Eating Out

There’s No Place I’d Rather Be Roaming

29054 - GilbertHere is an outtake from today’s Postal shoot for my sister-in-law-in-law. Hi Beth We left the house at 8:00 AM and followed two-lane blacktop, except for a brief stint in Lexington, on a couple hundred mile loop through rural South Carolina gathering 10 new additions to the Postal Gallery, the nine listed yesterday and a last minute addition, home of the Annual South Carolina Peanut Party, Pelion.

Would have been more, but we only snapped one of the three reported post offices in Lexington, because when we got there around noon the traffic was thick as molasses. About the only thing Lexington was good for today was lunch. We stopped and ate at a Maurice’s BBQ there. One Little Joe basket, one Sauci-Chick, sweet tea for me and water for her.

Meal Cost: $14.62
Tip: None
Spent Today: $14.62
Year to Date: $439.66

 
It was around 40 when we started the trip this morning, so the top stayed up until White Rock. I’ve got all ten photos uploaded, but I have yet to write blurbs for them, so for tonight, you can easily figure out which ones are fresh (I wish there was a way to highlight the new entries into this photo album thing…). For an extra hint, they are all on the front page, except for the above mentioned White Rock.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 54

Become a Draftsman

Become a DraftsmanWhile hunting up cool backgrounds for at work I stumbled on this little thing, but it is too small for wallpaper. I am a draftsman by trade and I’m not sure just what they mean by “Enjoy a Real Job in Industry.” I searched Google Images for draftsman and did find one that is big enough that came from a US Government site. I’m using it now for two reasons, it is drafting related and it is Black History month. See, the image came from a collection about African Americans and the Second World War effort. Download it.

Second day in a row we have gone out for breakfast. This time instead of driving 60 miles, we drove just 2 and went to the New Moon Cafe. Everything bagel toast with butter and cream cheese for her. Warmed up Cranberry Pecan muffin with butter for him. Bottled water to split.

Meal Cost: $3.99
Tip Jar: $1.01
Spent Today: $5.00
Year to Date: $374.17

Breakfast in America

Breakfast in NewberryWell, Newberry, SC is in America. This morning was the first of a monthly event called Miatas for Breakfast where the MMC will go for early morning eats. It will take place on the 3rd Saturday of the month at a place that is near or far and may involve a drive before or after.

Today we drove to Bill & Fran’s for eggs in the Milk and Egg Capital, Newberry. Capitol of what, county, state, country, or world the egg shaped water tower isn’t saying. One egg scrambled with bacon, grits and toast for her, one egg scrambled with sausage, grits and biscuits for him. Order of hash browns to split, coffee for him and water for her.

Meal Cost: $11.67
Tip: $2.33
Spent Today: $14.00
Year to Date: $369.17

After dining, I convinced the other Miatas to follow me to the Newberry Post Office so I could take PO Picture #50 with 5 Miatas filling the parking lot. From there we went into the heart of the small town and looked for early morning places that were open so we could get out of the wind and cold. Apparently when the sign on the doors of the downtown antique places say they open at 10:00 AM on Saturday, it is only a guideline.

One place that was open on Main St made $3 off of us, they had a selection of Girl Scout cookies, mmmm, Caramel deLites. They then directed us to another place that was open just one block over, a real live throw back of a hardware store. Very interesting place, stuff stuffed into every nook and cranny, everything from ax handles to bear traps, light switches to cylinders of welding gases, from snowboards (WTF?) to keys made, from spittoons near the wood stove to a Nobel Prize. Well, actually it is a bronze replica of William F. Shull’s (the owner of the store) grandfather’s prize. Clifford G. Shull was awarded the 1994 Nobel Prize for his pioneering work in neutron scattering, a technique that involves directing a beam of particles produced by a nuclear reactor at a sample of material.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 45

Squish Squish

Shore BirdsWhen I stepped up to the refrigerator, as I went about my usual after work business of fixing of chilled drinks for us, my foot made a squish sound. It was water. There was a nice wet spot surrounding the fridge. I pulled it away from the wall to see water leaking from the coupler connecting the ice maker input line to the supply line. Dang. I hate plumbing.

I headed out to the garage and my tool box to get a couple of wrenches. I was not to be so lucky, just tightening the fitting had no effect on the leak. So outside I went to shut off water to the house. I really hate plumbing. With a trip to my local home warehouse store imminent and the water to the house off, I figured now was time to take a look at the kitchen faucet that had developed a drip. You could get it to stop by turning it off and then moving the handle a touch. Move it too little or too much and the leak stayed or even get worse, but I had mastered this shut off maneuver. On the other hand the major faucet user was not to happy with the arraignment. What the heck, Valentine’s Day is coming up.

At the store I bought the new washers and springs for the faucet and also the little ball on a stick thing controls the water flow. I bought a new coupling and as a extra precaution bought some of those little white plastic crush rings (or whatever they are really called.)

Back home I put all the new faucet pieces in and buttoned it up. Next I put the new coupling on the water line. I went outside and turned the water to the house back on. The faucet worked like a charm and was an instant hit with the spousal unit. The coupling on the ice maker water line was spraying a fine mist of water all over the place behind the fridge. And just like the first time, tightening it a little more with the wrench had zero effect. Back outside to turn off the whole house line again. Have I mentioned I hate plumbing?

I took the new coupling off and put the old one back on using two of the new white sleeve things. Success, no leaks (he writes, as he simultaneously knocks on wood.) Pushed the refrigerator back against the wall, but coiled the ice maker water line in such a manner as to leave the coupling easily visible for frequent checks.

By the time everything was tidied up and the tools put away it was much too late to cook dinner at home. Acropolis, here we come. Large Greek salad to split and a gyro each. Water for her and iced tea for me.

Meal Cost: $18.50
Tip: $3.00
Spent Today: $21.50
Year to Date: $355.17

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 43

49 Down and 318 To Go

According to the idiots who started me on this quest, there are 367 Post Offices in South Carolina. After today’s 160 mile, seven PO trip we are 13% of the way towards the goal of getting a picture of everyone.

We stopped in Greenwood after getting both Post Offices there for some lunch at a place called T.W. Boon?s. We split a Shrimp Po-boy, Onion Rings and a Sierra Mist.

Meal Cost: $8.56
Tip: $1.44
So Far Today: $10.00

The Postal Gallery Database site says 367, but I can not get a definitive list from the US Postal Service site. If I search from Columbia (which is pretty much in the center of the state) with a hundred mile radius I get 488 results. This probably isn’t accurate because it may include surrounding states, when I search from Aiken for a 100 miles it starts to list Augusta, Georgia POs.

Wikipedia lists 541 Zip Codes in the state. When I went through that list and removed the ones that said PO Box after the name I end up with 404. But I know that isn’t right because there are only 2 Post Offices in Aiken and I was left with 4 zips. Plus there were 5 or 6 names I removed that I recognized as having buildings (because I have pictures of them), so I’m thinking that the PO Box designation means there is no carrier service in those locations.

The USPS site may not even be 100% accurate as to how many it has either. When we first started this quest it listed a Post Office in the micro-town of Snelling, SC and no amount of driving the few streets in that town using the USPS site’s map resulted in a find. Same thing happened in Hilton Head where we could only find two of the four the site had listed for there. Searching today lists no P.O. for Snelling and 3 for Hilton Head.

Anyway, we may never know if we get all of them, but we sure are going to try.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 39

Tonight we had dinner out with friends at Olive Oils right here in Aiken. Grilled Chicken Breast topped with Proscuito and Cheese for him. Seafood Ravioli for her. Water to drink. All the salad and breadsticks you can eat included.

Meal Cost: $29.68
Tip: $5.32
Spent This Meal: $35.00
Spent Today: $45.00
Year to Date: $333.67

Lunch Special

This afternoon was our half day off for working 9 hours for the last 4 days. Our intention was to go to the Stoplight Deli, but we ended up at Ferrando’s for pizza instead. 14″ pie with pepperoni, sausage, onions, green peppers and banana (pepper) rings. Two garden salads a Sprite and a water. Plus a little cup of marinara sauce for crust dipping. The good thing abut this meal is that we only eat half the pie, so Sunday’s lunch is already taken care of…

Meal Cost: $19.08
Tip: $3.92
Spent Today: $23.00
Year to Date: $288.67

Time For A Rename?

DominoesInstead of Life of Brian maybe it should be called Eating With Brian?

We had Sunday lunch out with the usual suspects, but tried someplace different – Quiznos. We have had two previous experience with the chain, one that was good, we bought a sub onboard our flight to Seattle last year and it hit the spot, while second was not so good here in Aiken when we were seduced by a sign about a featured sub. Today’s experience was right about in the middle of those first two. Large Honey Bourbon Chicken with chips and a small Sierra Mist. We have vowed to give them at least one more chance before crossing them completely off our list.

Meal Cost: $10.68
Tip: None
Spent Today: $10.68
Year to Date: $256.59

After lunch we braved the elements and went outdoors. For the first time in a while it was actually nice enough to entice our fair-weather attituded selves into Hitchcock Woods. When we came out it was also nice enough still for us to drop the top on the Emperor for the drive home.

We are not even watching the Super Bowl for the commercials, although we have passed through CBS a few times to keep track of the score.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 32