Bluffton

We spent the weekend on HHI and instead of roaming the island we crossed the bridge back to the mainland for breakfast. Our destination was the world famous Squat-N-Gobble in Bluffton. We figured we’d eat breakfast and do a little geocaching around town, there were probably about a dozen within walking distance, and then head back to HHI.

Donna and I actually ate at this restaurant once before – 21 years ago. We were in Savannah for a Miata gathering and had brought our bicycles to go for a Saturday morning ride with the Coastal Bicycle Touring Club of Savannah. The Squat-N-Gobble was the destination for lunch and then ride back.

The place hadn’t changed much. It seemed like they bumped it out enough to add two more tables, but we couldn’t be positive. When we pulled into the parking lot I notice a town police car across the street and a city working was piling barricade parts on a telephone pole nearby. Donna asked our server if today was the town’s Christmas Parade and the answer was, “Yes.” “It starts at 11, but they will be shutting the streets down starting at nine.” She told us to park in the Dollar General lot next door as the parade route passed right down the street between them, that way if we wanted to get out of town beforehand we could.

Donna and I thought it might be fun to watch their parade, so we ate and headed out touring town and geocaching away. We found 7 in a row and when we DNF’d number eight we called it quits. It was 10:30 anyway, so it was time to head back to find a viewing spot. We dropped our equipment off at the car, grabbed a couple of cold soft drinks and wandered into the fray. For such a small town they sure attracted a large crowd for the parade.

Turns out thinking it might be fun and it actually being fun were not too similar. We watched about 15 minutes before making our way back to the Dollar General parking lot and heading out of town and back to the condo.

Proof

The very same forum members who demand photographic proof, especially those on Miata.net, upon seeing this photo, would chime in with, “Now you need to get rid of that 4×4 look.”

Sorry kids, not everyone can live with the slammed stance you want me to have. I admit it does make the Miata look purposeful and bad-ass, but I have enough problems clearing roadkill squirrels and small plastic drinking cups as it is. Not to mention the stray driveway, speed bump traffic calming measure and even the entrance to my own home garage. Anyway, put the two of us in the car along with our weekly provisions and the fender gap settles an inch or so making for a slightly nicer look.

The Garage Smells Like New Rubber

Wheels and tires arrived today, so naturally the first thing I did when I got home was put them on the Emperor. But if you are a member of any internet car related forum, you might not believe me. As soon as someone posts about some mod or improvement to their car, invariably someone will chime in with, “Post pictures, or it didn’t happen.”

By the time I was finished it was too dark to take photos, so if you need proof, just wait here by your computer, it’ll eventually show up.

If you need a holiday gift for the Miata owner who has everything*, I’ve got just the thing – 1 set of OEM 15″ wheels from a 1999 with some very worn 205/50 General Exclaim UHP tires. Only $100 (pick up only) Don’t Delay! Act Now! Limited Time Offer!

*Because he has everything, he doesn’t need anything, so he won’t need these wheels, but you have to get him something anyway. And he will definitely appreciate these classic wheels that look good on any 1990 to 2005 Miata.

New Kitchen Too

Well, the often rumored and occasionally threatened kitchen renovation project has come to life. Saturday we popped into our bank and filled out the application for a home equity loan. Afterwards we perused the 2 BBHIW in town eyeballing kitchen displays, grabbing free brochures, samples of flooring (wood & vinyl) and counter tops.

Saturday afternoon and evening was spent brainstorming ideas, surfing the web and sketching ideas for the new room.

This morning we chatted with a kitchen designer at the Lowes in North Augusta and ended up scheduling an appointment for him to visit the house tomorrow after work.

Fiscal cliff be damned, we aren’t planning on hanging over the edge by our fingertips, we’re sailing off the edge like Thelma & Louise.

New Shoes

For the Emperor.

I have been shopping around for awhile for new tires for the Miata. Looking for deals on some Ultra High Performance Summer tires. This time to go along with the rubber I wanted some new round metal parts that hold the tires too. I have had my eyes on the Chaparrals that R-Speed sells for a long time (I even mocked up some in black 8 years ago) and turns out they were having an online Black Friday sale. I hemmed and hawed over color, the black looks sharp, gold would be a stylish add, but ended up going with gun metal as that fit better with the grayed-out headlight housings. Two hours after I entered my order, I got an email back from R-Speed saying that all they have, and are still stocking*, are the wheels in classic silver. I canceled the order.

*Might want to edit the web page to reflect that guys…

Headed back to the web to do a little more shopping. I found something completely different from the Chaparrals that I liked at Tire Rack, the ASA AR1, but it only came in silver and black and now I’m kinda set on gun metal gray. For the heck of it I price them out with a set of my preferred tire, the Yokohama S.Drive, and it is a little more than I was spending at R-Speed, but do-able.

Discount Tire Direct was doing a Black Friday/Cyber Monday Weekend with $50 off a set of 4 tires or wheels. Turns out they have a wheel pretty similar to the ASA AR1, the Drag DR-19 and it comes in Gun Metal. The tires are $10 more than Tire Rack, but the Drag wheels are 10 bucks cheaper than the ASA’s so that was a wash, but subtract the deal savings and their free shipping it was over a hundred bucks cheaper from Discount Tire.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1182

Look! A Big Turkey!

We did a little geocaching this morning.

We have pretty much cleaned out everything in our local area where we can go to a park, state or local, and get in a nice walk while having the opportunity to find several caches while we are at it. Last night I expanded the search area just a bit, we didn’t want to drive more than an hour one way and I found a place west of Columbia and near Lake Murray called Saluda Shoals Park that fit the bill.

We found 9 of the 10 we searched for. The only one we didn’t was a micro in the woods, but it was one of those decoy caches. The owner hides a cache and then hides 6 to 10 decoys that look like actual caches, but when you open them up instead of a log to sign there is some that says “This is not the cache.” We don’t really like this kind of hide, one reason is because this is third one we’ve attempted and are 0 for 3. The other, is more philosophical, if you’ve got this big ol’ place where no one will stumble on your cache why do you have to hide that sucker so well?

Walking 5.6 miles around in the woods can make a person hungry. For lunch Donna mentioned that she’d like a hamburger and the first place I thought of was Pawley’s Front Porch in the Five Points area of Columbia it’s only 12 miles away. Trouble is, it probably would be a suicide mission because the University of South Carolina was playing football today only a couple miles away from there. I thought it would be smart to avoid going to Five Points, but Donna talked me into it saying, that if it got crowded as we got close we could turn around and find another place to eat.

Well, as it turns out, arriving at Pawley’s was a piece of cake at 1:30 and had I come in the right way I could have parked right next to the side door. Probably because 80,000 Gamecock fans had been in their seats at Williams-Brice Stadium for at least a half an hour as kickoff time was at 1:00PM.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPJbun3kJYY

Oh, and that giant inflatable turkey we saw on the drive home turned out to be Cocky. Honest mistake for the non fan considering the season and all.