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.
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.
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.
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.
For the first time in quite a while we attended a Masters Miata Club meeting tonight. Must have really wanted to go too. It was raining when we left the house and it was freakin’ pouring by the time we got to the other side of town. We spent almost all of the rest of the way to North Augusta driving in a real frog strangler.
About a mile from the restaurant it turned into sprinkles. It was still sprinkling when we left to come home, but it basically quit a few miles later. Didn’t drop the top because the skies were still dark.
Did some more route planning last night for the middle part of our trip, 6 more states, 4 Washington counties and the birthplaces of Larry Bird & Jason Bourne:
Day 5: Parkersburg, WV to Frankfort, KY – 299 miles
Day 6: Frankfort, KY to Xenia, IL – 270 miles
Day 7: Xenia, IL to Lebanon, MO – 300 miles
Day 8: Lebanon, MO to Bentonville, AR – 255 miles
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI3UfxyIdgs
What started six months ago as a hare-brained idea, quickly morphed into a weirdly themed road trip and has settled into a 2 week vacation from work to drive 3,000 miles visiting 21 states and Washington DC. Is now only about4 weeks away.
I’ve route planning for a few weeks now and now I’m busily finalizing, as final as we can make it, daily routes. So far, 4 days done, which is 7 states, plus DC and 5 Washington Counties.
Day 1: Aiken, SC to Abingdon, VA – 288 miles
Day 2: Abingdon, VA to Culpepper, VA – 295 miles
Day 3: Culpepper, VA to Frostburg, MD – 225 miles
Day 4: Frostburg, MD to Parkersburg, WV – 222 miles