Motoring Challenge

The Week In Review

Destination - Deer Crossing

Stopped on the way over to visit a friend and took this picture. It is worth two points and I’m counting zero miles because we would have passed right by it anyway.

Monday when we got home from work, Donna checked the mail and she came out with a padded envelope, looked at me and asked accusingly, “What did you order from Moss Motors?!?” I thought for a moment, couldn’t come up with anything…..then it dawned on me, it was our prize package for finishing as one of the 50 runners-up in the 2015 Motoring Challenge. Sure enough, that’s what it was, a nice t-shirt, a cool little sticker and our $50 gift certificate.

This year for the Motoring Challenge instead of a T-shirt they are giving everyone who scores 50 points a nifty hat, well last week’s “Slow Children Playing” sign put us over that mark. All they wanted as proof was a photo of your entry sheet with your progress so far marked off. So Wednesday after work I took a picture of ours sitting on the trunk of the Sonata and wrote 52 pts, so far with my finger in the coating of pine pollen. I then spent the next 1-1/2 hours washing the pollen off both the Sonata and the Miata, even though I knew they would be covered again to the same thickness in a couple days.

This morning was the monthly breakfast drive with the MMC and we had a turn out of two cars, us and the folks who were leading it. Maybe some were scared off by the chance of rain, the weather have been promising all week that it would start raining last night, continue through the whole day and not quit until tonight. It was sprinkling lightly when we got ready to leave for the drive, but halfway to the meet up spot we paused on the side of the road and dropped the top. We just returned from grocery shopping and it is still down. Radar is showing a line heading our way, should be here within the hour, but I would not be surprised if it dissipates before it gets here.

In this afternoon’s mail was another padded envelope from Moss Motors. This time, she didn’t ask what I bought because we knew the hat was on its way. Now I have to figure out what I want to spend the fifty bucks on so I can get another padded envelope from them in the mail again.

Started down, went up, back down, back up, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 153

Motoring Challenge Points 2, Approx Miles Driven 0
Totals So Far: 54 points & 910 miles

Motoring Saturday

Destination - Famous Statue
Destination – Famous Statue: We may or may not make a trip to the northeast later this year where we may or may not try and get an actual photo of the actual Statue of Liberty, so this may or may not be our actual entry for the Destination.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 149

Motoring Challenge Points 10, Approx Miles Driven 105
Totals So Far: 52 points & 910 miles

No Soliciting Allowed

No Soliciting Allowed

We went for our usual bike ride for breakfast this morning, but we made it unusual in that we just got our muffins to go from Ridgecrest. We wanted to get home and enjoy them in front of the TV. Yesterday afternoon we had watched the first 6 episodes of season 4 of House of Cards and like cheap wine that show is best consumed quickly without much time between glasses so as to not actually taste it.

While cutting through a subdivision on the way home, Donna called out, “Stop! Come back here. Look at this.” I had ridden right by a Slow Children Playing sign. Good thing someone in this duo keeps their eyes open for needed Motoring Challenge destinations.

So after episodes 6-10 we broke for lunch out and on the way back stopped to take the above photograph. This is only worth 1 point, but really, when you think about, nowadays it should be worth a bit more. This type of sign is not really as prevalent as it was 40-50 years ago, they are just not needed because kids don’t get to play unsupervised any more. They are either driven by their parents to some form of organized sporting event or they are inside playing video games. I love the sign below it. No Soliciting Allowed. Do Not Solicit Residents. Solicitation or distribution of printed materials is STRICTLY PROHIBITED on these premises. Strictly prohibited by what? This sign?

Back home we wasted another 2-1/2 hours watching the last 3 episodes of House of Cards. The show is stylistically shot and the acting is top notch, but the situations and the actions of our main characters make the CBS TV show Madam Secretary where Téa Leoni plays the US Secretary of State seem like a documentary.

I never tire of the title sequence though, the time-lapse of DC and the theme music, I miss it already..

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 149

Motoring Challenge Points 1, Approx Miles Driven 5
Totals So Far: 42 points & 805 miles

Whirlybird

Moving (or Parked) Targets - Helicopter

We had our Helicopter Challenge Point all picked out. There is an Army H1 Huey chopper that is perched high over the Barnwell County Veteran’s Memorial Park on an 18′ pole that was nearly perfect. My only reservation was that it reminded me of an Entomology display, the kind with insects stuck on pins in a glass case.

Today as we were passing by the Aiken Hospital on the way to get Donna’s allergy shot, she suddenly grabbed my arm. I didn’t hear what she said as I was concentrating on the whole driving thing, but when she has grabbed me like that in the past it usually means that I am about to run something over or something is trying to run us over, so my heart skipped a beat. I pulled my foot of the gas and asked, “What?” “Helicopter,” said she.

This counts as zero miles towards our Motoring Challenge total as we were on our regular Monday route home.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 147

Motoring Challenge Points 3, Approx Miles Driven 0
Totals So Far: 41 points & 800 miles

Bagel Run

Destination - Cemetery

We drove to Lexington to get bagels for breakfast. We have come to the conclusion that we just can’t live with the store bought or Dunkin Donuts version of a bagel, so we have been pretty regularly (once a month) driving to Bruegger’s Bagels to get something that more resembles the real NY/NJ bagel.

On the way back we stopped and got a couple of Motoring Challenge points, the Cemetery above and a Sign with Bullet Hole(s). Even though the total trip was a hundred and twenty miles I only counted half that towards the miles driven, because that was only half the reason for the trip.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 146

Motoring Challenge Points 3, Approx Miles Driven 60
Totals So Far: 38 points & 800 miles

Mr. Miata Goes To Mini Tec

Mini Tec Visit

Man, I’m down to blogging once a week anymore, not with a bang but a whimper maybe?

Friday the Emperor got a bath because on Saturday the MMC was going on a day trip. Saturday the Emperor passed through the 163,000 mile barrier somewhere on SC-28 between North Augusta and McCormick.

About a month ago an item popped up in my Google Miata newsfeed about a company that is selling kits to transplant a Honda V6 into the first & second generation Miatas. They were just a hundred miles up the road in the small town of Royston, GA.

Mini Tec has been in business for 13 years hot rodding the original 1959-2000 Mini by stuffing Honda VTEC motors in them and now they have branched out in the Miata. A couple of emails and a phone call later and I arranged a tour of the place for the Masters Miata Club. We had seven cars and a dozen people follow Donna and I to the town that used to be just famous for being the boyhood home of Ty Cobb.

BJ and Norm welcomed us with open arms (and snacks), showed us around their shop and regaled us with tales of daring do. They had a couple of converted cars, an NA and an NB, with their hoods popped up showing those Honda V6 engines. The motor almost looks like it belongs there and as it turn out the the conversion actually is lighter than the stock get up and you end up with about twice as much horsepower.

They offered rides in the NA and only one of our group took them up on it. They zipped off up the road the shop was on and were gone for about 5 minutes. You could hear Dennis hooting a hundred yards down the road on the way back. This looks like big fun, but it would change the whole character of the car in my opinion and is not even on my radar, but if you desire big hp & torque numbers or are a hot rodder at heart, this might your ticket.

Started down, went up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 145

Motoring Challenge Points 6, Approx Miles Driven 300
Totals So Far: 35 points & 740 miles

County, Parish or District

15 County LoopThis year’s Moss Motoring Challenge has the same requirement of just 15 counties as last year and while there are still three other county names (Jackson, Franklin & Jefferson) out there that occur in around 25 states. Donna will have none of that foolishness this time around.

So I’ve cooked up a different bit of craziness for this year’s 15. Last year my reason for doing 15 with the same name, forcing us into a convoluted huge loop, was because we live in a fairly county rich environment and I wondered where the challenge was. I claimed that we could get 15 counties in day trip from home. Well by golly, that is just what we are going to attempt.

There are 6 in South Carolina (Aiken, Saluda, Edgefield, McCormick, Allendale & Barnwell) and 9 in Georgia (Lincoln, Wilkes, McDuffie, Columbia, Richmond, Jefferson, Burke, Jenkins & Screven) that can be run in a loop. We will cross the Savannah River twice, once on US378 and back on US301 and if we drive from county seat to county seat it will be around 370 miles according to Google maps. That mileage should take us 7.5 hours baseline. If we average 10 minutes per photo stop that adds another 2.5 hours. Now we are up to 10 hours and doesn’t include bathroom, gas or eating stops.

I’m hoping we can knock off at least 70 miles or so off that total by dropping the county seat thing and cutting some corners. Either way we will have to do this near the summer solstice to maximize our daylight hours.