Year: 2015

Wild Goose Emu Chase

Destination - Hairpin Turn (<20 mph): There is a 15MPH curve over near the Aiken Medical Centers, but we were waiting until we got into the mountains for a more scenic shot. Today we stumbled on this, and thinking the number would not get much lower, took some pictures. (8/15/15)

Destination – Hairpin Turn (<20 mph): There is a 15MPH curve over near the Aiken Medical Centers, but we were waiting until we got into the mountains for a more scenic shot. Today we stumbled on this, and thinking the number would not get much lower, took some pictures. (8/15/15)

There is a spot at the bottom of the Moss Motoring Challenge form for 3 Bonuses worth 2 points each. These are emailed to participants at various times throughout the year, well that is what happened in 2014. This year on Friday we got the email with all three “challenges” at once:
Bonus 1: Photo includes a famous work of architecture.
Bonus 2: Photo with a permanent sign that displays the same year as the year of your car.
Bonus 3: Aaaand… A photo with one or more farm animals (an extra bonus point if the animal is an Emu!)
Off to the web we went for research.

For number 1, it turns out our already planned trip took us withing 10 miles of a fairly famous house called Fallingwater, designed by a fairly famous guy named Frank. Unfortunately you can’t drive right up to the front door of the place, but it turns out that there is another Frank Lloyd Wright home nearby that I think you can do just that.1

Number 2 has numerous possibilities (see what I did there), a business founded in 2003, a billboard advertising a business whose phone number has 2003 as the last four numbers, a business with a prominently address of 2003, a sign proudly announcing the Such Andsuch High School won the state football championship in 2003, a county road numbered 2003…

Because we were headed to Athens, Georgia with the MMC on Saturday and the group was not returning together I looked for Emu Farms in Georgia. We were going to go for maximum bonus points right off the bat. Jackpot! There was one, Fancy Feathers Farm, practically on our preferred return route. Their facebook profile picture shows a big ol’ sign with the word EMU all over it. I loaded the address in the GPS and we were off. When we got to the spot, I recognized the view, but it was missing something, the sign. The posts were there, but no sign. Dang. This is not going to be easy. I got home and looked at GSV for the address and it looked just like it did when we stopped along GA17 just north of Bowman, posts, but no sign. Click on the little clock next to the words Street View and you can see what it looked like in past drive-bys and sure enough, in May 2008 – emu sign, October 2013 – not so much.

Motoring Challenge Points 1, Approx Miles Driven 50
Totals So Far: 79 points & 3355 miles

1. There is at least one sure thing, it is in Bartlesville, OK, but it is a 100 miles extra out of our way…

154,000 Bottles Of Beer On The Wall

The people are blurred to prevent identifying those imbibing, who later, went driving.

The people are blurred to prevent identifying those imbibing, who later, went driving.

Today the MMC went on a drive to visit to the Terrapin Beer Company in Athens, GA and we went with them. This is our second brewery tour in three years and it is one too many. It was kind of interesting the first time, but once you’ve heard the spiel once, it comes down to tasting ’em. Both Donna and I are not real beer drinkers, so tasting them is not the real draw, the drive to and from is.

We all drove up together and toured the place, but after that is was every car for themselves. We were supposed to all go out afterwards and eat, but one couple wanted to explore downtown Athens, one couple wanted to go home, one couple had too much sampling so decided to hang at the brewery for awhile to sober up and our solo traveler joined them leaving 3 couples to dine at an authentic Mexican restaurant not far away.

On the drive back, the Emperor hit 154,000 miles just as we entered the “Heritage Corridor City” of Mt Carmel, SC.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 41

What’s The Password Kenneth?*

g78FY7PMQ0tkT5w
AnVknz6LOHXdNMn
Qn5FlG16gX1WS0D
U5Ct1SVNN5K3EAQ
jHYkj8H7MjpGvK1

The PCs around Valve Store(tm), like most in a networked business environment, are locked down pretty good so that the regular Joe users can’t screw ’em up. That’s where an administrator password comes in, and I wield one.

One of my various functions at the the plant is Back-up IT Guy and because the Regular IT Guy is pretty ill, I’ve been doing a lot of more computer type stuff recently. While most of the real issues are handled remotely by the Help Desk techs at the Home Office in beautiful downtown Florham Park, NJ., sometimes it is just easier to just call Brian.

It used to be easy, I could keep my admin password the same as my regular network password, so it was always right at my fingertips. But about a month ago the corporation that pulls ASCO’s marionette strings decreed that all Administrators must use the RSA Token two-step authentication system. Now every morning I have to login to special Password Repository using a combination of my 4 digit PIN and 6 randomly generated digits, that change every 60 seconds, from my software token. This allows me to get a unique 15 character alpha-numeric admin password, good for 12 hours.

What you see above are my passwords from the past week. Feel free to copy them down for your own personal use on your favorite, or not so favorite, internet sites.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 38

*My twist on the used to be famous phrase, “What’s the frequency, Kenneth?”

Plasti Dip Is The Bomb

Blacked Logo

All the cool kids have known about Plasti Dip‘s awsomeness for years, me I’m just catching on. Continuing on with the black accent theme on the New & Improved Emperor I spent six bucks on a can of the stuff. A little masking tape, an hour of my Sunday afternoon and TADA! Blacked out Mazda Logo on the nose.

Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 37

Finishing Up the Loop

The initial daily routes are done, I’m sure there will be some fine tuning between now and departure as much as I’m sure there will be adjustments mid-trip, but for now we’re locked in.
Day 9: Bentonville, AR to Texarkana, TX – 282 miles
Day 10: Texarkana, TX to Vicksburg, MS – 285 miles
Day 11: Vicksburg, MS to Hattiesburg, MS – 234 miles
Day 12: Hattiesburg, MS to Columbus, GA – 323 miles
Day 13: Columbus, GA to Aiken, SC – 245 miles

The total trip if driven as now written will be 3278 miles, but considering last year when we drove to Texas and back, we drove 391 miles over the pre-trip estimate of 2504 or an extra 15%, this year will probably end up somewhere closer to 3790 miles.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 35

A Little Trip To The Bookstore

Destination - End of Detour

We made a run to the Book Warehouse in Richmond Hill, Georgia for some more analog reading material. I bought 3 and Donna picked up 8 more hardcovers, all for less than twenty bucks. Of course we burned a $25 tank of gas to drive the 300 mile round trip. We also grabbed a couple of Motoring Challenge points to make the trip “worthwhile.”

Sort of like our Place of Worship photo from January, we were just discussing where we might find an End of Detour sign when we drive by, a Detour sign. We never saw the start of the detour and because we were pretty much in the middle of nowhere, somewhere south of the unincorporated community of Tarboro, SC we were kind of unsure as to its authenticity. Luckily Donna was paying attention, as I definitely would have missed it, because just as random as the first sign we spotted, an End of Detour materialized in “downtown” Tillman, SC just a few miles further south on US321.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 34

Motoring Challenge Points 2, Approx Miles Driven 300
Totals So Far: 78 points & 3305 miles

Should I Buy A Lottery Ticket?

Brian's Coke Zero

Instead of my usual MiO enhanced bottle of water for my after-lunch whistle wetter today I thought I might get a soda from the vending machine Avenue C.

Instead of my usual choice of a Diet Dr Pepper I thought I might get something with a different flavor, so I picked up a Coke Zero, the #3 drink on Brian’s Top Three Favorite Soda Flavor List.

It wasn’t until I got back to my cube and was pouring the soda into my mug that I realized that the bottle had my name on it. Lucky pick huh?

I finished filling my mug and tossed the bottle in the trash. That’s when it dawned on me that maybe I should get some photographic evidence. Snap. Toss again.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 33