On The Oregon Trail – Day #2

Started in one state (Alabama), crossed a whole second state (Mississippi) and ended in the third state (Louisiana.) Today’s drive was entirely Interstate free, we did cross over or under a couple though. Through out Alabama and Mississippi the state and county roads were mostly nicely maintained and smooth. As soon as we got to Louisiana we were greeted by the thud, thud, thud, of roads made from concrete segments. This annoying, constant, repetitive bumping is especially prevalent here because the soft underground allows the 100′ x 12′ segments to slowly over time shift up and down in comparison to it’s neighbors. So while Interstates in general suck, those in the Pelican State suck more.

On The Oregon Trail – Day #1

I set my phone’s alarm for 5:00 AM, to get an early start. I woke up at 4:45 on my own, so we just got going. All the stuff we are carrying seemed like an awful lot while it was sitting on the floor inside the AirBnB. It seemed like a lot when making 5 trips from room to car too. But with the back seats folded down flat the Mini swallowed it right up.

I don’t know it was just one of those days or was it because the both of us are so frazzled from the whirlwind last two weeks, but we had a very eventful day. Here are the Top Five:

  1. On one of the trips back into the AirBnB from the car I walked into the glass of the sliding door. Fortunately I was moving slow enough that no damage was done to me or it.
  2. During final cargo arrangement inside the car I accidentally bumped the horn button with my butt. Fortunately it was a short duration contact so that it didn’t disturb the pre-dawn neighborhood quiet.
  3. We were too early getting to the south side Dunkin’ Donuts, they don’t open until 6:00 on Saturday’s. There is another Dunkin’ on the other side of town, basically on the way, so that became our next stop. We were still too early. But only by a few minutes, so we waited.
  4. We were meeting a friend at the Cracker Barrel in Augusta for breakfast on our way west. We didn’t see her car and we didn’t see her in the dining room when we got there, so we sat on a couple of rocking chairs to wait. After a few minutes we realized that she is not a late arrival person, Donna was about to text her to see where she was when her phone buzzed with a text from Carol, “I’m inside.” We forgot to check the store part…
  5. Spurred by a conversation at a farewell gathering about road trips, I thought it would be cool to take a photo of the “Welcome To” sign of each state we pass through, naturally I remembered well after we were already deep into Georgia to get one. I rationalized that crossing the Georgia border didn’t really count as it no major milestone because it is only 15 miles into the journey. We managed to traverse nearly all of the Peach State on two lane back roads before having to get on the dreaded Interstate. This worked out perfectly for me to get the Alabama sign in the Welcome Center. I cruised slowly through looking, but unfortunately there wasn’t one. Dang it, the only opportunity was a mile or so back on the side of the Interstate.

To the best of my guessing ability, either late today or maybe early tomorrow the Mini reached the 35,000 mile plateau.

38,000 Homeless People in Portland

When we visited the Pacific Northwest this year we flew into Portland instead of our usual Seattle because we wanted to check out our possible (now imminent) new city of residence in Oregon. What we did see of Portland did nothing to dissuade its quirky reputation.

We spent a couple of days in the City of Roses exploring. We were staying near the airport and one evening we took the light rail train into downtown. What amazed us were the number of homeless people that were encamped along the right of way of the tracks. Also, any highway overpass the train went under, you could see a dozen tents, or shirts stretched across the bushes. We thought there were a lot, but didn’t think it was as many as, a Portland State University report says there are, 38,000 of them. That is roughly equivalent to the entire population of our soon to ex-city of residence, Aiken!

This morning when I dropped off the CTBNL with my Fairy Godbrother1 David who is going to park it in his garage until we get an address in K-Falls to have it shipped to. When I was there he said, “You haven’t had a chance to to drive the addition to my stable, the 944 Turbo.” “Got time to go for a drive?” I said said, “Sure.” I probably would have said the same thing even if I didn’t have the time…we promptly spent the next hour or so bombing around the back roads of Aiken County. Going to miss these random drives. Somewhere towards the end of our trip I put the thirty-eighth thousandth mile on this thirty-ish year-old German engineered marvel.

My $55 Mistake

I have been wearing the New Balance Men’s Coast V4 FuelCore Athletic Shoe Running since I retired. They are comfortable and I love the slip-on nature of them. You tie the laces until they are snug on your foot and then the stretchy upper material allows you to slip your foot in and out. The first pair of them I bought upon retirement were in Techtonic Blue and I wore them out before 2018 was done. The second pair I purchased was in Phantom Gray (like linked above) and made it to this September. Not bad, a nine month life span, considering I’m averaging 2-1/2 miles a day every morning 5 days a week.

Both previous shoes were bought at Academy Sports. When I replaced the first blue pair I wanted blue again, but they didn’t have it, so I opted for the in stock gray. This replacement time they didn’t have any of that make and model shoe at all. Donna and I hunted high and low looking, but no dice. I wanted a slip on, I am basically that lazy, so my options were limited.

There were about a half dozen slip-on shoes, but of those available only 2 were were nice enough looking that I would put them on my feet. The first pair I tried on was too loose, I normally wear a size eleven and even in a 10.5 they slipped off the heel when taking a step. The next pair I tried were the Skechers Men’s Equalizer Double Play Slip-On Loafer. There was no size 11 available, but they did have a 10.5, so I put them on and walked around the aisle a bit. Not too bad, so we bought them.

It wasn’t until the next day on my walk that I realized I should have test walked them a little more in the store… They were too stretchy and too tight at the same time. My heel felt elevated forcing my foot forward hitting my toes on the front of the shoes. I didn’t end up with any blisters, but I did get a sore arch. I thought I would be alright and maybe I’d get used to them after walking in them for a few mores days. Wrong. On the next day’s morning walk after only a couple of blocks I decided to cut the walk short and head home. It was then that I pulled the badly worn pair of New Balance shoes out of the trash, placed the Skechers in the ‘Going to Goodwill Pile’ and ordered another pair NB Coast V4 FuelCore in Phantom from Amazon.

Track, Daily, Crush

The 5-Speed Edition. All these cars have 5-speed transmissions, although only one of them came from the factory that way. As of Monday, September 30, 2019 at 9:00 PM eastern time:

Track Daily Crush
1963.5 Ford Falcon V8 1994 Mazda MX-5 Miata 1978 Honda Civic
1 2 3

1. My very first car was a white 1963 Ford Falcon. It had an inline 6 cylinder engine mated to a 3-speed manual transmission with the shifter on the column. My mom bought it for me for $100 in 1971 when I got my license. I promptly ruined the transmission trying to master the the whole clutch/gas pedal dance under tyrannical instruction of my mom’s current boyfriend. It was back to riding a bike after that.
2. Our second Miata was a 1995 Laguna Blue B Package, We traded it in on a second generation 2003 Garnet Red LS Miata and 15 years later we kind of still regret the decision.
3. The third new car Donna and I ever bought was a 1980 Honda Civic in Rhodes Red Metallic with a 5-speed manual. We bought it for me to use to go back and forth the sixteen miles to work at the Meridian (MS) Naval Air Station. That allowed her to drive our already existing 1979 Honda Accord to and from college.

Post #5,459

In the right hand column the is a widget called “a decade ago” and the one for today is Post #3,290 which signifies that from January 1st 2002 when I started this nonsense, until September 29th 2009 I have authored three thousand two hundred ninety posts. That means over those 2,829 days I averaged 1.16 posts per day.

The title of today’s post represents the grand total of posts I have created since 1/1/2002. So in the last ten years I have added a total of two thousands one hundred and sixty nine more. This means over the ensuing 3,653 days I have averaged 0.59 posts per day. Just a little more than half my previous output. I think I must be running out of words…