Miatatude

Going To The Gap

Our little Miata Club is going to the Gap this weekend and according to the Tail of the Dragon we won’t be alone, there are a couple of biker groups and about 60 Honda S2000s coming. Plus we know the Windy City Miata Club will be there as well.

After work I finished most of the preparation for the trip. New plug wires. Fresh oil & filter. Rotated the tires. Bottle of Techron. Tomorrow, if I have time, I’ll wash the car.

While I was at it I took off the Alley Gator Teeth. (That is my picture at the bottom of the page.) Saw a picture of my car from a couple of years ago with out the teeth and thought I might go with just the gums showing for a while….

Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 233

Busy, Busy, Busy

Finished up the Stone Guard install. Will take a daytime picture tomorrow to complete the picture series, then I’ll caption the photos and upload them. I have to judge the Barndoor Fan Club photo contest and announce the winners. Busy, busy, busy.

Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 233

A Drive In The Dark

Put it up for last Friday’s rainy day and it has been up all week (and in the garage) until tonite. We put it down for a drive in the dark and a quick stop at the store for some breakfast essentials as the fridge is pretty bare before the weekly shopping excursion on Sunday. The Taurus was a nice car for the big trip but once again it is good to be back in a Miata. From last Friday at around 5:00 PM until today at around 5:00 PM we put 2231 miles on the rent-a-car and 120 more on the Civic. Today was another long one too, Lexington, VA back to Aiken, SC, approximately 400 miles. Now all I have to do is find the time to type in my trip notes for the past week, type in the last 8 days worth of rants, and get the photos of the Stone Guards up.

The Taurus Diaries

Lexington Park, MD to Lexington, VA. Today was a beautiful back-road jaunt through the middle of Virginia. Made a stop in Richmond to visit a cousin of Donna’s. We had a couple of hours to kill before we could get together so we visited the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens. Nice place to visit and it was in very good shape considering the drought that central Virginia is in the middle of. After lunch with cousin Suzy & her daughter we finished the day’s journey by heading west on US 60, a very straight road with lots of ups and downs until you hit the Blue Ridge Mountains. Then it winds it way to the top where it crosses the Blue Ridge Parkway and then winds itself right back down into the Lexington area. The Taurus didn’t do to bad on the twisty roads, a set of higher performance tires and I’m sure we could have given some of today’s “sports” cars a good run.

That night I went to my second high school football game ever. The last one was almost 29 years ago while in my senior year of New Britain High School. Some friends and I snuck into the Thanksgiving Day game with our big cross-town rivals, Pulaski High. Tonight I “snuck” into the game between cross-county rivals, Rockbridge County High School and Parry McCluer High School. Stuart is the RCHS Marching Band Drum Major and tonight was his first football game in that capacity. Mom Sally is the president of the Band Booster Club, so she asked us to come along and help out. We followed the tractor pulling the trailer of band equipment down the road into the field to keep stuff from falling off. We just waved at the guy guarding the gate as we walked on by. Later that night I thanked Sally for helping fulfill a life-long dream of being able to get backstage somewhere by just saying, “I’m with the band.”

The Taurus Diaries

Rutherford, NJ to Lexington Park, MD. We took the Garden State Parkway all the way to it’s southern end at Cape May. We arrived just in time to catch the 11:00 PM ferry to Lewes, DE. We then cut across Delaware to Maryland. While passing through Annapolis I thought it might be neat to stop into see the visitor center on the Naval Academy. We made our way through the narrow streets to Gate 1. The nice little Petty Officer at the gate said that you couldn’t drive in; you had to park outside and walk in. Fat chance of finding a spot, so we just continued our drive. We picked a stop in Lexington Park because this is where Donna and I meet while we were in the Navy some 20-odd years ago. Patuxent River Naval Air Station’s mission has changed from a Naval Test Pilot Center with a couple of small squadrons to a large Naval Air Warfare Center with nearly 18,000 people working there. Consequently the sleepy little town we knew is now unrecognizable behind the 6 lane road lined with every franchised restaurant known to man and 4-story glass & concrete buildings with cryptic names. Well, I guess Donna and & have changed a bit since 1975 too.

The Taurus Diaries

Another Short day, New Britain, CT back to Rutherford, NJ. We took the scenic route, stayed on I-84 until we crossed the Hudson River and traveled down 9W and then drove the Palisades Parkway until we hit I-80. We found a neat “Miata” road, NY 318, north of West Point. It hugs the side of Storm King Mountain with nothing but a low rock wall preventing the plunge into the Hudson River hundreds of feet below. We stopped at West Point and did a quick tour of the museum and gift shop at the visitor center. They wanted an hour and a half of our time and $7 a piece for the real tour, so we declined.

The Taurus Diaries

Spent most of the morning driving around visiting stores looking for stuff for Donna & I, my mom and Diane. At lunchtime Donna & I cried “Uncle” and went back to the hotel for a nap. Dinner tonight was stuffed shrimp and was consumed on the porch again. Afterwards Donna & I followed Diane & Allen to get ice cream in Berlin. Allen’s Integra needs a new muffler; he sounds just like those rice-boys with their chrome coffee can mufflers. Glad we only had to follow for a short distance or weren’t riding in the car.