Putting the F in FRS

FRS

Since last Wednesday when the FRS beat the Twins 9-4 and we were finally 2 games above .500. Since early April they have lost 7 games in a row, by the scores of 4-3, 1-0, 6-1, 6-2, 7-4, 6-4 & 7-2. Next up is a three game series against the Tampa Bay Rays who are in last place only a game worse than the Red Sox. So if all goes as it has been, by Sunday the Sox can capture sole possession of last place in the American League East. I really did pick the wrong year to pay for MLB.tv…

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1358

Numbers

141414

Day 10: Columbus, GA to Aiken, SC – 278.7 miles

Not too far out of Sandersville, Georgia we changed drivers at a spot I picked, just so I could take the above snapshot.

Today’s drive was 38.7 miles longer than our pre-drive Google Maps estimate and our total trip mileage was 2894.8 or 390.8 miles more than the 2504 pre-drive estimate. That is an average of almost 40 extra miles each day coming mostly from detours, both of the planned and unplanned variety, the rest from dinner drives and shopping expeditions.

We filled up with gas 11 times on this trip, on average every 246 miles. I pumped an average 8-3/4 gallons each time at an average price of $3.85. The highest price paid per gallon was $4.27 today in rural GA and the lowest price per gallon was $3.50 at a Kroger in Fort Worth, TX last Wednesday. The Emperor averaged 28.1 MPG for the 10 days.

On the Motoring Challenge front, we photographed the car, one of us and that silly poster 46 times. We nabbed 12 Counties or Parishes, 11 Cities, 9 of the “Destinations”, 8 States and 3 national Forests. We also took 3 Sneak Peek photos, only two of which can be submitted.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1357

141,000 Concrete Expansion Joints

County - Macon

Day 9: Hammond, LA to Columbus, GA – 444.4 miles*

Today was supposed to be a short drive in case we were going to spend the morning in Hammond, no plans materialized, so we opted to combine Sunday and Monday’s drive into one long Sunday drive. Kind of like a horse returning to its barn, we are accelerating home. We even briefly considered trying to finish the whole thing today by driving the last 250 miles, but decided against it when we realized that we lost an hour when going back to Eastern Time at the Georgia border. We will now get home Monday evening, one day ahead of schedule.

Like yesterday we started the trip on the Interstate to make some decent time and progress on our route diagonally across Alabama from Mobile to Columbus, but could only stand so much, about 2/3rds of the drive, before hitting some 2-lane back road blacktop. We managed to snag 4 more Motoring Challenges, 2 cities; Troy and Union Springs and 2 counties; Bullock and Macon (above.) We will probably try and snag a few more on the way back across Georgia tomorrow, including a National Monument, Ocmulgee, that is near Macon.

Somewhere, while bump, bump, bumping along over I-10’s very annoying 141,000 concrete expansion joints, the Emperor bumped past the 141,000 mile mark.

*Pre-drive Google Maps estimate: 413 (-31.4) – Total miles so far: 2616.1

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1355

Missed Ferries

Kistatchie National Forest

Day 8: Natchitoches, LA to Hammond, LA – 305.5 miles*

We headed due south from Natchitoches (na-ka-tish) to fill our last available National Forest spot. Nice back country touch with the three bullet holes in the sign… Next up was a parish that started with a letter V and because of the scarcity of V counties back home the major prize for today’s drive. We took photos for more four items, but will probably only use 2 of them.

I had a semi-short mileage day planned, but the beautiful weather and scenery of northwest Louisiana just begged for more exploring. When we stopped in Lecompte (luh-kawmpt) for lunch at the famous Lea’s Lunchroom my navigator plotted an awesome detour around the north of Baton Rouge on LA10. As I was tracing the route on the state map I noticed that there were not one, but two toll ferries, which are another Motoring Challenge Destination goal. As we approached to the town of Melville where the ferry across the Atchafalaya (a-cha-fa-lie-a) River was we started to worry as we didn’t see any ferry information signs.

Sure enough, when we got to the river all we found was a Dead End sign. We backtracked to a small closed convenience store to look at the map and check our options. As we were sitting there we heard a voice with a Cajun accent say, “Are ya’ll lost?” Up walked a fellow in a straw cowboy hat, missing half his top teeth and a belt buckle the size of dinner plate with the outline of the state of Louisiana on it. Donna, with a smile in her voice asked,”How’d you know?” The fellow replied,”Because that is right where all you cars and bikers park when you find out there ain’t no ferry no more.” “Ain’t been one in about two years.” We asked if the the other ferry further along the road was still in operation and said he thought that it was.

He was wrong. There is a brand spanking new bridge over the Mississippi River at the town of New Roads where our official, published by the Department of Transportation, 2014 Map of Louisiana said there was a Toll Ferry.

*Pre-drive Google Maps estimate: 262 (-43.5) – Total miles so far: 2171.7

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1353

Parishes Not Counties

De Soto Parish

Day 7: Fort Worth, TX to Natchitoches, LA – 366.6 miles*

Up at 5 and out of the hotel at 5:30 so we could beat the big city traffic. And we did for the most part, traffic was dense at several spots on the upper loop around Dallas/Fort Worth, but it never slowed down from 75 MPH, even through the narrowed lanes of the construction near the airport. Tiring of the standard “free” hotel breakfasts we sought out a DD in Garland for our morning repast.

We are back in one of favorite states to visit, Louisiana, especially for eating. Today’s lunch was barbeque at a spot our GPS led us to south of the town of Mansfield. As we cruised down the street it didn’t look like anywhere a restaurant would be and it really wasn’t a restaurant, but just a take-out joint. It reminded me of the place that Frank Underwood went to in the TV show House of Cards, one man, his smoker and a cleaver. We both got a sliced pork sandwich and ate it on a picnic table outside and watched a steady stream of cars pull in, get a bag of BBQ and drive off.

Tonight we went down to the historic Front St of Natchitoches and ate at the bar of Mama’s Oyster House. Donna got some of that gumbo she has been craving since we were in Baton Rogue two years ago. Then we shared fried crawfish, peel ‘n’ eat shrimp and spinach & artichoke dip appetizers. The dip had a neat twist, instead of tortilla chips to scoop with, you got battered and deep fried bowtie pasta.

*Pre-drive Google Maps estimate: 290 (-76.6) – Total miles so far: 1866.2

Started up, went down, went up, back down, back up, down again, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1351

140,000 Black Eyed Susans

Black Eyed Susans

Day 6: Fort Worth, TX – 33.3 miles*

We got up this morning and drove about 10 miles east to a park in a subdivision that turned into town, Trophy Place. There were about 3 dozen caches spread over 4 different trail areas. Trouble was finding a trail head. All the roads were twisty and littered with cul de sacs, there were no signs to trail heads that we could see and none of the caches had a secondary waypoint that was trail head parking. With the busy traffic of the big city and the trouble locating a starting point we almost gave up, but Donna wouldn’t say quit. We finally found a spot that got us going. We ended up finding all nine caches that we searched for. We missed out on a couple on the loop we started on because there was a creek crossing and neither of us felt like getting our feet wet.

This evening Jim, Donna’s oldest brother who works in Ft. Worth, picked us up and we drove to the Grapevine Mills Mall to eat at a place called Love & War in Texas to met up with a co-worker of ours who is dropping off a daughter to go to school in Dallas. Jim can now become a local contact if she gets stuck with car trouble or needs someone to bail her out of the hoosegow.

We did get one Motoring Challenge photo this morning. When we opened up the curtains in the hotel this morning we could see the full moon slowly dropping towards the horizon. We quick like bunnies went downstairs and lined up the Miata for a picture.

Oh, and yesterday, somewhere just before Gunter, TX on Farm to Market Road 121, the Emperor passed the 140,000 mile mark.

Today he got a bath at a coin operated hand wash place in downtown Roanoke, TX.

*Pre-drive Google Maps estimate: 0 (-33.3) – Total miles so far: 1499.6

Started up, went down, back up, back down, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1345

Tickling Oklahoma

State - Oklahoma

Day 5: Hope, AR to Fort Worth, TX – 338.0 miles*
We drove in from Arkansas, spent less than 17 miles driving on Oklahoma’s roads and then back out into Texas. We are “fair weather cachers”, so today’s rain would have normally kept us from even venturing out. But we are a 1,000 miles from home on our way through this part of the country and don’t know when we will be back, so we had to make at least one find here in Arkansas and one in Oklahoma. We did and this added another 2 states to our growing list of state’s where we have found only one cache. Our one trick wonders now stand at 9 of the 29 US states we have cached in.

Highlight of the day was our visit to Paris, TX. From the totally ridiculous replica Eiffel Tower with a giant red cowboy hat on top to the sublime lunch at Burgerland.

*Pre-drive Google Maps estimate: 310 (-28.0) – Total miles so far: 1466.3

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1341