Whirlybird

Moving (or Parked) Targets - Helicopter

We had our Helicopter Challenge Point all picked out. There is an Army H1 Huey chopper that is perched high over the Barnwell County Veteran’s Memorial Park on an 18′ pole that was nearly perfect. My only reservation was that it reminded me of an Entomology display, the kind with insects stuck on pins in a glass case.

Today as we were passing by the Aiken Hospital on the way to get Donna’s allergy shot, she suddenly grabbed my arm. I didn’t hear what she said as I was concentrating on the whole driving thing, but when she has grabbed me like that in the past it usually means that I am about to run something over or something is trying to run us over, so my heart skipped a beat. I pulled my foot of the gas and asked, “What?” “Helicopter,” said she.

This counts as zero miles towards our Motoring Challenge total as we were on our regular Monday route home.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 147

Motoring Challenge Points 3, Approx Miles Driven 0
Totals So Far: 41 points & 800 miles

Bagel Run

Destination - Cemetery

We drove to Lexington to get bagels for breakfast. We have come to the conclusion that we just can’t live with the store bought or Dunkin Donuts version of a bagel, so we have been pretty regularly (once a month) driving to Bruegger’s Bagels to get something that more resembles the real NY/NJ bagel.

On the way back we stopped and got a couple of Motoring Challenge points, the Cemetery above and a Sign with Bullet Hole(s). Even though the total trip was a hundred and twenty miles I only counted half that towards the miles driven, because that was only half the reason for the trip.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 146

Motoring Challenge Points 3, Approx Miles Driven 60
Totals So Far: 38 points & 800 miles

Feel the Bernies

Feel the Bernies!

Not only am I discussing politics on my blog, but now I’ve gone and donated to an actual politician. I just donated $20 to a Kickstarter fund to create a Bernie Sanders “Action” Figure. If funded they are going to donate one of my dollars to his campaign.

It will be fully funded1 on March 30th and they are supposed to ship in July, just in time for the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia. Sure hope by then he is not just a footnote in the 2016 election.

For all you Hilary supporters you can get an Action Figure of her right now because these are the same folks who created one for her campaign back in 2008 and they are still available on their site – FCTRY.

Those of you who live in one of only a handful of states that the personal use of marijuana is perfectly legal2 you might want to consider the Burners for Bernie set of homemade ceramic pipes. A portion of the proceeds from this item also go the support the candidate.

1. It has far exceeded the goal already.
2. Which Mr. Sanders says he’ll change when elected.

Happy Birthday Special Agent Scully

Happy Birthday Dana

According to the X-Files Wiki, Dana Scully was born today, 52 years ago, on February 23, 1964.

On a side note, I just finished watching the finale of the 6 episode miniseries/revival of the X-Files and what a tremendous mess it was. Unfortunately the last one was not the only one, almost all of them were equally wretched. Even the critical favorite of the run, the Monster-of-the-Week “Mulder & Scully Meet the Were-Monster” played to me like a bad parody of some of my favorite episodes from the original run of the series. I was excited by the possibility of its return, but trust me when I say, even if Chris Carter does talk FOX executives into making more episodes, I won’t be watching them.

Mr. Miata Goes To Mini Tec

Mini Tec Visit

Man, I’m down to blogging once a week anymore, not with a bang but a whimper maybe?

Friday the Emperor got a bath because on Saturday the MMC was going on a day trip. Saturday the Emperor passed through the 163,000 mile barrier somewhere on SC-28 between North Augusta and McCormick.

About a month ago an item popped up in my Google Miata newsfeed about a company that is selling kits to transplant a Honda V6 into the first & second generation Miatas. They were just a hundred miles up the road in the small town of Royston, GA.

Mini Tec has been in business for 13 years hot rodding the original 1959-2000 Mini by stuffing Honda VTEC motors in them and now they have branched out in the Miata. A couple of emails and a phone call later and I arranged a tour of the place for the Masters Miata Club. We had seven cars and a dozen people follow Donna and I to the town that used to be just famous for being the boyhood home of Ty Cobb.

BJ and Norm welcomed us with open arms (and snacks), showed us around their shop and regaled us with tales of daring do. They had a couple of converted cars, an NA and an NB, with their hoods popped up showing those Honda V6 engines. The motor almost looks like it belongs there and as it turn out the the conversion actually is lighter than the stock get up and you end up with about twice as much horsepower.

They offered rides in the NA and only one of our group took them up on it. They zipped off up the road the shop was on and were gone for about 5 minutes. You could hear Dennis hooting a hundred yards down the road on the way back. This looks like big fun, but it would change the whole character of the car in my opinion and is not even on my radar, but if you desire big hp & torque numbers or are a hot rodder at heart, this might your ticket.

Started down, went up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 145

Motoring Challenge Points 6, Approx Miles Driven 300
Totals So Far: 35 points & 740 miles

Political Quandary

Well even if you don’t watch the news or read the paper, if you live in South Carolina you know it is primary season because your phone is ringing off the hook with calls from candidates, candidates and “their” PACs. Our ringer is off, so every one of those calls goes straight to the answering machine to be dealt with later.

All the calls are for Republican candidates, the Democrats have been silent so far, perhaps they are waiting for next week. You see, for some reason the two primaries are one week apart. First up is the Republican Primary this coming Saturday the 20th followed by the Democratic Primary on the 27th. The cool thing is that they are both open primaries, i.e. open to anyone. You can only vote in one of them though.

I’m registered as having no party affiliation, so in some states I wouldn’t be able to vote in any primary, but here in SC I can vote in either of them. There in lies the quandary. Should I vote in the Republican Primary for anyone but Trump? Or should I wait a week and vote for Sanders?

County, Parish or District

15 County LoopThis year’s Moss Motoring Challenge has the same requirement of just 15 counties as last year and while there are still three other county names (Jackson, Franklin & Jefferson) out there that occur in around 25 states. Donna will have none of that foolishness this time around.

So I’ve cooked up a different bit of craziness for this year’s 15. Last year my reason for doing 15 with the same name, forcing us into a convoluted huge loop, was because we live in a fairly county rich environment and I wondered where the challenge was. I claimed that we could get 15 counties in day trip from home. Well by golly, that is just what we are going to attempt.

There are 6 in South Carolina (Aiken, Saluda, Edgefield, McCormick, Allendale & Barnwell) and 9 in Georgia (Lincoln, Wilkes, McDuffie, Columbia, Richmond, Jefferson, Burke, Jenkins & Screven) that can be run in a loop. We will cross the Savannah River twice, once on US378 and back on US301 and if we drive from county seat to county seat it will be around 370 miles according to Google maps. That mileage should take us 7.5 hours baseline. If we average 10 minutes per photo stop that adds another 2.5 hours. Now we are up to 10 hours and doesn’t include bathroom, gas or eating stops.

I’m hoping we can knock off at least 70 miles or so off that total by dropping the county seat thing and cutting some corners. Either way we will have to do this near the summer solstice to maximize our daylight hours.