Year: 2015

This Come Off Of The Emperor?

Dropped Something

About 50 miles from home, half way between No & Where, there came a bang and a loud clattering from under the Emperor.

Donna: What was that!?!
Me: Ran over something.
Donna: Something fall off?
Me: Dunno.
Donna: Think we should check?
Me: Guess so.

So I pull a u-turn and about a 100 feet back is a big bolt smack in between the yellow lines. I continue past a bit and pull another u-turn. Stopping in mid lane I get out and pick up the bolt. Yikes! It’s hot. And it has a very thin coating of something that looks like anti-seize compound. Now is it hot because it just came off our car or a car not too far ahead of us or because it is 95° out and laying on a dark surface? Time-wise I can narrow it down only to it has been on the road since after the last thunderstorm here because otherwise the fluid on it would have washed off.

I pull the car off the road onto the shoulder and crawl around a bit underneath looking around at the suspension because that is the last thing that was worked on. I also take a peak at the brake calipers as it almost looks like a slider pin, but see nothing amiss. Might be off the PPF as that was probably loosened or removed for the recent clutch change, but I can’t get that far under there to see.

We get back in the car and slowly start back down the road. I get it up to about 15 MPH and hit the brakes hard and the car responds as it should, with a sudden stop. I then wig/wag down the road like a race car driver warming his tires on the pace lap and the Miata dances back and forth with no drama. But we are both a little spooked, so I drive home at the speed limit with both hands on the wheel.

When we got home I jacked up the car about 12″ off the ground and put all 4 jack stands under it. Looked at everything I could possibly see and there was nothing missing on the PPF or nothing absent at any of the suspension connections. Must be someone else’s bolt.

I swear I did not see anything on the road in front of me before the sudden noises1, so I’m guessing it was there already and I scooped it up with a tire and bounced it back and forth between the car and road a bit before ejecting it out the back.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 10

Motoring Challenge Points 2, Approx Miles Driven 260
Totals So Far: 75 points & 2945 miles

1. Of course if you ask my wife or the guys at Panic they’d tell you I don’t see anything in the road.

Disappearing Courthouse



We started today with two goals, the letter Q and Washington County number two, we finished with five. There were two options on our track for the Q; Quincy, Florida and Quitman, Georgia. Quincy came first and won the day without us even having to go to Quitman, it had a cute mural on a downtown wall.

I had already planned what I was going to take a picture of for Washington County, Florida, the courthouse. I’d eyeballed it on GSV, but boy was I surprised when we got to where the courthouse was supposed to be. It was gone.

There was a small sign saying where everyone had moved to, so we plugged that into the GPS and headed over there. What we found was a totally unassuming one-story structure. Eeh. In the end we drove across the street and captured another totally unassuming one-story structure, that of the Washington County branch of the Florida Department of Health.

Driving towards Chipley knowing I was going to get the courthouse for Florida’s Washington County, it got me thinking that maybe I should get courthouse photos for all 15 Washington Counties. I’d only have to retake the one Georgia county, but now that plan was moot. Seeing as the Georgia Washington County sign had a Georgia shaped “Buckle Up, It’s the Law” sign in the background we’ll just have to differentiate using signage. Which is why we picked the unassuming one-story building we did.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 8

Motoring Challenge Points 5, Approx Miles Driven 320
Totals So Far: 73 points & 2685 miles

152,000 Acres of Peanuts

Washington County, Georgia

We had been running through on and off rain since we left home and it seemed to have stopped when we took the image above. It didn’t seem as quite as hazy in person as it tuned out looking in the photo. We kind of planned on using this picture for Washington County Georgia because last year we used the sign for Jefferson County that was on the other side of the Ogeechee River on the other side of the road. But we ended up liking the more interesting one we found when leaving the county heading south on GA-231.

Somewhere between Pineview & Rochelle amidst about 152,000 acres of peanut farms the Emperor moved past the 152,000 mile mark.

As a testament as to how much we hate Atlanta traffic, we have driven to Tallahassee, Florida to get our 4th state capitol building even though it would have been fewer miles round trip to the Peach State’s capitol building than these miles one way to get the Sunshine State’s.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 6

Motoring Challenge Points 9, Approx Miles Driven 365
Totals So Far: 68 points & 2365 miles

Perfect Synchronicity

Today’s selection of MiO flavoring added to my bottle water is Orange Vanilla. If you get it cold enough it tastes like liquid Creamsicle (which didn’t come in raspberry flavor when I was a kid.)

This morning’s yogurt snack was fat free vanilla. So, can you guess what this afternoon’s fruit is?

They’re Here

Two weeks ago I showed you a picture of a whole bunch of brand spanking new Miatas getting ready to be loaded onto a big ol’ ship to come to our way. Well, they’re here:

I said I thought it was probably all thousand of the Launch Editions and maybe it was, but all didn’t get on the same boat. That picture showed the boat above and it was destined for the west coast. There is a separate big ol’ boat on it way to the east coast. The folks who have pre-ordered the cars have been keeping track of where they are and their boat just went through the Panama Canal (with some watching it via web cam on their PCs.)

Supreme Ace

Great Service

A week ago the Miata got a new top installed at Redmond’s Auto Upholstery Inc in Augusta. Been using these guys for every top change on every Miata I’ve had, approximately 6 times. They’ve always done a bang up job, but this time was extra special. So much so that I was moved to actually right a 5 star review on Google Plus:

I had my top replaced here about a week ago and the folks there went above and beyond.

While they had the car I asked if they could replace the two (out of six) snaps that hold down the boot cover. When I picked up the car Randall said he changed out all of them, so they’d match. When I asked how much I owed for the extra work, he said nothing.

Today when I put the top down and then back up for the first time I was surprised that the passenger latched clicked closed. It hasn’t done that in 5 or 6 years. A geegaw in the mechanism gets worn and causes it not to lock. There is a simple fix for it on Miata.net that involves drilling and tapping a hole then screwing in a short screw, but I’m too mechanically inept to get it done right, so I’ve just lived with it. I’ve not worried about it because the latch closes fine and has never popped free.

They did the fix for me too, no charge. When was the last time a business did anything like that for you?

In a fit of unbridled enthusiasm I even liked them on Facebook…

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 6/25/15: 4

The Prodigal Travel Mug Returns

A little over two weeks ago we took the Emperor to Columbia to have some maintenance done. Panic Motorsports is closed on the weekends (they’re usually off racing Miatas somewhere), but they were nice enough to give me the gate code, so that Donna and I could drop off the car on Saturday, thereby avoiding the possibility of having to drive the 100 mile round trip on consecutive days.

When we got back home later that day and unloaded the Sonata I couldn’t find my favorite travel mug. Drove up there in the Miata drinking from it. I remember locking up the car and it wasn’t in the cupholder in the center console. Other than that I was unsure of anything else, so after the Emperor had been away at camp for a couple days I sent Steve an email:

From: Brian
To: Steve
Subj: How’s the prognosis?

And more importantly, did you find my Contigo Travel Mug?

From: Steve
To: Brian
Subj: It’s going home tomorrow.

Probably get the transmission out before the end of the day, then slam it back together and align in the morning.

Coffee mug is not on the premises sir.

From: Brian
To: Steve
Subj: Good deal

Let me know before 3:30 tomorrow if it is not. And if it is, let me know the total, because that is the first thing my CFO will ask.

I know I drove up there to drop off the car drinking from it…from that point I don’t know what I did with it. The thing didn’t come back in the support vehicle. There are a couple places I might have put it down, the roof of the Protege (you’d have seen it) and the front seat of the red Miata (probably noticeable when retrieving the keys.) The only other place might have been when I unlocked the gate…ooh, a memory just floated to the surface, my hand placing a bronze colored Contigo travel mug on a wooden fence post.

P.S. “Slam it back together” might be OK amongst us guys, but please use something like “precisely realigned” while the previously mentioned CFO is present…

We brought the Miata home and a day later thanks to Amazon Prime I was drinking from my new Contigo AUTOSEAL West Loop Stainless Steel Travel Mug in Trans-Matte Latte.

Fast forward to yesterday and I had almost forgot about losing the old one when an unexpected package arrived in the mail with a return address of Old Dunbar Road, West Columbia, SC.

From: Brian
To: Steve
Subj: Where Was It?

On the floor of the red Miata?

From: Steve
To: Brian
Subj: Nope

No, apparently you did leave it on the fence post. My neighbor in the cabinet shop came in and found/recovered it, and we haven’t seen each other in a couple weeks. He asked me if I’d lost a coffee cup and I said “No, I don’t drink coffee”. He said, “Well, it sure is a nice one” That’s when it clicked 🙂

One of my fears was that someone had found it and was enjoying drinking from the best travel mug in all the world on my dime. Well, when I opened the box and unscrewed the lid, I knew that wasn’t the case.

Maybe, just maybe, if I drank my coffee black it might have been salvageable, but the 1/2 oz of Dunkin Donuts coffee infused with Dunkin Donuts creamer/sweetener that I had left in there had turned into a petri dish full of the beginnings of some sort of alien life form. A quick rinse in some hot water removed quite a bit of the larger chunks of stringy, slimy black colored gunk. But there were still a crap ton of brownish-black large amoeba looking spots still stuck all over the sides, so I filled it up 3/4 of the way with a diluted solution of Simple Green and shook it up for a few minutes. Oooh, that’s still ugly in there. Now I started working on the insides with hot water, dish soap & a toothbrush.

I’m making slow progress when the CFO notices what I’m doing and says, “Throw it out and get a new one.” I hate to admit defeat, but acquiesce. I was confident I could get the stainless steel body clean enough to drink from, the rubber and plastic fancy mechanism top, not so much. After seeing the inside and how hard it was to try and get clean, I don’t think I would have felt comfortable drinking from it anyway.

I didn’t order a new one because I only need the one and if by some chance I leave this on a fence post somewhere too, a replacement is only $15-20 & 2 days away.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 6/25/15: 2