Miatatude

Getting Close

After this weekend’s trip and tonight’s little drive in the dark the Miata’s mileage stands at 119,825. At 120k you are supposed to change the timing belt, a $400-$500 job. Now the rubber belt in my car is the same rubber belt that are installed on cars sold in California, but in California you don’t have to change the belt but every 100,000 miles. This is because by California law any emissions part must be warranted for 100k. So, should I wait and do the belt when I hit 160 because I did change it at 60,000 miles like Mazda says I should or should I spent the money now and get it done like a good boy? For reference, the Miata is a non-interference engine (meaning if the belt does break, nothing bad happens.)

And what would happen if I moved to California?

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1140.66
Started up, went down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 211

Raisin Juice

Sort of. The icky fluid turns out to have been from water that used to be ice leaking out of a hole in a plastic bag and soaking through a box of raisins. Donna remembered what it was when she started to empty the insulated lunch pack we carried some of our goodies in last night.

Dodged a big bullet today. About 20 minutes before quitting time I heard one clap of thunder. I looked outside, and although it looked really ugly, I was on the fence about putting the top up with it so close to quitting time. Erring on the side of caution, I went out, removed the cover, removed the boot, and raised the top. While I was in the process, seeming to validate my choice, it started to sprinkle. After the top was up and I returned to the building, the drops stopped, and it looked like it would blow over. Precisely 2 minutes before 4 o’clock the skies opened and it poured down. Whew.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1140.66
Started down, went up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 210

Ick, What’s That?

Up this morning in Dahlonega, Georgia and even though Holiday Inn Express’s cinnamon rolls are awesome Donna wanted eggs for breakfast. We asked the desk clerk where to go and she directed us to Danny’s just up the street. When we got there about 7:15AM we weren’t sure they were open because there was only one car in the lot. The sign said they opened at 6:30 so we went on in. Glad we did, nice home cooked breakfast type place. The food was good and cheap. And it showed, by the time we left the place was nearly full.

After chow we headed to Marietta by as many back roads as we could. There was even a 15 mile detour around a bridge that was out on GA53 we hadn’t planned on, but it was Ok because GA136 was a real nice Miata road. And like most of these roads in North Georgia on a Sunday morning, deserted except for us. We eventually had to get on I-75 to finish the trip to R-speed for there 4th Annual Open House. We got there at about number 25, by the time we left 2 hours later the lot was nearly full, probably 150 Miatas and about a dozen Minis. I was not swayed to buy any of the bargains, but did buy a new Rspeed T-shirt.

When we got home this evening and started to unpack the trunk I noticed what looked like brown water all over some of the bottom layers of stuff. At first I thought it was muddy water as we had tossed our dirty hiking boots in there. Upon closer inspection it looked like spilled Coke, which is weird because we didn’t have an open soda near the trunk all weekend. It took me about a hour to clean up the mess and I still need to let the bottom carpet dry from the cleaner I sprayed on it before I can vacuum it and then put it all back together.

Purchased Today: $14.75 in gas
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1140.66
Started up, went down, went up, back down, back up, down again, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 209

Corn Maze

After our complimentary breakfast at the hotel, mmm…cinnamon rolls, it was off for the drive to Robbinsville for our reconnaissance mission.

First stop was in Andrews, NC for a peek at our first possible fun thing to do, a corn maze. After spending about 15 minutes talking with the manager that runs the thing, Donna remains excited, while I am now convinced that it will be not be and might possibly be too much like work to find our way through. As an option for the folks in our group who may not be able to do the walking, the field covers 7 acres and the maze has a total of 3 miles of paths, there is an indoor flea market a mile or so down the street.

Next we drove the final 25 miles to Robbinsville to check for possible restaurants. We had heard from another Club member that there have been the addition of Mexican and Chinese places to dine. One in which we were interested in is apparently not open for lunch and the persons inside would not even come to the door to give a menu after a couple of knocks on the glass. We may still try them out when we are there.

After a quick tour of town we headed north for a dragon run. I decided to turn around about 5 miles from reaching the goal as I was number 6 in line of minivans, pickups and SUVs that I just knew would make the trip through the dragon agony. Besides there were plenty of e-ticket roads that we had already driven and would drive this weekend. Definitely need to hit the gap in the early AM before the normal folks get there.

Next up was a trip into the Joyce Kilmer Forrest for a look at possible non-car diversion #2. There was a short, rated easy hike in the woods with two distance options. After Donna and I walked 25 yards into the trail we knew that it would not be doable for more than 50% of our group. Way too steep, slippery, etc. Oh well, maybe it’ll rain and we will all stay inside and watch HBO on the telly that weekend.

Now hot and disappointed, with the cheap BBQ sandwich bought at the “Outback Trading Post” broiling in our bellies we headed the 90 miles back to Dahlonega. One good thing about the return trip was we detoured over to GA60 for 44 miles of new twisty pavement. The last 12 miles are almost as good as the gap. This road, nicknamed the Snake, is a favorite of Atlantians who own sport bikes or cars as it is only about an hour and a half away for them.

Purchased Today: $26.50 in gas
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1125.91
Started up, went down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 204

Walmarts Are All The Same

The drive to Dahlonega, GA that normally takes 3 hours took us 5 this afternoon. To be fair this is the first time we have made the trip in the afternoon. The other half dozen times it has been an early morning drive, which is what it will be from now on, trust me.

First came the 15 minute delay while we waited on a sporadic line of school buses leaving from the Lula school complex. There were 13 buses total in various states of fullness. They had a State Trooper stopping crossing traffic at a tee intersection. A good thing probably, as that was quite a line of busses that would have had to come to a stop and wait for traffic to clear on semi-busy GA52 before making their rights or lefts.

Next happened only about 5 miles down the road when we came up to a just closing railroad crossing. We sat for about 5 minutes watching train cars full of wood chips move by. With no end in sight, the train much to our chagrin, started to slow and eventually stop. At this point all the other cars and trucks in line with us started to make u-turns. After waiting a few more minutes with no sign of movement we figured these were probably locals and they knew better, so we too did a u-turn and headed back to the last intersection. We pulled out a map and headed in a likely direction. As it turned out we ended up going south about 7-8 miles and then prompting headed back north to come out about 3 miles further down the road we were on. Moving was better than sitting.

After we checked in to our room in the Holiday Inn Express it was off for pizza at our favorite little Italian place on the square, Caruso’s.

When we finished dinner it was time for a little shopping as we needed toothpaste and I wanted a paperback crime fiction book to occupy the time normally spent doing this. We went to the Wal-mart on the edge of town and parked nearly as far out in the parking lot as we could, to get in a walk and avoid door dings. I found a book, we snagged the toothpaste and headed for the checkout. We ended up just placing our items down on the nearest flat spot and walking out though, as there were 4 or 5 cashiers with at least 10 people in each line.

Unbelievably there were 2 cars, 1 in front and 1 next to, parked near us when we got back out to the north forty. WTF? No door dings though.

There was a chain drug store right across the street that had everything Wal-Mart had except the long lines, where we found a book and the toothpaste no problem.

Purchased Today: $16.50 in gas
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1099.41
Started down, went up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 200

Nothing Important Happened Today

Carl Wormus drinks alone at a bar in Baltimore, MD. He notices a dark-haired woman in a low-cut dress walk in, and he approaches her. They get into a discussion about the ice in his drink. As a water expert, he knows that the government-added Chloramine in the water is actually not as healthy as has been reported. Intrigued, the woman entices him into leaving, and they drive off in his convertible. He slows down at an opening drawbridge, but the woman clamps down on his right leg, forcing his foot on the accelerator. The car flies off the open bridge and plunges into the Potomac River. Deep underwater, Wormus wiggles out of his seatbelt and begins to swim to the surface. The woman is lifeless next to him. Suddenly, the woman opens her eyes, grabs his ankle and pulls him deeper under the water.
Episode 9×01 of the X-Files. It was a two-parter that guest starred Lucy Lawless of Xena: Warrior Princess fame, that featured her as nude as you can get on network television.

This has nothing to do with my day, except that the title of that episode and the title of today’s post are the same.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1082.91
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 199

1/24 Scale

Today the car got a much needed wash and vacuum, plus a shoeshine (some Meguiar’s Endurance Tire Goo.) It needs a waxing, but I didn’t have the time.

This afternoon was a Master’s Miata Club get-together. We hung at a Baskin-Robbins for a while before heading over to the Evans Dinner for chow. After that a few of us headed over to one couple’s house to chat some more. While we were there they said did I want to buy one of the die-cast Miatas that they found over at KB Toys. There were only three left @ $6.99 instead of $9.99 so they bought all 3 of them. John has a red so he kept that one, but he had 2 blue ones left over. Seeing as mine is blue I bought one from him. It is not the exact same blue, but it is still cool. The doors, hood & trunk opens and the steering wheel turns the front wheels. Now all I have to do is make up some 1/24 scale Alley Gator teeth.

After the Miata event we went over to the Augusta Mall as it was close by. The only store that was a possible was Sears, so that was the only place we checked and got the same negative results.

From there we returned to Aiken and hit our Target and Sears and received 2 more noes. In each of these places we shopped I looked at everything they had on display and then asked a sales person if they had the camera in the back, nothing. Including my negative answer from the local camera store when I called them on Friday, I have come up empty handed in 10 places locally.

Hi-ho, hi-ho, to the net we go. Because TheNerds.net is not a dedicated camera store, but a computer store that also sells electronic goodies I hope to avoid a repeat of Will’s digicam online shopping experience.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1082.91
Started down went up, went down, up, down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 199