me. I had a cup of joe and she had a hot chocolate.
Meal Cost: $15.63
Tip: $3.00
This Meal: $18.53
Lunch at a Cracker Barrel in Greenville. I had the spicy grilled catfish sandwich on sourdough and Donna had a bowl of tortilla soup. One iced tea, one water to drink and guess who had what.
Meal Cost: $13.25
Tip: $3.00
This Meal: $16.25
Dinner at the ballpark. $5 a piece tip to the Maitre De got us in the door (AKA General Admission tickets.) Nachos for her, Italian sausage for him. Diet DP for him, bottled water for her. We split an 8-pack of chicken nuggets a little later.
Meal Cost: $16.00
Tip: None
Spent Today: $50.78
Year to Date: $1314.32
Meals out, 73 of a possible 498.
The game was supposed to start at 7:00 PM, but it was probably still pouring down rain at that time. The rain did stop and the game started at 7:30. We entered the stadium at 6:00 when they opened the gates and after eating and taking shelter, by the time the game started we had had enough. From the way the skies looked we were sure it was going to rain some more any minute, so we left. Seeing as the rain showers were scattered we opted to drive around Greenville and take some of the PO pictures we were going to do tomorrow. Ended up doing all of them (that we could find.) There is one on the Furman campus according to USPS.com, but we didn’t see it.
At the last one of the night, a CPU in an ACE Hardware store, the odometer read exactly 59,000 miles.
Started down, went up, back down, up again, down once more, up yet again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 203
or They Made Me An Offer I Couldn’t Refuse
 Today was the MMC’s bi-annual Driving Miss Daisys Event at the Elmcroft Assisted Living Center. We had 7 Miatas and a Sebring show up for caravan duty and we had 9 female residents go for a ride up and around Strom Thurmond Dam at Clarks Hill. Their combined ages were nowhere near 58,000, but that is the mile mark the Emperor passed on the trip. We could not have asked for a better day, it was around 70 degrees and not a cloud in the sky.
Afterwards all us Miata types went out for lunch. Some one suggested a semi-new Mediterranean restaurant up the road a piece in Evans, GA called Khalid’s Cafe. The service was leisurely (partly because the eleven of us overloaded their Saturday lunch staff), but definitely worth the wait. A return visit is in the offing for a Club meeting at a later date.Donna ordered up a bowl of Lentil Soup, a Greek Salad and Sprite to drink. I went for a Kufta Burger with Iced Tea to drink. We each had a piece of Baklawa for dessert. My mouth is watering just typing this.
Meal Cost: $23.86
Tip: $3.14
Spent Today: $27.00
Year to Date: $1135.58
Meals out, 61 of a possible 417.
Because of my affection for Rudy and Patti’s gnome Gnorm, they asked me to be his Godfather. I readily accepted and my first act was to volunteer to take him with Donna and I on our trip to the northwest starting next week. I sure hope Gnorm’s blue coat is waterproof…
Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 167
 We went for a hike in the Woods this morning. In our quest to walk on all the trails in there we entered in a different spot than usual and purposely walked on some trails that really didn’t go anywhere special, just looped and/or spurred out along the edges. We did stumble on the big field that was full of these little purple wildflowers (botanists feel free to let me know what they might be.)
For lunch Donna had a hankering for Mexican so we headed over to our new favorite place for that regional cuisine, Maria’s. We got the usual Carnitas and forgetting that we really didn’t need them, 3 hard shell tacos. Sierra Mist to drink for the lady and I had ice water.
Meal Cost: $15.27
Tip: $2.73
Spent Today: $18.00
Year to Date: $909.27
On the short 1–1/2 mile drive back from Maria’s the Emperor ticked past the 57,000 mile mark. To make up for passing that major milestone on such a short trip, tonight when we went grocery shopping we took the 28 mile longcut to the store that is only a mile away.
I found this cool place on the web that will create just the right striped background image for you, Stripe Generator 2.0, now I just wish this template wasn’t so confounded complex so I could add some stripes here.
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 130
We were going to eat our usual bagel at the Atlanta Bread Company, then it changed to Waffle House, but because we had some time to spare before our trip to the Columbia Airport we opted to dine at the local IHOP. Pigs in a Blanket for me and Eggs Benedict for her. I had OJ and Donna stuck with water.
Meal Cost: $15.44
Tip: $2.56
Spent Today: $18.00
Year to Date: $710.83
We weren’t flying anywhere from Columbia, but we were escorting a women who was. She works for ASCO in Florham Park, NJ and is contemplating making the same move Donna and I made 18 years ago, i.e. transferring down to the Aiken plant. She has been been here since Thursday interviewing and looking at houses. The job here, I think, is pretty much hers for the asking, all she has to decide is if she wants to make the leap.
After dropping Joan off at rental return lot at CAE we heading around to the other side of the airport to take a photo of the Columbia AMF (Air Mail Facility.) We of course had a line up of other Post Offices in the vacinity to take photos of as well, ten total, truth be told. Two others in West Columbia, the one in Cayce, three in downtown Columbia and the three we didn’t get in Lexington the other week.
Normal temps this time of year is lower seventies, but today broke an all time record as we hit the 90 mark. It was already almost 80 by the time we started picture taking and the pine pollen was so thick it looked like a yellow fog. As we drove, we could look at the other cars around us and see pollen rooster tails behind them!
 <— Incredible Simulation of the atmospheric conditions around midday in the SC midlands.
Plan B became forget the Columbia and Cayce POs and get the 2 West Columbia ones and because Lexington was on the way home, we’d get those three as well. This worked out nicely because when the day started there were 94 POs in the gallery and this would make a nice even 100. Plan B hit a major snag when the 900 block of North Lake Drive in Lexington held nothing other than a Shell gas station and a Hardee’s. Crap, looks like we would finish the day one shy of the century mark.
In the beginning of this quest I was skeptical of taking pictures of the Postal Service’s Contract Postal Units (AKA CPUs), figuring they wouldn’t have any signage marking them as Post Offices, but so far, of the 4 we passed, all had a big sign out front and had posed to have their portraits taken. Plan C was born. Aiken has a CPU, maybe, just maybe, that would be 100. Sure enough, after covering most of the western side of the state on Post Office safaris, photo number one hundred was taken just a little over a mile from number one.
On the way to the airport this morning, somewhere close to Couchton, the Emperor passed by the 56,000 mile mark.
Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 95
Although she wanted it yesterday, she got it today. Breakfast at Hardee’s. Biscuit and Gravy for Donna and I had a Sausage and Egg Biscuit. We split a small Hashrounds while I had OJ and she drank a water.
Meal Cost: $5.28
Tip: None
This Meal: $5.28
Year to Date: $563.99
 This week was our LDSW, so we were off this afternoon. Since we had breakfast out and knew we were eating dinner out, we opted to eat lunch at home. We were then going to go for a hike in Hitchcock Woods because we were unsure of this weekend’s weather and wanted to get in a little exercise to counter our huge caloric intake for this week. The immense gravitational force of our couch almost prevented the hike, she had a book, I had a book… In the end we did manage to reach escape velocity and get outside for our hike. Glad we did, as it was near perfect weather for it. A lot of other people thought it was a nice day to enjoy the woods too, we saw five folks on horseback, about twice that on foot and one red-tailed hawk gliding on thermals looking for an afternoon snack.
This evening we dined with a couple other couples at Rae’s Coastal Cafe in Augusta. Donna had the Coconut Shrimp and I had the Jerk Chicken. The food was great (as always) and may explain this place’s popularity. We got there a little after it opened and 5:30 and before we even got our salads the place was nearly full. By the time we were done eating the waiting patrons were packed two deep at the bar with spill over clogging the exit aisle.
Meal Cost: $32.28
Tip: $5.72
This Meal: $38.00
Year to Date: $601.99
On the way home from the “big city” the Emperor past through the 55k mile mark and not a single one was traveled through a food court at a mall. When they ask for a login, user billydwilliams with a password of thatsright.
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 74
 Forgot to mention this yesterday — Somewhere not too long after we left the Food Lion parking lot yesterday on the way to Newberry, the Emperor turned over 54,000 miles. This works out to an average of over 45 miles a day since we brought it home back in November of 2003, or about 1,380 miles a month.
Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 45
Who knew that the Godfather of Soul was into Geocaching? Not me, but according to his “widow” Tomi Rae Hynie*, he buried large amounts of cash in the backyard of his Beech Island, SC home. If you feel like you want to take a chance that you’ll get by the gates, the security and quite possibly the guard dogs here are coordinates of the stash/cache. +33° 25′ 30.90″, –81° 49′ 58.08″ (If you enter those coordinates into Google Earth you can get a nice view of the next Graceland.)
We are in Hilton Head for the next couple of days for some off-season beach fun. On the way down tonight, the Emperor passed through the 53,000 mile mark some where on Road #1 on the US Government’s Top Secret Bomb Plant less than 20 miles from James Brown’s house.
Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 27
* I could have sworn I heard this a couple times on CNN Headline News last night, but searching for any reference of this “story” on the CNN web site today returned no hits.
That it just about as many calories as I have consumed in the last two days at work. If I don’t see another cookie, brownie or piece of fudge for the next two months I wouldn’t be disappointed.
The Emperor glided past that same number mileage milestone on the way to a friends home this evening. We had some nice healthful vegetable soup followed by dessert of chocolate cookie bars, peanut butter cookies with chocolate frosting, pecan-date pinwheels.…
Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 516
 Ate the end of yesterday’s drive we were one mile short of 1515 for the trip and the Emperor was just two miles shy of the 51k mark. We took care of the short coming on the way to the store for our weekly grocery shopping. Seems like we must be driving the heck out of this car recently as the mileage milestones are coming fast and furious. 51,000 — 11/26 • 50,000 — 11/21 • 49,000 — 11/08 • 48,000 — 10/28 Last November 14th we were just at 31,000…
Donna’s cough was a little better today and her voice didn’t crack but once. She still needs to talk to the doctor tomorrow because she should be getting over this by now. Of course the reason she might be feeling better is she has passed along some of those flu germs to me. Started feeling a little off last night and continued on to today. No cough or fever, but body aches, headache and a general out of sorts feeling. We have stayed pretty much indoors all day and both of us have caught naps on the couch twice. We are going to try and get to bed a little early too.
The photo was taken by Donna’s brother Steve as we got ready to leave for home on Friday afternoon.
Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 483
 Somewhere just north of St Augustine the Emperor glided past the 50k mark. I guess I was wrong the other day when I said there would be miles left to travel on the warranty when we ran out of time. Just the opposite, the 3 year/50k warranty has expired with three days left.
We drove out of Georgia on I-95, but 36 miles was all we could take. Just after stopping and getting some free OJ at the welcome center, we got off the ugly Interstate and picked up A1A. We then drove the whole way down to New Smyrna Beach following the coastal road. Sometimes beautiful, sometimes tacky, sometimes crowded and sometimes nearly empty, taking the slow road, if you have the time, is the way to go. It helped that it is off-season which kept the crowds way down. The big trouble for us was that the weather was way off-season. Average high this time of year along the middle Florida coast is is 75, but today is wasn’t even 55. Combined with the 10–20 MPH mean that the top was up all day and any ventures out to look at the beach and waves was very brief.
Even though I was running right at the speed limit, Johnny Law shadowed me for a couple mile when we drove through Daytona Beach.
Before dinner tonight we took a walk around a mile and a half circular boardwalk that is at the north end of New Smyrna Beach’s coast. It was a quick walk over about 50,000 pieces of treated wood. The sun had finally popped out from under the clouds, but it was too late to raise the temperature any as it traversed the last 10 degrees of it’s arc before disappearing beneath the horizon.
Food for today consisted of the “deluxe” continental breakfast at the Village Inn, bah. Lunch at another Barbara Jean’s (which turns out to be a mini chain of about 6 restaurants), very good, but finished off any possible crab cake cravings for a month or so. Dinner was at Vincente’s in New Smyrna Beach, a small Italian place whose baked ziti was just the right amount to split and very satisfying.
Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 471
 Is how many litter our front yard after the last few days of wind and rain.
It is also the amount of miles on the car. We must have hit the 49k mark late last night because after I made the 6 mile trip to work this morning the odometer read 49008. The Miata when new came with a 50,000 mile/3 year warranty and it looks like we are going to be a little shy of the mileage mark when we pass thru the time limit in 16 days.
In an attempt to wipe out the memory of the lousy “pizza” we ate last Friday on HHI we went to Ferrando’s in the Alley. It worked. Lou and company serve up an excellent pie and as Rachel Ray would say, “Yummo!” Best part is we only eat half of the 14“er in one sitting, so we have the other half for, let’s say, Saturday lunch. It’s all I can do from raiding the fridge right now.
Started up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 452
 That is the average leaf count on a mature maple tree* and coincidentally, the mileage the Emperor passed on the way to to meet the participants of the MMC Leaf Peeping Expedition. Over 400 miles and 11 hours later we are home and just a little tuckered out.
We had pretty much the average turn out for our club on an event recently, 3 cars. I threatened to cancel if at least 4 cars didn’t show up, but that was an empty boast as my navigator told me that even if we were the only car we we going on the run. The six of us devoured enough breakfast at the Cracker Barrel to sustain us for a week in the Amazon before setting out in search of chlorophyll challenged leaves. The first 11 miles were Interstate, but after we got to two-lane blacktop 2/3 of the tops folded down. The sun was just beginning to peek over the tree tops and the temps were in the low 60’s so the windows and wind blockers were still up.
After our first pit stop and because one couple had yet to experience them, we made a stop at the Georgia Guidestones, AKA the American Stonehenge. The journey then continued up the eastern edge of Georgia. A quick dip into SC before ending up at Black Mountain State Park back in north Georgia. Two years ago when we did this trip with the Club we were about two weeks late and the vistas were of a uniform brown. This time we hit at just about peak and the mountains were very colorful.
Lunch was at the renown Dillard House just up the road from the state park. The six of us devoured enough food at lunch to sustain us on a circumnavigation of the globe. After eating we took a winding road to Highlands, NC where we lost one car to shopping in the downtown. Donna and I, along with, the appropriately named Autumn and Dave, gassed up and headed down the mountain and back into SC.
Highway 28 from Highlands back to the flatlands is a great Miata road full of twists and turns and all manner of decreasing radius bends. I won’t mention any names, but one of this crew really regretted the amount of food they consumed at lunch. About halfway through the good stuff we came up on a Mazda Tribute (the mini-SUV) who obliviously didn’t get zoom-zoom memo. He was going around the turns so slow we could have passed him on a skateboard. With no place to really pass and with two cars to boot we played whip with him for about 20 miles, alternately slowing way down letting him get a “big” head start and then charging back at a more appropriate Miata speed.
Awesome trip, but a long day, so I’m glad we only do it once a year.
* Oh yeah, I made that leaf count statistic up so it would fit the car’s mileage.
Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 436
At least that is what it seemed like on our morning walk in Hitchcook Woods this morning after last week’s walk along a human only trail out west. Because we got a late start (after 10:00 AM) we had to share the woods with a half-dozen people walking dogs and a third of a dozen horseback riders. I took a couple pictures that I need to look at for the October addition to the Hitchcock Woods 2006 gallery.
We went out shopping at the mall this afternoon. Donna needs new shoe laces for her hiking boots and I wanted to get a Detroit Tigers ball cap to wear to work tomorrow just to rib my Yankee loving manager. We didn’t buy either. We forgot to measure how long Donna’s laces were, so we didn’t take a chance on getting some too short or too long. The only Detroit hats we could find were of the fitted variety and they were $30. That was too much for a hat that I’d probably only wear once, fifteen would have been just about right.
We went to a local church’s Chocolate Festival yesterday. Donna likes to bid on some of the stuff at their silent auction and I like to pick some of their used books. She didn’t win anything and I got 4 books and she one, for 5 books it cost a whopping $3. I picked up one book, In Her Shoes, because the title sounded familiar. Oh, yeah, its a movie with Cameron Diaz or somebody (its in the Netflix queue right now.) I opened the book at random and started reading, hey, this is pretty funny stuff, so I bought it. I also bought a second book by the same author Jennifer Weiner.
The Emperor snicked past 47,000 miles this morning on the way to our walk in the woods.
Started down, went up, back down, up, down, up again, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 416
That is approximately how many turns those little cute wheels on my rollerblades made this morning. Wow, first time in at least 6 months I’ve strapped on the skates and I did my usual 3 mile out and back. I was surprised I didn’t fade in the end, seeing as I hadn’t used those muscles in a while. May do it a little more often now as the temps have dropped out of the 90s in the afternoon all the way into the middle 80s, positively autumnal.
Coincidentally that number is the same as the number on the Emperor’s odometer right now (actually 46048.) It happened yesterday on the way to work.
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 376
 A co-worker shared his September issue of Automobile magazine with me today. The cover story was titled “The 25 Most Beautiful Cars Ever.” When you talk style and design everyone has an opinion and I can agree with most of their assessments, but they needed to drop one of the ones they picked or have made it twenty-six because they forgot to include the 2001–2005 Mazda Miata. 
I even have no quibble with them listing the current Pontiac Solstice as a future collectible that you can buy now. It is not a bad looking car, but it will be a collectible because the total number of Solstices produced won’t be very many. If they make them for more than five years I’ll be surprised.
The biggest bewilderment was smack in the middle of the article, between the 1990–96 Nissan 300ZX and the 1954–57 Mercedes Benz 300SL Gull wing was a 4 page fold out on the new Chrysler Sebring. WTF? This car is one ugly thing. Matter of fact its looks could be improved by adding one or more of the article’s big styling dont’s, fake wood grain siding, a vinyl top or some opera windows.
On the way home from work today the Emperor surpassed the 45,000 mile mark. Hey, isn’t that some sort of service milestone?
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 336
 1 — Four is the only number in the English language for which the number of letters in its name is equal to the number itself. 2 — People have four canines, four incisor and four wisdom teeth. 3 — Four is considered an unlucky number in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese cultures because it sounds like the word “death.“
4 — In tarot, card No. 4 is “the Emperor.”
The cockpit of the Miata is a warm place to be. A known issue is the fresh air venting. It draws air from the cowl area and by the time it gets from there to the interior of the car it is considerably warmer than the outside air. I’ve tried nearly all the suggestions on Miata.net, but the air is still warm. Some one on the forum did something about it and created this neat little air scoop thing that mounts on the windshield header when the top is down. Maybe next spring we will invest in one of the Cool Breeze Scoops, $41 with shipping.
For now I have invested $25 in solving the other source of unwanted interior heat, the transmission tunnel. The exhaust pipe and premuffler run right along underneath the tunnel on the driver’s side and after an hour or so of driving you can toast Pop Tarts between the tunnel and the driver’s seat cushion. This morning I pulled the seats and console out of the Emperor out. I folded back the carpet, so I could line the transmission tunnel and for good measure most of the floor pan with Reflectix using shiny foil duct tape. It took a couple hours to cut and tape around the seat mounting points, E-brake, a couple of wiring harnesses and the rubber shift boot.
Speaking of shift boots, mine was cracked/ripped and this also lets in heat big time. Not only was the large inside boot in need of replacing, but the smaller boot that seals the transmission turret to the shifter was blown as well. This is another reason the Cool Breeze Scoop will wait, it’ll cost $46 to buy replacements for both these rubber pieces.
Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 307
…in a single scoop of Gold Rush ice cream.
Not really, but there are now 44,000 miles on the Emperor. The odometer rolled past that figure as I rolled over about 44,000 pieces of crushed stone in the gravel driveway of Flanigan’s Ice Cream Parlor.
Started up, went down, went up, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 290
 Since last Thursday a 1/2 scale version of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial has been set up in a park not to far from our house. The Wall That Heals travels around the country allowing folks who can’t or won’t make the trip to the actual memorial in Washington DC. Donna and I visited the actual Wall way back in the early 80’s when it had not been open for very long, so we thought it might be cool to see this version too. Because the traveling wall, like the original, is open 24 hours a day, we decided to wait until 10PM or so last night to visit, so we could take advantage of the cool night air. Plus there is something about the memorial that makes a visit in darkness more fitting.
I know, there are actually over 58,000 names engraved on the Wall, but 43,000 works better for me here because that is the amount of miles the Emperor has traveled in it’s lifetime. Passed through that mark on the way home from Augusta this morning.
We went over to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie at an early morning showing in a theater with stadium seating. I enjoyed it more than Donna did, but we still felt it was worth the time, money and effort to see it in an actual movie theater instead of waiting for the DVD. Not as much humor and not nearly as many quotable lines. There was a lot more action, some of it bordering on the unbelievable. I say bordering, because after all, if you can except that Davy Jones has the head of an octopus, one hand that is a lobster claw and his still beating heart is locked in a buried chest miles away on a dessert isle, how can three men carrying out a raging sword fight on a 25′ water wheel as it rolls down a hill be unbelievable?
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 256
About 42,000 feet outside of Anderson,SC the odometer clicked over 42,000 miles. We are on our way to a mini-vacation getaway to western NC and the destination of choice or both of us. For her a two night stay in her favorite B & B, the Blue Boar Inn, and for me a couple days of twisty roads, including the king of curves, Deal’s Gap.
Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 235
Just less than a mile from home on the way to work this morning the odometer glided past the 41k mark.
Tonight we went out to watch a friends son play baseball. We have watched Jacob play since T-ball (he just got his driver’s license 6 days ago) and now he is playing with the big boys, the 15–18 year olds. The T-ball was fun because the kids were just so cute, but at this age it is almost like real baseball.
We have been known to watch his younger brother play baseball too. But with a four year difference in ages, Jared’s games always seem a lot less structured than big brother’s. Don’t get me wrong, we like to watch Jared play, he pitches a mean game, but Jacob’s games have the benefit of being played by older more experienced kids.
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 190
Dropped the Miata off at the body shop today after work. They gave us a loaner car, a tan Ford Taurus. It has the required rear trunk lid spoiler for that go fast look and rear drum brakes for that stop slow feel.
When I first pointed out my list of flaws to the body shop manager he told me he needed the car for a couple of hours. Tonight when he handed me the keys and I told him I would see him tomorrow around the same time, just the way he said, “I should have it ready for you.”, led both Donna and I to expect the Miata not to be ready then. Sigh.
Almost forgot, on Saturday, about 5 miles past Burlington, NC the Emperor glided past the 40,000 mile mark.
Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 175
Thirty-nine thousand flickered by on the digital odometer during the trip home from work today.
When I picked up the car from the body shop they had washed and waxed the back part of the car (the parts they painted), but didn’t really clean the front. Sunday’s rain left behind spots on the hood of coagulated body shop dust. I have been meaning to wash the car for the past couple of days, but they have been calling for rain. The last chance of precipitation for a while past this morning, so tonight when I got home I broke out the hose and bucket.
While cleaning the car I noticed a couple of things that need addressing from the body shop. When closing the trunk the sound has been a little different. Does the latch need replacing or is it because the trunk is off align of straight by about 1 degree? There are also a couple of dust pimples in the pain on the left trailing edge of the trunk lid. There is also what looks like a milky haze in the clearcoat in a couple spots on the trunk and left fender. The kicker is what at first I thought was dirt and suntan lotion build up on the shift knob turned out to be several small scratches in the clear coating on it. Guess I’ll give them a call tomorrow.
Started down, went up, back down, back up, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 136
The monthly meeting of the MMC was held tonight at the local Red Lobstah. I had two refills of sweet iced tea, 1–1/2 cheese biscuits, a garden salad with 1/2 portion of blue cheese dressing and a main course of Salmon New Orleans (Pan-seared fresh Atlantic or King Salmon & shrimp seasoned with Cajun spices in a rich lemon butter sauce. Served with a side salad, seasonal vegetables & your choice of side.) This is about 38,000 calories, but I can’t be sure because the Red Lobster web site does not have a nutrition guide. Thirty eight thousand is coincidentally the same number the wounded Emperor’s odometer passed through on the way to the meeting.
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 98
Today was the MMC Tech Day and we had a whopping 2 cars get worked on. I did the swap of the slightly stripped lug stud and President Dave had his throttle body cleaned and a remote oil filter mount installed. We had one person come to do some wrenching on others cars, Clunk. His partner Thunk showed up a couple times through out the day to help or hinder as needed.
My stuffing Club newsletters under unsuspecting Miatas in parking lots paid off as someone I had hit twice popped in for a while and visited. Might turn out to be a member, might not.
On the way home I stopped in a Quick-Stop to fill up and realized I had passed through the 37,000 mile mark on the way over. My first clue was the slight smell of gas as I parked by the pumps, I didn’t pick up on it. Clue number 2 was the speedi-dri crunching under my feet as I started to fill the tank, didn’t register. Clue number three was the sound of splashing fluid on the pavement, I got it. The automatic shut off on the nozzle I was using was broken. I stopped at $25.37 and I bet at least the 37 cents worth spilled onto the ground.
Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 80
Last Saturday in front Publix on HHI we bought two boxes of Girl Scout cookies. The Samoas didn’t last the day, while at least some of the Do-Si-Dos made it home.
Today in front of Wal-Mart we bought another box of Samoas and they met the same fate as their brethren did last weekend.
Tomorrow Donna gets the 4 boxes she ordered from a co-worker. I know there is at least one box of Samoas and hopefully they will last at least until Tuesday.
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 56
On the way to dinner out tonight the Emperor notched over the the 35,000 mile mark. Donna and I meet with two other couples for a meeting of the Fine Dining Round-table, a Boolean Subset of the MMC. We reconvened after a long holiday break at the last place we met back in October, Rae’s Coastal Cafe.
While tonight’s meal was good it didn’t live up to either October’s fest or our memory of it. Donna’s twin lobster tails were large and tasty, but my Cajun flounder, off the “specials” menu, was not that great. I’m thinking that maybe Chef Papou must have had the night off. The only thing that saved it was I spread some of the hot sauce that came with John’s Jerk Chicken Meal.
About 12:30 this afternoon the postal delivery person filled our mailbox with a bunch of charitable come ons and Season 1: Disc 2 of “Lost.” We spent the next 3–1/2 hours of a beautiful sunny warm January afternoon inside on the couch riveted by the escapades of 46 individuals stranded on a uncharted Pacific isle.
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 32
Continue reading Lost 35,000 Miles From Home
I feel like such a dummy. I used to be an alpha geek, now I’m lucky if I even can claim the title of plain ol’ geek. My computer knowledge peeked around the cusp of the Windows98/Windows2000 change over. I never really learned anything about networking and it is starting to show.
I managed to get both computers to connect to the Internet through the router. But I can’t get them to talk to each other. I’ve turned on file and printer sharing, I shared the my documents folder on both machines, they belong to the same workgroup. A couple of the tutorials I’ve found on the web have mostly rehashed the same old procedures that come from XP’s built in Network Troubleshooter. I have run XP’s Network Setup Wizard, but always stop short because it looks like it wants to change some setting that I used to get the Internet sharing to work and I don’t want to muck that up.
About halfway to work this morning the Emperor clicked past the 34,000 mile mark. I wanted to say rolled over, but the Miata has a digital odometer so it doesn’t roll at all, it just blinks. The 3 nines change to zeros and the thousands digit advances one. I kinda miss the rolling action. Of course sometimes the zeros didn’t exactly line up nice until a few more miles down the road and that bothered the anal retentive portion of my brain. Maybe the digital is better after all.
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 4
 Today’s State Park of the Day was Lake Louisa in Florida. There was no fancy lodge for lunch like yesterday, but there were a few hiking trails available for a walk. We didn’t walk any because we were pressed for time, but we did drive around and check the whole place out. A nice oasis of nature not too far from Orlando.
Somewhere around the state park driving through endless miles of orange groves, the Emperor passed the 33,000 mile mark. It was exactly a week ago that it went by 32,000. The miles can really mount up when you are having fun
Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 386
Not too far south of Aiken on the way to Hilton Head Island this past Friday, the Emperor glided past the 32,000 mile mark. And after a walk on the beach followed quickly by a trip to Piggly Wiggly, there are now about that many grains of sand embedded in the floor mats…
I would vacuum the car and wash the salt mist off if it wasn’t so damp and dreary this afternoon. I may shake out the mats and do a Quik Detailer wipe down later tonight. We are headed to Palm City FLA for a quick Christmas visit with Donna’s sister, leaving Thursday AM, and the weather for the trip down and during the visit is calling for rain, so I may not even bother.
Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 378
Either sometime last night or early this morning the Emperor passed the 31k mark. I’m betting it was yesterday sometime as the odo tonight, when I noticed it, read 31038.
I have narrowed down all the Miata photos I have taken in the last year to the 20 finalists for the 2006 calendar. I need 13, one for each month and then one for the cover page. I’ll probably create a separate gallery for the calendar. While I’m at it I might do a gallery for the 2005 photos too. The seven also-rans from 2006 and the ones already in the Miata gallery that aren’t in the ’05 calendar will still fill the regular Miata Gallery well enough. I wonder if the PHP gallery software I’m using allows subdirectories?
Guess I might never know. I just clicked on the automatically generated link on each gallery page that is supposed to take you to the author’s web site and he hasn’t renewed his web hosting agreement. I guess now is the time to try the enhanced version that I downloaded a while back. At least that web site is still up.
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 349
 On last night’s trip up to the mountains to spend the night, there was construction on US441 between Clayton and Dillard, GA. We must have past 30,000 of those orange construction barrels as the Emperor past through the 30,000 mile mark.
Yesterday morning I washed the car because we had a MMC event in the early afternoon. This was our Senior Drive. One of the Club members is the Administrator of the Elmcroft Assisted Living Center in Martinez. He and I concocted a scheme in which the Club would come over and take the residents who wanted to go on a top down Miata drive instead of their usual Saturday 8-passenger van ride. We had a perfect day for it too, lower 70’s and a cloudless blue sky. We had 5 cars and 5 passengers for the first trip and when 4 more people showed up, we did a second slightly shorter trip for them. The one fellow who I drove was so appreciative that I was embarrassed by it. This is definitely an item we should do at least once a year.
When we got up this morning in the north of Georgia it was in the lower 30’s and there was a layer of frost covering the car. We wimped out for the first couple of hours of driving. The leaves didn’t cooperate in the whole picturesque, blazing fall color, Norman Rockwell painting we had hoped to see, but you take what you can get and we got extremely patchy color. We even did a 20-mile segment of the Blue Ridge Parkway in hopes, but the colorful vistas never materialized. There was one short stretch of NC 215 coming down off the parkway that in a matter of minutes we went from bare trees to patchy color to green. Never the less we had a wonderful time in our 24 hours of the mountains. We got in a night away from home, a short hike in the woods, a look at a beautiful twin waterfall and miles of twisty roads.
Started down, went up, back down, back up, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 343
 29,000 pairs of socks. 29,000 knives. 29,000 VHS tapes. 29,000 out of date bottles of asprin. And 29,000 used chainsaws.
Today we went to the Jockey Lot outside of Anderson, SC. Someone thought it would be fun, so we planned a trip with the MMC and it was a nice day for a drive. While the Jockey lot is a huge ass flea market, pretty soon it all starts to look alike, did we have fun? You bet. Will we go back? Doubt it. About halfway there the Emperor passed through the 29,000 mile mark. We bought this Miata just before Thanksgiving in 2003 so it looks like we will make it past 30k before the 2 year mark.
Most of the time the skies were blue with scattered clouds, but on the horizon, in every direction you looked there were dark gray clouds. The weather forecast called for a chance of rain and while it never did (on us anyway) everytime we stopped for any lentgh of time everyone put their tops up in case. On the way back we stopped in the quaint little town of Abbeville for lunch. We parked over on the same street as we ended up at the last Trivia Road Rally the MMC did in May. I had snagged a picture of one of our member’s cars as it was parked and the wall and art there made a nice back drop, today the Emperor had it’s portrait taken there too.
Can’t really tell from the picture, but the car was really dirty. I did wipe off the big stuff with a towel I keep handy, but when we got home the car got a much needed bath.
Started up, went down, went up, back down, back up, down again, up again, then down, then up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 322
Somewhere in eastern Tennessee today the odometer changed from 27999 to 28000…
Just at the start of last night’s Master’s Miata Club Bug Splat Rally the odometer slid past 27,000 miles. There weren’t a lot of large bugs out, but this morning I had what’s left of 27,000 “ghost bugs” on the nose of the formerly clean Miata.
A little Meguiar’s Quik Detailer and they wiped right off. Ooh, that reminds me, I did the nose, but didn’t clean the windshield, BRB…
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 277
What started out as a Saturday day trip turned into a Friday & Saturday overnighter on basically a whim. Donna and I had sort of planned an impromptu trip up to Deal’s Gap for Saturday. It is the weekend of annual Miatas at the Gap, an unofficial (inter)national meeting of Miatas in the western mountains of NC.
Earlier in the week we decided to get a hotel room in Anderson, SC for Saturday night so we wouldn’t have to go there and back in one day.
About 7:30 Friday night Donna’s mom said, “I thought you we leaving tonight?” A seed was planted. We checked the radar and it didn’t look good, all green between here and Anderson. So we just packed our bag as if we were leaving in the morning. About 8:15 we looked at the radar again and the green was dissipating. Hmmm, called the hotel, they had a room. Threw some more clothes in the bag. Checked the radar as we were leaving and there was hardly any green showing. We did manage to make it all the way to Anderson with the top down. Had to drive through a few sprinkley patches, but we stayed dry.
The Emperor passed the 26,000 mile mark about 10 miles out of Aiken.
Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 242
And about 10 Shriners on Go-Karts. The Emperor passed the 25,000 mile mark on the way to the Ridge Peach Parade this morning. It was organized chaos, both in the manner of go-kart driving in front of us and at the start when the “float” markers weren’t out on time, so we just kind of lined up where we thought we should be. Coincidentally there were 10 Miatas in the parade following right behind the Shriners. Although we would have liked to have done some of the maneuvers that the go-karts were doing, and Miatas are small cars, our turning radius is not that tight.
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 191
Donna and I went for a nice little walk in Hitchcock Woods this morning. At first we weren’t going because it was supposed to rain, but radar showed no chance of it for a while, so off we went. For a change of pace we went in a diffrent entrance than usual and we were glad we did. As we came to a halt the odometer turned 24000 miles.
There is a subdivision in town called Kalmia Hills and there is a path in the woods called Kalmia Trail, but for whatever reason (mostly I don’t know flowers from flours) I never put two and two together until today, the darn things are blooming all over the place. I know we have traversed that trail before, but never in the middle of May…
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 149
Continue reading 24,000 Kalmias
154.8 Miles. For today we staked out a spot on the first climb of the day, a category 2 climb to the top of Fort Mountain. We were joined by about a dozen other people at our little wide gravel spot about 3/4 of the way up. We chatted up a few other fans and even helped one guy write GO EKI in big letters with chalk in the road.
After the riders were all by, we drove back down the mountain and leapfrogged around them to get to the finish in Dahlonega. Even though the skies were threatening we had the top down all the way until about 15 miles from town when the surrounding black skies caught up with us. (Note: You can raise the top on a Miata while going about 35 MPH if the passenger helps. ) About 5 miles later the Emperor passed through the 23,000 mile mark, right around the time the HAIL started. Not big, but a little frightening for a while there, what with the blinding rain and flashes of lightning that accompanied it.
Started up, went down, back up, back down, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 118
Somewhere on the way back from Augusta last night, the Emperor clicked past the twenty-two thousand mile mark. Now averaging 1,350 miles a month.
Just realized that it is almost time for the next Mazda recommended service interval — 22,500. Let me check the owner’s manual, but I think it is just a glorified oil change. If that is all it is I will do this one in the driveway myself rather that risk a big hit in the pocketbook if I take it Rader to let the “professionals” do it.
In Kitchings Mills, SC the odometer rolled by 21,000 as we came home from the airport tonight.
The last two days in DC were the coldest week I’ve experienced since childhood. It was so cold that the mid 50s and dark of South Carolina felt balmy enough that we drove partway home with the top down…
Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 46
Just notched over the 20k mark on the drive home from work. Once home there was just time enough to unpack the lunch buckets and change clothes before heading back out. Tonight being the first Thursday of the month meant Master’s Miata Club business meeting.
Donna is thrilled. It looked good when I saw it on someone else’s Miata. It looked cool when I looked at the pictures of some. It looked neat when I did a Photoshop mock-up. But somehow it lost something it the translation to real life. Maybe if I had a lighter colored car? Oh, well, I’m keeping it on until at least this weekend so I can take a picture or two of it on the front, but after that its coming off. Anyone want a replica Japanese license plate?
Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 17
On a totally uneventful trip home from work today the “Emperor” passed through the 19,000 mile mark. That is averaging nearly 1,500 miles a month. The car is dirty and I thought seeing as it was in the 50s this evening I would wash it. Parked in the driveway and looked at the car and it wasn’t as dirty as I thought, so instead of buckets and sponges I though maybe I would give it a Quik Detailer and towel cleaning. When I looked under the cabinet in the garage I realized I was out of the Quik Detailer, so I gave up on the whole thing and pulled the car in the garage. New Year’s Day is supposed to be in the mid 70s. I’ll wait until then and I will be able to wash it in shorts. Maybe even wax it if I get ambitious enough.
Right after work we went over to the Aiken County Treasurer’s office to pay our yearly personal property tax on the car. Good thing that it is deductible of off our income taxes…
Passed through 18,000 miles this afternoon in the same fashion a lot of the miles on the car were driven, on the 25-mile long way to the store 3 miles away.
Passed through 17k on the way home from work tonight. Because there is a Master’s Miata Club event with an early start tomorrow I broke out the Quik Detailer and “washed” the car in the driveway before parking for the night. We meet at 8:00AM for the drive to Newberry Street to see the inaugural Aiken Exotic Car Festival. There were supposed to be over a hundred cars, but this morning’s paper said just over 50 are registered. You have got to start somewhere, so I hope there is enough attendance to prompt another one next year.
On the way home from work today we passed through the 16K barrier.
Dropped of the spoiler at the paint shop at lunch today. It will get painted tomorrow and then I’m going to let them do the mounting on Wednesday. I’ll pick the car back up Thursday, just in time to…
Mount the new tires on Friday. Donna and I have the afternoon off so that will be a convenient time for getting them mounted. Even though the FedEx website didn’t say out for delivery this morning, about 5:30 this afternoon a white truck pulled up and out came 4 Toyo T-1S tires.
Comet Incubation Period: 10 days
Sometime during the 5th run through of Deal’s Gap this past weekend the car turned over 15K. One of the other couples we were with had their 2002 Miata reach that milestone a few days before the trip. I got there at least a year quicker than they did, but to be fair our car is the Family Truckster and theirs is a weekend fun toy. I guess I’ll schedule a maintenance stop at Rader for next week. I’ll give them one more shot, but three strikes and they’re out.
The clutch shudder was very noticeable this morning backing out of the garage, so much so it was audible. As usual it is almost completely gone by about the 3 mile mark of the 6 mile trip to work. If it does it like that 2 or 3 mornings more before the service next week, I may just say something.
Comet Gestation Counter: 49 days
On the way to Rader to postagize the Master’s Miata Club newsletter the Emperor passed through the 14K mark.
Thanks to Jim Mullan I now have a Honda S2000 stubby antenna mounted on the left rear of the car. The existing stud was plated brass so it was easy to remove and then drill and tap for mounting a longer M5 x 0.8 stud. All we have laying around work was a black oxide coated stud. I would really like to find a brass one because that is what is inside the antenna and that is what the mount threads are. I suppose brass might help reception, but mainly it should prevent any galvanic corrosion.
I haven’t even tested the reception yet. Maybe tomorrow on the way to work I’ll try and listen to the radio…
Comet Gestation Counter: 30 days
Just turned over 6,000 miles on the car today, so we are getting close to the first Mazda recommended service at 7,500.When I do take it in, probably after vacation, don’t let me forget a couple things. Have the them oil the trunk hinges as they are starting to creak when opening and closing the lid. Also, I noticed a couple of those plastic pins that hold in the splash liner in the right front wheel well are missing when I washed the car the other day. Nothing is going to fall out or anything, but hey some engineer thought they ought to be there and he must have had a good reason. The driver’s top latch still feels way to easy to close, no leaks or wind noises or anything, but something is not exactly right (maybe the passenger side is too tight?)
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