Masters Miata Club

Breakfast at Betsy’s

We had 4 Miatas and a Bug-Eyed Kia Soul meet Donna and I at Greg’s Gas+ in North Augusta this morning. Dennis & Karol Mason were waiting with John Haff for us to arrive and then not too much later Rudy rolled in followed by a Kia Soul containing ex-members Jim & Judy Creer who were visiting Augusta from their current home in Florida. The lure of seeing Jim & Judy even brought founding member Anita Wylds out to join us at the start too.

It was kind of like old times as everyone stood around in the parking area chatting to well past the scheduled departure time. The only thing missing was Jim Creer’s hood up. When we finally got going, luck was on my side as we made the 20 mile drive with all six cars together in spite of having to navigate 10 traffic signals, arriving at Betsy’s on the Corner only about 10 minutes late.

The entire Aiken Wing of the Club (the Woomers, the Dyers, the Ormerods and Tom Varallo) were inside waiting on us at the traditional Master’s Miata Club long table consisting of several separate units all pulled together. Whoever did the joining, the Club members or the restaurant staff, they were very in tune psychically as there were exactly as many chairs needed to seat both groups.

We then spent the next 1-1/2 hours talking, drinking coffee, ordering breakfast, talking drinking coffee, talking waiting, redirecting mis-delivered meals, correcting the oversights of our ordered meals, eating, talking, drinking coffee, eating, waiting of the waitress to figure out all the separate checks, talking, waiting, talking and then paying our checks.

The above photo was taken by a random patron, who volunteered to take a shot of our whole group and promised that it would come out great, as she was the daughter of a professional photographer. I was a little worried at first as I had to show her which button was the shutter on my camera, but by golly she did pretty darn good.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1245

Not A Lot Of Bugs, But A Big Surprise

Big Bug SlayerLast night was the 10th or 12th Master’s Miata Club Bug Splat that Donna and I have organized and while it won’t go down in history as a very buggy event, I predict it will be the most remembered.

We start at the south end of Whiskey Road in Aiken at the Red Bowl and finish up on the south end of Martintown Road in North Augusta at a Sonic. Both ends of the trip are definitely “in town”, but in between I try and get as rural as possible, both to avoid traffic and to increase insect impact chances.

Usually there are about 6 cars that show up, including us, so I printed out 8 maps in a fit of optimism. I should printed at least one more. We had nine cars run the route, including some brand new members, some hardly ever seen members and a previous member couple who had also previously won the Biggest Bug Trophy. But no worries, the maps are usually not used at all because Donna and I in the Emperor lead the train of cars along the route.

About half way through the trip, in the middle of a 3 mile section of a very backroad road I had to slow way down as there was a stopped vehicle in our travel lane. The 9 Miatas that started at about a 1/4 mile long line quickly tightened up because of the obstruction. As I got closer I could see that it was a PT Cruiser convertible with its top down. There was a man standing on the back seat facing the side of the road. At first I thought he was looking for a stray dog or something, so I checked the oncoming lane and proceeded to pass. As I started around I realized I was wrong, he was letting loose a mighty stream of urine out onto the side of the road.

Yes, you read that right, while his wife, girlfriend, possibly date sat in the passenger seat he decided to stand in the back of a PT Cruiser convertible and relieve himself.

Salt Lick

Out behind our plant in a wooded spot, co-worker Mark has a trail camera where he captures photos of the wily white tails that live out there. Tired of capturing just one or two deer per photo he started to seed the ground in front of the lens with something called Deer Crack to create an irresistible mineral lick. Within a day or so he was capturing 5 or 6 deer in each frame.

Last night was the monthly MMC Dinner Meeting over in North Augusta at a Ryan’s Buffet. It was lightly sprinkling when we left the house and by the time we got to US1/78 (AKA: The Aiken-Augusta Hwy) it was raining pretty hard. And for the entire second half of the trip it was coming down in buckets, so much so that 40MPH seemed like a dangerously high rate of travel. I wish we\’d taken the hint and turned around.

We had the worst meal we have ever had, as far as we can remember. My salad was fine (although the kitchen help should learn to slice the onions and bell peppers instead of whacking them to bits with a cleaver), but it went downhill from there. The green beans were cooked to complete water loggedness and the corn had no discernible flavor whatsoever. The piece of steak I got off the grill, when cut into, looked medium-rare, which is fine when it is a nice cut of meat, but this must have been cooking over the low temperature side the grill for several hours as it had the taste and texture of, pardon the cliché, shoe leather.

Donna’s meal was no better; she stopped eating her soup after a couple of spoonfuls, with the piece of white fish she tried getting dumped in that bowl shortly afterwards. And after listening to me grumble about my meal, she tried to help by sharing some of her skinless chicken breast with me. Which after one bite I learned was a clever ploy to rid herself of this, so dry it was crunchy, bit of poultry. We both agreed that if there was a predominant flavor that did show through, it was sodium chloride, salt.

Even dessert couldn’t save it, as her cake, although covered in soft serve ice cream, still was almost too dry to eat. My chocolate chip cookie was stale and somehow they managed to remove the every bit of flavor from a crumbled Oreo cookie and Cool Whip mixture.

The meeting itself was a nearly typical MMC meeting in which the Treasurer announces our bank balance, we briefly discuss past events and then quickly go over the upcoming events, what set it apart were the elections of new officers. The current President has held the post for several years now and has wanted to find someone else to take the reins for at least the last two years, but no one wants to take the job. This year when he asked for nominations there was the usual silence and looking at the floor, just when it looked like he was ready to sigh and reluctantly accept the office for yet another year, his wife nominated someone else. It was quickly seconded and the nominee had the choice of being a schmuck or accepting the job. He took the job, but only under the condition that we actually get someone to fill the VP spot (for the last few years Sarah Palin has held the position in absentia.) One of the newer members stepped up and agreed to fill the #2 spot on the ticket.

The meeting broke up and as we left the “party room” heading for the door I noticed that the restaurant was pretty full and there were families in line at the cash register to get in. With the food tasting so crappy and it not really being cheap (for the two of us it almost $30) the only explanation I can come up with is that this place acts as a human salt lick.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1237

Now We Wait

‘There were 5 people for the MMC breakfast and after eating Donna and I drove over to the Club’s Tech Day just to see if we could pop the non-working radio out of the dash. Donna was hoping to have someone magically heal it by laying on of hands, didn’t happen. Turns out, between two of us, Rudy and I, we could only get the right half of the head unit loose from its mounting. The left side would not budge. Of course we only had the bent into U shaped coat hanger pieces to work with, yeah, that’s it, and we didn’t have the proper tools. I did manage to get an additional blood blister on my left hand when I pinched the web between the thumb and forefinger cutting the coat hanger.

After scouring the interwebs for hours looking for solutions to my radio issue I settled on buying a new aftermarket radio. Because we like to be able to walk away from the Miata in a shopping center parking lot with top down and not have to worry any, I was looking for the least flashy looking head unit. I found it, a Jensen MP1524. It’s a veritable wallflower, but it has an inner beauty that includes all the modern bells and whistles. The downside is that the unit isn’t even shipping from the manufacturer yet. Crutchfield lists it as not being available until 6/15, so now we wait.

Jensen MP1524

Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1224

Seasonally Appropriate Weather

Today was the MMC breakfast for January. Unlike last weekend’s top down all day weather for the trip to the Microcar Museum, this morning’s temperatures were about half of what they were then, so tops were up at all times. Fittingly this weekend we only had half the cars of last weekend. Still there were five cars for the drive to the Swamp Fox in Aiken from the starting point in North Augusta. And when we got to the restaurant there was one car waiting for us.

We had told the folks at the restaurant that there would be around twelve of us and it turned out we were right on the money. Ten made the drive and one was waiting. The twelfth man was a friend of a member who worked at the Aiken Train Museum and came to tell us a little about it and offer up a tour of the place afterwards.

We could walk to the museum as it was only about 4 blocks away, but with the seasonally appropriate weather and being a car club and all, we would probably drive. As breakfast progressed and we heard some history, almost everyone thought a trip to a transportation museum for the second Saturday in a row didn’t sound like too bad an idea.

At some point our guest received a phone call and when he hung up he had some “good news” for us, there was a kids birthday party at the museum and we could help out by doing a little instructional skit for the kids. Four of us would be the train engine wheels and make chugging noises and one lucky person would be the smoke stack and get to make woo-woo sounds. One other would get to pretend to be stuck on the tracks and another would get to rescue them.

Our guest had to get to the museum in a slight hurry, so off he went, telling us to meet him there. As we all settled up our bills, most of us decided that visiting the train museum would be a better idea on a day that didn’t involve a kids birthday party, I think a couple cars did go, but the majority scattered in other directions.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1191

Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum

Toy Cars

Today the MMC took a last pilgrimage to a museum full of cars that make the Miata look normal sized, the Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum before it closes its doors forever in February. We had a recent record turnout of 10 Miatas and a bonus RX-8. We also had near perfect weather.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1190