Miata Mileage

87,000 Pieces Of Spanish Moss

We traveled straight to Florence on the interstate to have breakfast with Donna’s cousin (Hi Laurie) and came back entirely off of it. Last night we looked for someplace along the return to catch a walk in the woods, Pointsett State Park fit the bill perfectly. While trying to follow the photo copied trail map we came to where we thought was our additional loop and started along it. It took us about a 1/4 mile before we were positive we were following the park’s border fire break and turned around. Sure enough, about 50 yards down the rejoined trail, there was the plainly marked Hill Top Loop. We are definitely going to make a return trip to this park the next time we are over this way.

Somewhere southwest of Columbia the (recently sponge bathed) Emperor passed through the 87,000 mile mark.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 105

86,000 Clumps Of Spanish Moss

It isn’t feeling like Christmas around here, the past 4 days it has been in the middle to upper 70’s which is about 15 degrees above normal. A front is passing through tonight which will bring cold weather, for a day, then it creeps back up so that by Christmas Day it will be back in the 70’s.

This morning when we got in the car to head off to the woods for a nice little hike, I looked down at the odometer and it was square on eighty-six thousand miles. Because we rode our bike on Friday it must have turned over to that mark as I pulled into the garage on Thursday after work.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 75

85,000 Tourist Trolleys

Just about 5 miles outside the touristy St. Augustine, Florida the Emperor passed by 85,000 miles. We stopped in for a brief visit and all those ubiquitous trolleys were nearly empty of tourists. We parked in the lot of the Fountain of Youth, but were too cheap to spend the $7.50 each to get in, so we asked for a tourist map of the town so we could find our way around. We parked at the visitor’s center and the next place we were too cheap to pay admission ($6 ea.) into was the famous Castillo de San Marcos. We did take the walk all the way around the perimeter of the fort and that was good enough for us.

We then wandered the old city and almost didn’t need to eat lunch as a couple of the restaurants had people handing out free samples to entice us into eating there. The pizza nearly had us, but we ended up at Casa Maya and we’re glad we did, the food was fantastic.

Tonight we are staying at the Longboard Inn, a B&B in New Smyrna Beach (I wonder where the old one went?) It is only a few dollars more expensive compared to the Holiday Inn Express outside of Savannah we stayed at last night, but the breakfast will be leaps and bounds better (cinnamon bun excepted.)

Started up, went down, back up, back down, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 62

84,000 Annoyingly Blinking Cursors

Taunting me.

I have nothing really in mind for a post and staring at mostly empty title box and the vast expanse of empty text is not really helping me conjure up something. The only thing I have to write about is the oh so exiting news that sometime yesterday the odometer on the Emperor easing over the eighty-four thousand mile mark. And that won’t take up much space, as you can see.

Last week on the way home from work we stopped at Regions Bank and made the last payment on the Miata. The check has cleared, but we are still waiting for the title in the mail. Now if only my wife would let me have that “extra” $300 a month to spend as I wanted… đŸ˜€

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 38

83,000 Chlorophyll Deficient Leaves

Saturday was the MMC Leaf Peeping Run of which I was the leader. We met at the Cracker Barrel over in Augusta. The restaurant was packed with people eating breakfast, but only two other couples were members of the Miata Club, seems the rest of them were just there coincidentally. After eating we headed west and north to the upstate of Georgia (with a brief foray into South Carolina) to see the colorful trees. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of us driving the windy back roads enjoying nature’s beauty, but there was just our one car from the Club, seems the rest of them were just there coincidentally.

The weather was absolutely perfect for leaf peeping and the roads were mostly uncrowded. We ended up at Black Rock Mountain State Park near Clayton, GA where the club has visited several times before on these excursions. Instead of opting for the mega-meal at the Dillard House just up the street we drove the 35 miles to Clarkesville (where the rock group the Monkees are from) to eat at Zanzo Italian Cafe where we you get the best Italian food this side of, well, Italy. Two words: Baked Ziti.

Somewhere in northern Georgia, the Emperor zoomed past the eighty-three thousand mile mark.

We got home a touch more than 12 hours after we left it, tired, wind burned and completely satisfied. We would have gone right to bed, but seeing as we were going to get an extra hour of sleep, we opted to watch episodes 8, 9 & 10 of Season 2 of Mad Men.

Started up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 15

82,000 White Rabbits

Tonight we watched episode 5 of 82 of TDTVS. It was the one we should have watched on Friday, but we weren’t home, we were in Myrtle Beach and I forgot to bring the DVD.

Finished up the weekend today by taking the long way home and snapped 10 more PO Portraits giving us a total of 23 for the 3 days. We are now 93% finished with the project and all that remain are the ones right around Charleston and the 6 military bases in the state.

Somewhere west of Branchville the Emperor cruised past the eighty two thousand mile mark, so when we got home I gave him a well deserved royal bath.

Started up, went down, went up, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 370

81,000 Trinkets & Geegaws

On the way home this morning from our visit to Aiken’s Makin’ (the city’s big craft show) the Emperor passed through the 81k mark.

Because we enjoyed the Jesse Stone flick Stone Cold so much yesterday we decided not to wait on Netflix and went to the local video store to rent the remaining three. Then we watched them all this afternoon. No self control. I think I’m going to get me ball cap with a big PPD embroidered on it.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 340