Miata Mileage

77,000 Shades of Green

When I parked the Miata in the garage this afternoon after we were finished running around, the CTBNL’s odometer read 77001.

For grins, I looked back at what I blogged about when the previous Miata hit 77,000 miles. The post was entitled 77,000 Lumens. The first part was about having an eye exam where my eyes are dilated and how afterwards, even dim lighting seems way to bright to look at. There was a thumbnail picture at the top that related to the second part of the post. It was of our freshly remodeled bathroom in Aiken and I talked how I was putting up the new towel racks, etc.

I was struck by the synchronicity of how nearly 12 years earlier the 77,000 mile marker for the Emperor happened around the time I was doing something similar as I was doing now and both bathrooms were shades of green. Very different shades, but green none the less.

76,000 Turns in a Couple Hundred Miles

This weekend is a scouting mission for the annual Masters Miata Club gap trip in November. Sort of a good thing too because our go to Friday lunch spot in Highlands, NC is no longer in business. It has been replaced by a fancier restaurant that is only open for dinner. We ended up at a place just the next block over, but it was more expensive and not as good. Afterwards we wandered around town checking other places and think we have found one that might work.

Today was checking out an alternate loop for Saturday’s drive. There is nothing really wrong with the loop, but we have driven it a bunch of times and it is time for something new. They have opened up a new section of the Foothills Parkway and we wanted to incorporate it into the drive. We still want to end up at the Tellico Grains Bakery for lunch because no matter how many times we have eaten there we will never tire of their wood fired pizza.

I had Google Mapped out a nice little loop that included just the older section of the parkway because I wasn’t sure how much of the new section we could do. We drove the newer section for the heck of it and it turns out it wasn’t as long as I thought, so we are now going to include in our loop. The rest of the new roads were actually kind of fun, including the slower sections that wound through some houses and small farms.

Tomorrow morning we get up early and head on home. Seeing as we will passing through Hendersonville, NC we will stop and get some bagels at Joey’s and see if we can get my sister and her husband to meet us there.

Somewhere along the mountainous roads on the way up Friday the CTBNL zipped past the 76,000 mile mark.

75,000 Reasons to Fill Out The Card

The beginnings of this post has been sitting in the drafts folder here at Life of Brian HQ for almost 4 months. Why am I finally getting around to turning it into an actual post? I’ll get to that at the end, but first the set up.

We were reading magazines at the local library back in April, me an auto rag and her a female-centric one, when a blow-in card landed in my lap.

Get a full year of Car and Driver and Road & Track for just $15.
2 Years of Road & Track and Car and Driver for just $25 – BEST DEAL!
1 Year of Road & Track and Car and Driver for just $15

Hmmm, I thought, I’ve tried reading Motor Trend via Amazon Prime on the Kindle and it was totally unsatisfactory, maybe going to an old-school paper magazine might be interesting. I told Donna of my plan and she approved it as long as she could do the same. So she hunted down a blow-in card in her magazine:

Get one year of Good Housekeeping and Woman’s Day for a total of just $14.97 — a combined savings of 81% Off the newsstand price.
2 Years of Woman’s Day and Good Housekeeping for just $16 – BEST DEAL!
1 Year of Woman’s Day and Good Housekeeping for just $11

When we got back home I sat down in front of the PC and headed to hearstmag.com, or some such thing, to sign up. I filled out all the name, address, email, credit card info and got to the point where I pick between 1 or 2 years. At first I selected 2, then thought, just one year for now and if I like it there’ll be another good deal for renewing sometime later. I clicked OK and got a confirmation page – Congratulations on your 2 year subscription to Road & Track and Car and Driver, your card has been charged $27.02!

What the heck, I did change my selection to one year, didn’t I? So when it came time to subscribe to Donna’s magazines I asked her to stand behind me to make sure I click on one year. So I go through the whole process, filling out the form and selecting one year. I confirm with my auditor wife that in fact I have selected the one year option. She says yes and I click the OK button – Congratulations on your 2 year subscription to Good Housekeeping and Woman’s Day, your card has been charged $16.84!

WTF! What a scam. Seems like that if you subscribe on the web, no matter what you pick, you’re gonna get 2 years worth of magazines

I get why there is a little extra money on top of the quoted price though, tax, but why did they charge 8% on my magazines and only 7% on hers. Oh well, it really is a good deal and it is cool to get something in the mail besides bills and charge card applications.

So why am I finally writing about this, in my email inbox yesterday, what did I get but an offer to renew my Road and Track subscription just four months into a 24 month run. The deal? I would get another year for just the low price of $14.97 and with it I can give a subscription to two of my friends.

Wow, I’m saving 3¢ and they are getting two new subscribers to their magazine, upping their monetary ask from the folks who want to place ads in the magazine. And they are probably hoping that in a year I’ll have forgotten about those gifts and the subscriptions will automatically renew on my charge card for the full price, $60, for a total of $120!

Sometime yesterday the CTBNL ran past 75,000 miles.

74,000 Large Pieces of Gravel

Andy Jordan’s Bicycle Warehouse in Augusta has been putting on a ride called the Lock to Lock Ride for 27 years and Donna has been trying to get me to do this ride for most of them. This year she wore me down and I acquiesced. The route is a little over 18 miles one way, there is food and door prizes in the park, and then if you are brave enough, you ride the 18 some odd miles back to the start.

The eighteen miles is broken down into three almost equidistant segments. The first part is along the Augusta Canal tow path from the head gates on the north side of town into downtown. The second part is mostly through downtown city streets with some along a paved section of the tow path. The last part is along the top of the levee from town to a park at the lock & dam on the south side.

We were brave. We figured, how bad can it be? We ride a lot and 15 – 20 miles is a piece of cake, it is all basically flat, no big hills, and we’d be on the tandem, so it will be half as easy. The first third of the journey we were familiar with as we used to ride it sort of regular like back when we had mountain bikes, it is a hard packed dirt road and quite shady. The middle third we have driven the car on enough to know that it was dead flat and the traffic would be minimal on a Sunday afternoon.

The third third was the big surprise, we had never been on it as it is normally locked because the levee runs along behind several industrial plants. The worst part of this segment was in the middle of it was 2-1/2 to 3 miles was covered in loose, large gravel rocks. After the smooth dirt and city streets, this stuff was a rude awaking. You had to keep moving to keep the bike on a straight course. It was nearly impossible to get to the water bottle or catch a quick break by coasting. I felt like I was riding in the Paris-Roubaix road race which is called the Hell of the North or A Sunday in Hell.

When we arrived at the park for lunch (very good BBQ sandwiches with a large selection of snacks) we kidded that maybe we should shop around to see if we could get a ride back to the start. But with our bellies full and our thirst quenched, determined, we stated back. On the way back we contemplated walking the bike over the gravel section, but when we tried it, was almost harder walking on it and much, much slower, so we rode. When the 74,000 pieces of gravel was over the rest of the ride back really wasn’t too bad.

We made it back to the start point dead tired and there were only a few other cars in the parking lot. There were around 275 entrants and I bet less than a quarter of them did it both ways. The ride is very well supported and we might do it again, if it is not ninety degrees out and if the gravel wasn’t there and maybe just one way…

Not far from home on the way back the CTBNL ticked over the 74,000 mile mark.

32,000 + 73,000 = 8 Day Blogging Hole

Somewhere in the last eight days on one of Donna’s trip’s to the gym the Lady Bug passed the 32,000 mile mark.

This past Sunday afternoon on the way home from the South Carolina coast the CTBNL passed through the 73,000 mile mark.

In that same time frame we have taken 8 Motoring Challenge photos worth almost 20 points, but we missed out on the big one (a separate post that will happen sooner than eight days from now.)

72,000 Grains of Pine Pollen

I didn’t have an idea for how to use seventy two thousand in the title of this post, so I went back and looked to see what I used when the Emperor hit that mark over a little over 11 years ago: 72,000 Grains of Rice. Perfect.

Last Friday I washed both cars.

The Miata because it needed it. The other day I leaned into it to get something out of the center console and when I stood up there were dark smudges on the both thighs of my khaki hued jeans. Man, do silver colored cars hide road grime well.

The Mini because it needed it. When Donna got home from the gym on Thursday she complained because you could see of fine coating of about 72,000 pine pollen grains built up on the roof of the car. Man, does a gloss black roof show yellow pine pollen grains.

On our day trip Saturday to gather a few Moss Motoring Challenge points just outside Tennille, Georgia the CTBNL passed through the 72,000 mile mark.

One of 71,000 Missing Memories

Some where in the last week or so the CTBNL passed the 71,000 mile mark and I didn’t notice. I’m guessing it was on the 1st when we took a drive over to Augusta and took some Motoring Challenge photos. But then you think I would have noticed it, no I don’t think it was then. Matter of fact, I have a hazy memory of thinking that we needed just 22 miles to get to that mark when we returned that day. It probably happened on a small trip around town and I meant to blog about it and forgot. Until now.