Put the Vampire Teeth back in the mouth and washed the car. Tomorrow is the Ridge Spring Peach Festival and the MMC is in the parade…
As Glenda the Good Witch told Dorothy, “There’s no place like home.”
US1 runs through Sanford, NC and Aiken, SC too, so we decided to just follow it home. This caused Donna to remember that 42 years ago when her family moved from NJ to New Orleans the traveled down via US1 in a station wagon. They drove straight thru with Mom and Dad splitting the driving, figuring it was easy to remember what roads to take by picking one and sticking with it. They folded the back seat flat and the 4 kids rode down in the back of the wagon with their sleeping bags. No minivan with child seats, seat belts or DVD players, just sleeping bags and some kiddie books. I then shared that my mom and one of her male friends took 2 weeks to travel the whole length of US1 from Fort Kent, Maine to Key West, Florida. She asked how old I was thinking that perhaps in some weird coincidence her family and my mom had crossed paths, maybe saying hello at a gas station or sat in adjoining booths at a roadside diner. No such thing happened though as my parents were still together when I was nine. Mom and Leo did their trip some 4 or 5 years after the Morrisons, because I was in my early teens when my mom and he were an item. Kind of strange that our parents passed through Aiken long before Donna and I lived here.
Around Camden, SC we actually got tired of the back roads and feeling the pull of home, jumped on I-20 to speed up the trip. This is also about the time the car started to make a loud rattling noise. It seemed to happen when shifting between 2nd and 3rd, but was entirely restricted to just then. It would occur between 2500 to 3000 RPM. I suspected it was somehow exhaust related, but wasn’t really sure. It didn’t sound life threatening, so the plan was to get home and take a look underneath the car. We made a detour into Columbia for lunch. Donna wanted spaghetti and meatballs and we remembered a restaurant in downtown called The Old Spaghetti Factory. We drove around where we thought it was, did I mention that the last time we ate there was 8 or 9 years ago? We finally gave up and asked someone. They remembered it, but was sure they had closed some time ago. We ended up at Subway where Donna got her meatballs, just in a sub, not on a pile of pasta.
With all the city driving the noise was getting a lot louder and a lot more frequent. We decided to head a few miles back and stop in at the Mazda dealer in Columbia. They were open and said they would get a technician to look at it. We retired to the waiting room with thoughts of possible expensive repairs floating in our heads. About 45 minutes later the service adviser came over and said it was fixed, they found that a bolt had come loose on an exhaust hanger up near the front of the car. When I asked how much we owed them, he replied, “Nothing.” Cool. We thanked him and finished the trip home in quiet.
At home the Emperor got a well deserved bath. I want it to look good because tomorrow we go back to the body shop for them to fix their errors when they repaired it earlier this month.
Thirty-nine thousand flickered by on the digital odometer during the trip home from work today.
When I picked up the car from the body shop they had washed and waxed the back part of the car (the parts they painted), but didn’t really clean the front. Sunday’s rain left behind spots on the hood of coagulated body shop dust. I have been meaning to wash the car for the past couple of days, but they have been calling for rain. The last chance of precipitation for a while past this morning, so tonight when I got home I broke out the hose and bucket.
While cleaning the car I noticed a couple of things that need addressing from the body shop. When closing the trunk the sound has been a little different. Does the latch need replacing or is it because the trunk is off align of straight by about 1 degree? There are also a couple of dust pimples in the pain on the left trailing edge of the trunk lid. There is also what looks like a milky haze in the clearcoat in a couple spots on the trunk and left fender. The kicker is what at first I thought was dirt and suntan lotion build up on the shift knob turned out to be several small scratches in the clear coating on it. Guess I’ll give them a call tomorrow.
I did a test on Friday, but the results were inconclusive. I took a swiffer cloth and wiped a stripe clean on the center of the dash at lunch time. With the top down and the wind blowing, the dash stayed really clean. Unfortunately the wind was blowing straight on, so the dash was really protected. We got a nice big rain on Saturday which is always a help.
Today I washed the car.
I hope the pine pollen is gone for a couple of reasons, 1) I like a clean car and 2) if Allstate comes through and admits liability, I will be getting the car painted and we don’t want any of those little yellow vesiculate pollen grains getting under the finish.
It doesn’t really qualify as a real wash, but yesterday morning before embarking on our little trip, I gave the Emperor a quick de-dirtifying with Meguiar’s Quik Detailer.
Changed the oil and filter this afternoon. And as I usually do I rotated the tires. It was nice not to have to tippie-toe around the partially stripped thread of the right rear wheel stud and lugnut this time. They were fixed a couple of weeks ago at the MMC Tech Day.
The calendar (and the little countdown thingie in the sidebar) say Spring officially starts in 23 days. The birds have been very vociferous for the last couple of days. The trees branches have the startings of buds and the Bradford pears actually have a touch of white blossom showing, so it is really coming.
But today was voted the first day of spring in Aiken by a panel of judges (Donna and I) because instead of going straight home, we put the top down and took the long way.
When we did make it home, I decided to honor the God of the Vernal Equinox by washing the Miata. It won’t be this weekend, but soon it will be time to put on a coat of wax. Might even try and use a clay bar first to get it really clean first (the anal retentives over in the Car Care Products of Miata.net would be so proud.)
After finally dragging our butts out of bed this morning we headed out or a bagel for breakfast. We read the Sunday paper in the bagel place while enjoying our toasted treats. The only black mark on the experience is they didn’t have an OJ to drink.
Right next door was Publix and that is where we went next to do our weekly shopping.
After lunch we went for a hike in Hitchcock Woods. I took a couple more pictures at different locations in my quest for the look I wanted for my next series. We stumbled on a woman on horseback on a trail we were on, her companions, on a parallel trail, saw us first and called out, “People ahead.” So she turned around and headed towards them. After we were out of earshot Donna commented, “Why do they say ‘people’ like that? What the heck do they think they are? Maybe we should wear some alien costumes when we walk in the woods?” Not long after that conversation we encountered a carriage out for a drive. The carriage driver had to constantly reassure the two horses that it was alright as they passed. After all we were ‘people’.
When we got home I stopped short in the driveway and in answer to her quizzical look I replied. “I’m going to wash it.” It wasn’t real dirty, but usually it gets a monthly bath and with no MMC event in January, today seemed like as good a day as any.