Masters Miata Club

Thank You For Your Service

Yesterday morning we drove the Miata to lovely downtown Trenton, SC. We were with 9 other Miatas from the MMC and we were on our way to drive in the 46th Annual Ridge Peach Festival parade. This was the 13th year the Club has driven in the parade. Donna and I were among the 8 cars that first year, and while we haven’t done it every year, but I bet this was the 8th or 9th time.

During the parade you are allowed to throw candy to the crowd and we always spend about $20 so that we have enough to last the entire 2/3 of a mile route. When we could drive 2 abreast we would and Donna would throw candy to the crowd-side herself, but when the crowds thickened and we had to drive single file she would throw to the right and in between, hand me candy so I could toss some to the left. It was during this time when I tossed a few Starbursts at a couple of kids that I happened to make eye contact with the mother and she said to me, “Thanks. And thanks for your service.”

That woman at the parade was thanking me based solely on the hat I was wearing. A month ago when we toured the USS Midway I bought a hat in the gift shop to commemorate our visit and my time aboard almost 40 years ago. This has happened a couple other times too, once in Barstow, CA and once again here in Aiken, both times it was just because of the hat. Not that I don’t slightly deserve it having spent 10 years in Uncle Sam’s Yacht Club, but any schmoe who’s toured the ship or spends around twenty bucks can get one from Amazon or eBay and that weirds me out because they’ll get thanked for possibly no service at all. I’d like to wear the hat, but I’m going to have to only do it when there will be little chance of interaction with people and definitely not on Memorial Day or Veterans Day.

And then again maybe it is probably just me who has a problem with this, but when I joined the Navy in 1973 people were still into calling servicemen returning from Vietnam baby-killers and now after the middle-east conflicts it has become fashionable to call servicemen (and women) heroes and to thank them for their service and I am of that era, not this one.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 186

4 Years Later

McLeod Museum

We took a drive on Saturday to scout a route for a future MMC event, but we didn’t take the Miata, it was just a little too cold (and windy) for a convertible drive. The picture above is from the destination, the McLeod Farms Antique Museum.

It was even colder today. We got up this morning for our usual Sunday morning breakfast bike ride. Our first stop was downtown at the ATM because we didn’t have any cash and after were going to go another dozen miles or so before eating. The temps were in the upper 30s with the wind chill near freezing. We both felt uncomfortably cold in the 15° below normal, so after the ATM we just rode home and got in the car to drive for breakfast. Post breakfast we did the weekly grocery shopping and we have not been outside since.

This afternoon we sat glued to the couch watching the only golf tournament we ever watch, the Masters.

I have been seeing Dr. PCP twice a year forever for him to run my cholesterol numbers and I can’t believe it has been 4 years since I put up the numbers…Maybe because they looked pretty much like this latest batch of results, cholesterol & LDL within limits and my triglycerides too high with my HDL not high enough.

  Chol HDL LDL Trig
Goal 80-199 40-110 30-130 30-150
03/31/16 170 37 95 180
10/10/12 196 36 128 160
04/10/12 193 39 121 166
10/10/11 162 43 88 155
04/04/11 155 38 96 107
12/06/10 176 41 114 105
05/18/10 151 38 91 109
12/15/08 167 41 92 171
03/21/08 164 37 104 115
12/12/07 175 38 104 165
07/17/07 185 36 117 162
03/05/07 195 39 123 167
09/19/06 167 37 103 135
04/06/06 168 37 106 126
12/08/05 182 35 120 137
07/28/05 177 30 113 169
06/17/05 164 31 85 238
05/06/05 174 27 108 194
01/10/05 176 33 110 167
09/21/04 209 24 131 271

The Week In Review

Destination - Deer Crossing

Stopped on the way over to visit a friend and took this picture. It is worth two points and I’m counting zero miles because we would have passed right by it anyway.

Monday when we got home from work, Donna checked the mail and she came out with a padded envelope, looked at me and asked accusingly, “What did you order from Moss Motors?!?” I thought for a moment, couldn’t come up with anything…..then it dawned on me, it was our prize package for finishing as one of the 50 runners-up in the 2015 Motoring Challenge. Sure enough, that’s what it was, a nice t-shirt, a cool little sticker and our $50 gift certificate.

This year for the Motoring Challenge instead of a T-shirt they are giving everyone who scores 50 points a nifty hat, well last week’s “Slow Children Playing” sign put us over that mark. All they wanted as proof was a photo of your entry sheet with your progress so far marked off. So Wednesday after work I took a picture of ours sitting on the trunk of the Sonata and wrote 52 pts, so far with my finger in the coating of pine pollen. I then spent the next 1-1/2 hours washing the pollen off both the Sonata and the Miata, even though I knew they would be covered again to the same thickness in a couple days.

This morning was the monthly breakfast drive with the MMC and we had a turn out of two cars, us and the folks who were leading it. Maybe some were scared off by the chance of rain, the weather have been promising all week that it would start raining last night, continue through the whole day and not quit until tonight. It was sprinkling lightly when we got ready to leave for the drive, but halfway to the meet up spot we paused on the side of the road and dropped the top. We just returned from grocery shopping and it is still down. Radar is showing a line heading our way, should be here within the hour, but I would not be surprised if it dissipates before it gets here.

In this afternoon’s mail was another padded envelope from Moss Motors. This time, she didn’t ask what I bought because we knew the hat was on its way. Now I have to figure out what I want to spend the fifty bucks on so I can get another padded envelope from them in the mail again.

Started down, went up, back down, back up, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 153

Motoring Challenge Points 2, Approx Miles Driven 0
Totals So Far: 54 points & 910 miles

60,000 Corn Chips With Salsa

Tonight was the MMC’s monthly meeting and Donna and I attended. We usually have a bunch of excuses as to why we won’t go to one of these functions, but chief among them is we don’t feel like driving 25 miles one-way to eat in a restaurant when we have like sixty thousand of them within 53 miles of our house. Well this month we couldn’t use that excuse as the meeting was at a Mexican place right here in Aiken.

Amazingly enough, most of the attendees at the meeting were from right here in Aiken or close by. Just like us, there are some of the Augusta folks who don’t want to drive all the way over here just to get Mexican food. But probably a lot more would have attended if it wasn’t for a wide band of thunderstorms passing through smack dab around meeting time.

For the first time in a long while we drove the OTM to the meeting. Two reasons actually, 1) the aforementioned thunder storms and b) we needed gas in the Sonata and it is always less crowded at the pumps at 6:00 PM than at our usual quitting time of 4:00 PM. As I got ready to kill the engine to fill up, I glanced down at the ODO of the Purple Whale, it read 60000.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 148

Mr. Miata Goes To Mini Tec

Mini Tec Visit

Man, I’m down to blogging once a week anymore, not with a bang but a whimper maybe?

Friday the Emperor got a bath because on Saturday the MMC was going on a day trip. Saturday the Emperor passed through the 163,000 mile barrier somewhere on SC-28 between North Augusta and McCormick.

About a month ago an item popped up in my Google Miata newsfeed about a company that is selling kits to transplant a Honda V6 into the first & second generation Miatas. They were just a hundred miles up the road in the small town of Royston, GA.

Mini Tec has been in business for 13 years hot rodding the original 1959-2000 Mini by stuffing Honda VTEC motors in them and now they have branched out in the Miata. A couple of emails and a phone call later and I arranged a tour of the place for the Masters Miata Club. We had seven cars and a dozen people follow Donna and I to the town that used to be just famous for being the boyhood home of Ty Cobb.

BJ and Norm welcomed us with open arms (and snacks), showed us around their shop and regaled us with tales of daring do. They had a couple of converted cars, an NA and an NB, with their hoods popped up showing those Honda V6 engines. The motor almost looks like it belongs there and as it turn out the the conversion actually is lighter than the stock get up and you end up with about twice as much horsepower.

They offered rides in the NA and only one of our group took them up on it. They zipped off up the road the shop was on and were gone for about 5 minutes. You could hear Dennis hooting a hundred yards down the road on the way back. This looks like big fun, but it would change the whole character of the car in my opinion and is not even on my radar, but if you desire big hp & torque numbers or are a hot rodder at heart, this might your ticket.

Started down, went up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 145

Motoring Challenge Points 6, Approx Miles Driven 300
Totals So Far: 35 points & 740 miles

What Did You Want It For Then?

November’s breakfast was yesterday and the responsibility of the new President of the MMC He picked Betsy’s in downtown Aiken. When he asked me to post the info on the web site he said to have everyone meet up at the usual gas station off Exit 1 of I-20 and could I send him a copy of my route I used the last time I did the very same run. I assumed that meant he was planning on leading the group from there to the breakfast spot. Silly me.

Donna and I arrived at the gas station about 6 minutes before the appointed 8:00AM meeting time and were surprised that there was no one else there, especially the event organizer. A couple minutes later another car showed up. By 8 o’clock there were three cars, but none were the leader of the breakfast event. We waited another ten minutes and when the President and event leader never showed up, I ended up leading the small group on a slightly different route to the breakfast place.

When our three car caravan arrived at Betsy’s there were already two Miatas outside. One of them belonged to the President of the Club and when we got inside he and another member were just finishing their meal.

When I asked what he wanted the route map for all he said was, “That was if I did do the route I needed to study it because I don’t have a navigator.” So I asked did he read the post on the web site and the reply was, “No, but I figured it out when my dining companion asked where everyone else was.”

What could I say, I just went over to the table with the rest of the group than drove in together and ordered some breakfast.

Started down, went up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 117

All Over The Map

Car Show - Mustangs, Music & More

We were all over the map yesterday in the Miata. Driving somewhere over 300 miles, like the last two Saturday’s trips to Savannah & then Athens that involved something like 300 miles of driving, we are considering it training for our driving vacation that is coming up.

For breakfast we drove to Lexington to the closest to us Bruegger’ Bagels. The reason for this destination was two-fold, one, breakfast, and two, bagels for breakfast for the next couple of Fridays when we bike ride to work.

We then killed a couple hours at home before heading back out to go to M3, a fund raiser for the band at Midland Valley High School in Graniteville. The M3 was for Mustangs/Music & More with part of the more being why we were there, a car show (see above.) Another part of the more was food vendors and we thought we might get a bite to eat, but there wasn’t any shade available to get out of the heat, if we did buy something there.

In what turned out to be my biggest misstep of the day, when Donna suggested Firehouse subs for lunch, I thought we should just continue a little further west to go to the one in North Augusta instead of heading back to Aiken.

That Firehouse Subs was very busy and it was taking so long to even get our order placed that both of us separately, to ourselves, though maybe it was time to find another lunch spot. Just about the time one of us was going to say something aloud, I got to the cashier.

After eating we walked down a couple stores in the strip shopping center to a Dollar Tree to get the three alternate prizes for the MMC’s Bug Splat later that night. We shopped a bit, picking out some cheesy prizes somewhat related to the name of the award and headed to the check out. There we were greeted with another long line, anchored by a woman with a cart full to the brim. This time when we thought to ourselves maybe it was time to go, we both took action simultaneously and headed for the door.

On the way home we made a quick stop at the Dollar Tree in Aiken, right next to the Firehouse Subs I should have driven to, where we got those same cheesy items and were in and out in less than 3 minutes. We then had a couple hours to hang out at home, have some dinner before driving back over to North Augusta to drive the 40 mile loop to Edgefield and back swatting bags out of the night air with the nose of the Emperor.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 41

Motoring Challenge Points 1, Approx Miles Driven 30
Totals So Far: 80 points & 3385 miles