Miata Photos

Smile, There Are Cameras Everywhere


On Saturday’s return pass of the Gap, just a little after dawn, at around mile marker #5 we passed one of the ubiquitous photographers set up in one of the corners. As I went by I entered the corner too deep and crossed the white line. Knowing the photos wouldn’t be very good, I found the next pull-off so I could make a u-turn to make another portrait pass. I went through the corner a lot better this time, drove until the next pull-off for another u-turn. The third pass wasn’t for photos, it was because that was the way we need to be going.

Maybe a mile and a half further along towards the end of our return pass I surprised another photographer who was just setting up his awning. He quickly grabbed his camera and started shooting. I just made the one pass and continued on our way back to the hotel. I thought for sure he probably didn’t get a good look, plus I figured the first guy had enough chances to get a great shot of us already.

The first Dragon photographer had his vehicle wrapped with the company logo and name, 129Slayer.com, so I knew where to go to see those pictures. In the span of the 2 minutes it took me to make my 3 passes he snapped 42 exposures. I needed a Google search of “deals gap photographers” to find our second photographer, US129Photos, and our brief 20 second encounter with him netted just 6 exposures.

In the end, the best shot, came out of those 6 and is pictured above. I did also purchase 2 out of the 42 from 129Slayer too and they are below. It was a good thing I did go by him 3 times as both of the ones I bought came from the last pass.

Been There, Done That…

…Got the Dragon Sticker.

Hard to believe that it has taken over two years to get the CTBNL onto the Tail of the Dragon’s 318 turns in 11 miles, but it finally happened this morning. We applied our usual trick of an early start to get two full clean passes, both northbound and southbound, from the top of the Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort.

117 Years of Transportation

One of the categories in this years Moss Motoring Challenge if to find a car from each decade since 1900 to 2010s. The cars from the 70s to present are worth a point, but then the point value starts going up by 1 each decade going backwards to reach 7 points for a car from 1910-1919. Then it jumps a bit so that an automobile from the first decade of the twentieth century is worth 10 points.

The first photo we took in this category was worth 5 points when a coworker randomly showed up at work with her 1935 hot rod a couple of weeks ago.

Today, Donna and I went to Outback for lunch and then to Target for a little discretionary spending. As we exited the Restaurant I noticed a stanced Smurf Blue NA Miata go by on the street. I’ve familiar with that car because it used to belong to the boyfriend of our next door neighbor’s daughter. That kid sold it when he went off to college so it hasn’t been around for a while.

As we drove into the Target lot in our NB Miata I saw a gray retractable hard top NC car leaving. It was then Donna saw that same modded little blue NA and asked, “What year is that?” “90 or 91,” I said. She said, “Let’s go take a picture of it.” About that time we saw a white ND Miata drive right by the front of Target. We had now seen all four generations of the Miata in the same parking lot in a two minute span.

We looped back and took a photo of the customized NA (obviously because of the photo above) and chat with the kid who owned it, told him that we just wanted a picture of his car along side ours for a photo scavenger hunt we were doing. I had the Challenge poster in my hand and as I was showing it to him he reached for it, so I handed it to him. Seeing as he had a hold of it, I asked if he wouldn’t mind posing with it and he was game (or just to stunned that this old couple wanted a photo of his car), so I took a couple pictures, one from the front and another from the back.

Moawr Gooder

Black Accent Stripes II

How do you make the already awesome stripes on your Miata more awesome? More stripes! You add some small black accent stripes to the big blue ones.

Black Accent Stripes

Parked On 49,000 Pieces of Pine Straw

reunited
Alternate Post Title: Reunited

The previous owner of the CTBNL passes right by the Valve Store on most days when he goes into Aiken proper and if he times his look over just so, he can see his old Miata siting there in the back corner of the parking lot. Well, sometime in the recent days he just couldn’t help himself anymore, he pulled in and parked next to me to snap the above photo of his 1973 Orange 914 and its former stablemate.

On the way home from the Valve Store today the CTBNL passed the 49,000 mile mark. In the last two months I have put almost as many miles on the car as David did in the year and a half or so of ownership. Then again I don’t have a fleet of Porsche 914s and a Porsche Boxster (not to mention a Jeep Wrangler and maybe more) to choose from when I leave the house.

Is it just me or should I find some light blue fabric paint and put a couple of stripes on the cockpit cover to match the car?