We Go To The Zoo

Destination - Zoo

About three weeks ago we had traveled to Columbia to take a picture of the front entrance to the Riverbanks Zoo. It was crowded that there was a line of cars just to get into the parking lot. We took one photo of a nearby banner, but decided later that it just wouldn’t do. I remember from our last visit, several years back, that the entrance had a big ol’ colorful sign and an animal themed mural at the entrance.

We drove via the Interstate on the way back from Statesville yesterday and would pass right near Columbia. Figuring we might be early enough to get that elusive zoo picture we drove over. It was 10:30 and I guess the zoo opened at 11:00 AM because it was already getting busy on the entrance road. There was no line of cars so we took a left, much to the chagrin of the guy with the wands who was pointing right, and pulled to the curb at the main entrance.

It was under renovation. There was no mural and the big sign was not nearly as impressive as I remembered. We took the photo anyway and I think it will just have to do.

Photo Rally Update: We came in 4th place, a long way out of first.
RidgeRunner Tours 2014 Photo Rally
Targa Class Results:
1st….Steve Wilson & Sloane Wilson 106 pts
2nd…Rob Bolling & Amber Bolling 96 pts
3rd…Stephanie Sturm & Teresa DeSantis 94 pts
4th…Brian Bogardus & Donna Bogardus 83 pts
5th…Dwayne Gentry & Lydia Johnson 79 pts

I Is The Loneliest Letter

County - Iredell

Of South Carolina’s 46 counties, it turns out that there none beginning with 6 of the letters of the alphabet. Q, X and Z are to be expected, T & V a little unexpected, but I was surprised that none began with the letter I. But actually I is relatively scarce as the first letter of a county. Of the 3,143 counties (or its equivalent) in the United States there are only 30 that begin that way. Georgia only has one, Irwin, and it is 200 miles away from Aiken. North Carolina only has one, Iredell, and it too is around 200 miles away. But as luck would have it, this weekend’s Foothills Photo Rally 4 that we participated in started in Statesville, NC which just so happens to be in……Iredell County.

As for the rally, we had a blast. We drove over 100 miles of back country roads trying to spot various things we were given photos of, stopping at 4 different checkpoints that involved games of chance or skill, spending nearly six hours doing it. Only once we had to backtrack because of a missed turn and that was the drivers fault as when my navigator said three tenths of a mile until the next turn I heard 3 miles.

I don’t know where exactly we finished in our 20 group class, but I know it wasn’t 1st, 2nd, or smack in the middle. The first place team in each class, of which there were two, each received a Mason jar filled with White Lightning. The second place teams got a Mason jar of local honey. The teams that finished in the statistical middle of each class’s scores got a certificate that will only be slightly embarrassing to have hanging on the wall in their Trophy Room at home. After the awards were handed out we could have gone up and checked our actual place in our class, but opted not to, so we could believe that we finished in third place only one point back of second and two points out of first.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1317

138,000 Seconds Too Late

We have a North Carolina road map, but it is dated 2007, so we thought it might be a good idea to update it this trip and because of the way we were driving up we had an opportunity to cross into the Tar Heel State via I-85. So we planned to pop into the official Welcome Center grab a new map and also take the NC state photo for the Motoring Challenge.

As we cruised into the rest area the state name was on the back of the building, so we figured there would be a nice sign in the front. We were wrong. There is a wood sign that is too far from the parking lot to be seen well and it also had wood letters spelling out North Carolina Welcome Center above the front door, but it too could not be captured photographically. We then struck out on the map front too as we were about a half hour too late, they lock the doors at 5:30 PM.

We did manage to manage to successfully grab three other challenge photos on the trip to Statesville, a County, a National Forest and a Destination:

A little north of Kings Mountain, NC the Emperor passed the 138,000 mile mark this afternoon.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1315

10 Run Mercy Rule

Kind of wish they had the 10 run mercy rule in the major leagues tonight. The FRS are down 12 to 2 in the 7th inning against the MFY. The official scorer at Fenway did take some mercy on them just now, ruling an obvious 6th error of the night a fielders choice.

The Emperor got a bath tonight. We are headed up to North Carolina to do the Foothills Photo Rally 4 and he needed to look a little less grungy around all the other cars. I was going to take the cheater’s way out and dust him off, then touch up the real dirty areas with some Quick Detailer, but realized I really needed to break out the hose and bucket. After last Saturday’s trip to Atlanta and back in the constant light rain/mist mix he was dirty enough to warrant the royal treatment.

Started down went up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1313

MLB.TV Takes Its Toll

mlb.tv

Previously on “Life of Brian” it was nothing for me to listen to the FRS game on the internet and blog away, but now that I’ve spent the big bucks to watch the game, it is really hard to minimize the game to write about some inane bit of my day.

Black Is Back & I Need A Beer

While the entire episode one of season two was exciting and worth the 10 month wait, it wasn’t until in the final two minutes that we got something that sent a simultaneous shiver & cheer racing throughout the Clone Club – “Excuse me…my sistre shot me.” – Helena lives! (barely)

Brewery
I could see the gentleman in the photo as he walked towards us on the empty downtown sidewalk. He got right near us and looked at me strange, so by explanation I said, “Photo scavenger hunt and we needed a brewery.” He grumbled, “You could say so.” Editorial comment or professional opinion?

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1310

The King’s Donuts

The King's Donuts

Took a 400 mile road trip to Fairburn, GA today to go get a doughnut. And to see a friend who recently bailed from working at the Valve Store(tm) to become the COO and head baker of a Christian doughnut shop called The King’s Donuts. Yesterday was their soft opening and they sold out of doughnuts by mid-afternoon. We were there for about an hour and there was a steady stream of customers the whole time. Just before we left at 4:30 he gave us a tour of the kitchen and there were only 3 mostly filled trays of wares left to sell.

We took the long way there on the back roads to get a couple more of our Moss Motoring Challenge objectives:

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1309