Beam Me Down Scotty

City - Bowman, SCAfter finishing up the graffiti photo shoot we continued on into Bowman, the home of the UFO Welcome Center. We visited (AKA drove by) the place when we were in Bowman taking post office pictures back in 2007. Knowing that a roadside attraction might be worth a point in the Motoring Challenge, we thought we might drive by again and get a photo.

Trouble was we didn’t have the location of the Welcome Center. I seemed to remember that it was like one street of the main drag. Bowman ain’t that big, how hard could it be? US178 runs through it northwest to southeast and SC210 is perpendicular to that. There are maybe 6 streets each, parallel to those roads.

We had covered about half of our search area when I noticed a big blue water tower with TOWN OF BOWMAN painted with what looked like a house painting roller. To add extra interest, the tower was home to an very large flock of turkey vultures. We still needed a town that began with the letter B, so…

We never really paid any attention to water towers before, but ever since we needed a picture of one for the Motoring Challenge we realized they are everywhere. This got my weird little mind thinking, maybe we should use a water tower that has the town name on it for all of the challenge requirements. Donna said that maybe I shouldn’t make this any more difficult than it already is. I’ll work on her, if we do this again in 2016 that will be how we do it.

After taking the water tower photo we headed out of town towards home, when out of the corner of her eye, Donna saw the Welcome Center. We circled back to get a photo, but after seeing the structure, decided against it. It was very dilapidated and looked like it might fall down any minute. Looking through the Google Images of the thing though, it appears to have been in this same state for a lot longer than that time frame.

I searched the Life of Brian for the photo I was sure we took during our first visit, but can’t seem to find it. Thinking on it now, I bet I didn’t take a photo in 2007 for the same reason I didn’t take one last weekend, that thing is ugly.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1461

Artistic Graffiti

Destination - Artistic Graffiti

What exactly constitutes Artistic Graffiti, I’ll leave that debate to the finer minds of the NY Times, for me it will be anything above a hastily painted gang marking on a stop sign.

I’m sure if we lived in a large city it would be easy to find something like that, but here in Our Fair (small) City it is really nowhere to be found. A search of the internet for “artistic graffiti Columbia”, the nearest decent sized town, resulted in nothing but mention of art shows with graffiti-like pieces for sale. Because we abhor going to the big cities of Charlotte or Atlanta there was no way we were going to make a pilgrimage there to drive aimlessly through their warehouse districts looking. This left happenstance.

And that is exactly what happened yesterday on our way home from the palindrome. We we zipping right along and had just passed over I-26 on SC210 heading to Bowman when we both noticed something bright blue off to the right. This prompted an immediate u-turn.

When GSV went through in May 2013, whatever the base of this wall was, was already gone, but it was unpainted…


View Larger Map

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1460

Forwards & Backwards

Destination - Palindrome

One of the “destinations” in this year’s Motoring Challenge is a palindrome sign and it is worth 2 points vs. the usual one. This was today’s road trip objective. According to Wikipedia’s page listing palindromic locations we are fortunately within driving distance of one of the three 2nd longest places that are spelled the same forwards and backwards, the 11 letter long Wassamassaw.

Historical Marker text:
(Front)
Wassamassaw, with several variant spellings during the colonial era, is a Native American word thought to mean “connecting water.” It first referred to the large cypress swamp here, but eventually referred to the community that grew up nearby in the Anglican parish of St. James, Goose Creek. Plantations laid out by the English and later by the Huguenots flourished before the Revolution.

(Reverse)
The swamp was almost impassible for most of the colonial period, but the Wassamassaw Road ran just below the swamp between here and Goose Creek. A Chapel of Ease was built nearby shortly after the Yamasee War of 1715, and a free school was founded in 1728. The “Wassamassaw Cavalry,” a militia company founded in 1857, later saw Confederate service as Company D, 2nd S.C. Cavalry.

Of all the entries in the 2015 Challenge for this destination, the best anyone can do is tie us when it comes to length by getting some other variation of Wassamassaw (there is a Baptist Church behind me and then there is a road by that name a few miles away near Summerville) or Ekalaka Lake in Montana. The only longer palindrome named place is Nerren Nerren at 12, but I doubt any Challengers will get it as it is in Western Australia.

Started up, went dow, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1459

Motoring Challenge Points 10*, Approx Miles Driven 255
Totals So Far: 30 points & 655 miles

*5 regular points for photos and 5 bonus points for twittering 5 photos

Place of Worship

Sneak Peek 1b

On this year’s list of Destinations for the Moss Motoring Challenge along with the ambiguous Adult Playground and the straight forward Tow Truck was something called “Place of Worship.”

I noticed the quotes around Place of Worship and was curious as to their meaning as that was the only one such destination so decorated. I emailed the the fellow in charge of the Challenge: Do the rules of Jeopardy apply to the Place of Worship? i.e. Do those words have to be in the photo somewhere? The answer was: “Place of Worship” is in quotes so that Challengers can use their creative freedom. No sign and no words are required in the photo.

This started Donna and I thinking about just which church we would photograph. Our first thought was America’s smallest church in southern Georgia where we had found a geocache a few years ago. We both remembered a great glass chapel we found in Arkansas about 15 years ago, but it is too far away and don’t think we can get the car close enough to photograph. We were still tossing around ideas when much to our surprise we drove right by the above sign on our adventure last Saturday.

It took about ten seconds before we decided to do a u-turn and seek out this Huguenot Place of Worship that promised to be 2 miles down this side road. After about three miles of driving we saw no further sign or any place that looked like a worship site. We turned around and were almost back to our original route when a gravel road led off to our right with a small sign that read “Worship Site”, so we took it. After a while the gravel gave way to just plain dirt dual track. There were only a couple of places where the grooves were deep enough to force me to get the one side on the center and the other on the edge.

We finally came to a small parking area and the monument marking the Place of Worship was 50 yards down a dirt path. Kind of disappointed we couldn’t park closer we walked down to take a picture anyway. But once there, we realized that because it is January and there are no leaves on the trees, if you squint just so, the car is recognizable in the background, if you know where to look.

Destination - Place of Worship

It is at about 2:30 off my left (stage right) shoulder…

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1457

Is This The End

Destination - Historic Landmark

We had one other goal yesterday besides the elusive Savannah River sign, snag a somewhat nearby historic landmark. I suppose there are plenty of historical landmarks from various historical societies, but we opted for a place that was bestowed it honor by no other than the Secretary of the Interior of the United States of America. Would we need to fill out some sort of Freedom of Information paperwork? Nope, just surf on over Wikipedia.

Looking at the list for South Carolina shows us there is a National Historic District less than a dozen miles from our front door, Woohoo! But wait a minute, what kind of road trip would that be? Short, that’s what. OK, here’s one in Abbeville, SC, 70 miles away. The Burt-Stark Mansion with a description of “Where the American Civil War ended” fits in with our planned river “cruise.”

If you follow the American Civil War link in the description there is no mention of the house in that article. Inside that article you will find a link for the Conclusion of the American Civil War, but the mansion is not mentioned on that page either.

The only fact I remember about the end of that war was Lee surrendering to Grant at Appomattox (April 9, 1865), but was just the beginning of the end. Confederate President Jefferson Davis had his last meeting with his Cabinet on May 5th in Washington, Georgia where the Confederate Government was dissolved. Mr. Davis was captured on May 10th 150 miles south near Abbeville, Georgia. The last actual Confederate surrender occurred on November 6th when Captain James Waddell turned over the C.S.S. Shenandoah to the Prime Minister of England at Liverpool.

President Andrew Johnson signed a Proclamation that officially ended the war on August 20, 1866. He didn’t do it in Abbeville, South Carolina, so how is it that this, white two story Greek Revival style house came about to claim that it is where the American Civil War ended? For that we have to head over to the mansion’s very own Wikipedia page; Jefferson Davis held his final war council there on May 2, 1865.

Maybe we will have to drive back to Columbia to get another National Historic Landmark to use as a bookend to this one. It could count as one of our sneak peek bonus points. Using that same landmark list, the First Baptist Church in Columbia is listed as “Where the American Civil War started.”

148,000 Hours Ago

Lakes & Rivers - Savannah River

After spending yesterday cooped up in the house, today we decided to go out and take a couple of photos for the Motoring Challenge. Our goal was to get a picture of a Savannah River sign with some of the river in the background. Some of the folks in the challenge have been posting their River & Lake photos with just the required sign, we on the other hand have vowed to have the named water visible along with the sign.

The Savannah River lies between Aiken and Augusta and we have the option of 6 different bridges to cross to get from here to there. Trouble is, using Google Street View (GSV), I can find no place on either end of those bridges (12 opportunities) where the river itself is visible where a car can be parked and have the sign in the frame too. I did find a few places where it looked possible, but they were all further north. Hoping to get lucky I started our trip by crossing the Savannah on I-20, where there was a nice sign on the SC side, the Street View was correct, but no river visible.

We then turned north and recrossed the Savannah River back into South Carolina hoping that maybe they had put up a nice sign sign the GSV car had been that way 5 years ago. Nope. Eight or so miles later we hung a left and crossed the Thurmond Dam back into Georgia with still no reversing of my Google Street View research. Our next opportunity, which did look promising, was about 30 miles later when we returned back into South Carolina on US378 between Lincolnton, GA and McCormick, SC. The Georgia side sign was not there as they are building a second bridge across the river. Fortunately the the South Carolina sign was still there, but construction forced us into a less than ideal photograph (the one you see above.)

Not real happy with our effort, we drove further north another 25 miles to the next bridge across the Savannah near Calhoun Falls, SC. When using GSV it showed a small sign with the river’s name on it on both the SC side and the GA side. We stopped at the South Carolina side and took a picture. Then because of the angle of the sun, crossed the bridge into Georgia to check if a better shot could be had there. Along with the small Savannah River signs on both sides there were much larger ones for the lake the river had become because of the dam that was between this bridge and the last. In the end we decided to use the above sign for the river and use this one for a lake. All in all we crossed over the Savannah River 6 times.

In the middle of May last year, the Emperor had 140,000 miles on it and after a little less than 148,000 hours since and after our 3rd river crossing today, near Pollard’s Corner, GA, the Emperor passed the 148,000 mile mark.

Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1456

Motoring Challenge Points 10, Approx Miles Driven 230
Totals So Far: 20 points & 400 miles

We’re Number 20!

Well, actually, number twenty-three when you take into consideration the top 3 grand prize winners. Today they announced the winners in the 2014 Moss Motoring Challenge. Our 128 points tied us with two other folks (a Miata & an MGB) for twentieth place of the 50 runners up, so to go along with our t-shirt and sticker we get a $50 Gift Certificate to Moss Motors. But everyone was a winner by just participating.

The winner was a fellow driving a 1961 Triumph TR3A. He scored 200 points, only 6 or so less than the most available while second place, in an MGB, was only three points behind him. Both of these fellows visited every one of the 48 contiguous states and difference between them was the winner went to 9 of the 13 Canadian Provinces, while the runner up “only” got six. Third place was a Miata, way back, with only 180 points.

Back in May I thought we could possibly score 139 points if everything went our way and had we achieved that goal we would have been tied for 12th place. This year I’ve set a goal of 150 points and if that happens and the scoring doesn’t jump too much that might place us in the top 10 (of the $50 winners.)

Here is my favorite photo from last year’s contest. If it wasn’t for my shadow you might assume I was just another painted figure in this mural in Johnston, SC.
City-Johnston