Miata Mileage

Second-Largest Living Bird?…Score 156,000 Points!

Bonus 3 - One or More Farm Animals (Emus Score Three)

We had a good day today, 7 photos with a total worth of 10 points. Unlike what I implied in the title, the Bonus 3 – One or More Farm Animals (Emus Score More) photo above is only worth 3 points, but the Emperor did pass the 156,000 mile mark somewhere in Ohio. I don’t have time to tell the finding emu story, but I hopefully will soon (well I did a couple weeks later – Part 1 & Part 2.) Here are the other six pictures:

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 64

Motoring Challenge Points 10, Approx Miles Driven 350
Totals So Far: 105 points & 4950 miles

155,000 Restaurants Rejected

There were two restaurants within walking distance of tonight’s hotel in Culpeper, VA, one Mexican and one American attached to the hotel next door.

We walked into the Mexican place and could not hear ourselves think over the noise of the blender making margaritas. One woman noticed and made no move towards us. She did nod to a man, who looked at us and made no move towards us. We left.

We entered the outside door to “Pepper’s” and was the wrong one, because it was attached to the hotel they expected you to come in through the lobby. The hostess nodded to us and picked up some menus, but seated another couple who had came in the same door as us, but after us. The place only had a few other folks in it, but it was loud, mostly due to all the hard surfaces, but it also came from the patrons who all seemed to know each other. Not the atmosphere we needed or wanted. We left.

This brings us up to about 155,000 restaurants rejected due to various reasons in our lifetimes. Earlier this morning somewhere along I-81 the Emperor passed through the 155,000 mile mark.

Back at the hotel I consulted the GPS and Donna looked in the hotel info book and we settled on a place in downtown Culpeper just a couple miles away. As it had done almost all day when zeroing in on a destination, the GPS tried to drive us in a circle, but I refused to drive around the block again to go 100 yards backward. I pulled over and parked. Well, the restaurant we wanted wasn’t anywhere on the block where the GPS said it should be, so we headed in the other direction towards Main Street where it seemed there was more action.

We crossed the street and came to the Frost Cafe. Looked inside and started to walk by, when we decided not to press our luck, and went in. The place was nearly empty, but we were greeted, told to sit where we wanted and within a minute a waitress appeared. I got the Patty Melt (great) with fries (eh) and Donna ordered a cup of Cream of Crab soup (good) and a Tuna Melt (lacked the melt part.)

We walked around Lexington, VA like we always do when we get this way, so instead of Moss Motors Distributor photos, here a couple pictures from our walk.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 56

Motoring Challenge Points 4, Approx Miles Driven 330
Totals So Far: 87 points & 4045 miles

154,000 Bottles Of Beer On The Wall

The people are blurred to prevent identifying those imbibing, who later, went driving.

The people are blurred to prevent identifying those imbibing, who later, went driving.

Today the MMC went on a drive to visit to the Terrapin Beer Company in Athens, GA and we went with them. This is our second brewery tour in three years and it is one too many. It was kind of interesting the first time, but once you’ve heard the spiel once, it comes down to tasting ’em. Both Donna and I are not real beer drinkers, so tasting them is not the real draw, the drive to and from is.

We all drove up together and toured the place, but after that is was every car for themselves. We were supposed to all go out afterwards and eat, but one couple wanted to explore downtown Athens, one couple wanted to go home, one couple had too much sampling so decided to hang at the brewery for awhile to sober up and our solo traveler joined them leaving 3 couples to dine at an authentic Mexican restaurant not far away.

On the drive back, the Emperor hit 154,000 miles just as we entered the “Heritage Corridor City” of Mt Carmel, SC.

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

153,000 Tiny Air Bubbles

Instead of our usual bike ride and breakfast at Ridgecrest, we made a bagel run to Lexington this morning. Certainly not by bike, that’s over a hundred miles, we took the Emperor. On the way back, somewhere west of Red Bank, but not as far as Boiling Springs, let’s call it White Knoll, the Miata exceeded 153,000 miles since manufacture.

The new 4th generation Miata is going to have its A-pillars and windshield header be a gloss black, no matter what color the car is. The designers and/or Mazda marketing have stated the reason for this is to make the car appear visibly lower. That’s their story anyway. They aren’t the first to think of this idea either, the Honda S2000 came from the factory that way. And few folks on the Miata.net Forums have already done it on all three of the previous generations on their own. From the pictures I’ve seen, I don’t know about lower, but it does make the car look slightly different.

So after we got back from Lexington I bought a $20 stripe kit from Advance Auto and spent the rest of the morning into early afternoon carefully trimming and squeegeeing 153,000 tiny air bubbles out of one of the two 12′ stripes to do this to the Emperor. I can definitely see why it would cost a 3 to 4 grand to wrap a car and have it done right. I think this little project came out pretty decent for a first-timer, but hate to try anything more complex. The effect is subtle because of the car’s already dark color. Pictures tomorrow.

If anyone wants the other 12′ stripe it’s yours for the asking.

151,000 Cars On Moss Motor’s Front Lawn

[photonav url=’http://www.mr-miata.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Moss-Motors.jpg’]

Not exactly that many cars, but they had over 300 pre-registered and with the nice weather I bet they 30-40 more day of registrations. The Emperor passed the 151,000 mile mark on a perfect rural back road in southern Virginia.

Donna and I managed to stay about an hour and a half before growing bored looking at little sports cars and crashing the exit gate to go drive the one we came in. Like rolling stones, we gather very little Moss.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1499

Motoring Challenge Points 12, Approx Miles Driven 295
Totals So Far: 55 points & 1685 miles

55,000 Gazinta 150,000 How Many Times?

French Toast

Last night Donna and I took a drive to confirm my wholly online Google Map planned route for this morning’s MMC Breakfast At Betsy’s event we were leading. Half way to I-20 I noticed the Sonata’s ODO read 55008. We were only about 4 miles from the our driveway so the Purple Whale must have passed the 55,000 mark on our way home from work on Monday. Didn’t notice.

Good thing we pre-ran the course too, because Mr Google was thrown off by construction of Giant Tire Parkway and its interruption of Vaucluse Road. The map had me turning right after a half mile when it was really a left after more like a whole mile.

At the start point of the drive this morning we were joined by exactly one other Miata. Had this been any other Club event besides breakfast we would have called the thing off, but because we had to eat anyway and the restaurant was back in our own Fair City(R) we lead one other couple on a convoluted route through Edgefield & Aiken Counties to Betsy’s. I had the trip counter up because I needed it for keeping track of the miles between turns as called out by my navigator along the way, but once we were just one familiar turn from our destination I flipped it back the odometer. It read 149999. A few feet before pulling into a parking spot the Emperor hit 150,000 miles.

There were three other Miatas already there.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1482

149,000 Possible Bracket Combinations

This year I decided not to run the office NCAA Basketball pool and for a while it looked like there would be no March Madness at the Valve Store(tm). But one of the guys on the shop floor stepped up, so no more cajoling folks to turn in their brackets, no more chasing folks to cough up the entry fee, this year I’m just playing.

I just got done filling out my bracket with the help of Bing who promised me a smarter bracket with their new fangled Bing Bracket Builder. My results can be seen HERE. You can’t tell from that link, but right about now I’m getting my first pick wrong, Manhattan is losing to Hampton. Good thing that game doesn’t really count.

By the way, there are a lot more than 149,000 possible NCAA Basketball Tourney bracket combinations, actually 9.2 quintillion, but 149,000 was what the Emperor’s odometer passed through on the way to work this morning.