Motoring Challenge

Abingdon, VA

County - Washington, VA (Alt)

Today’s original planned mileage was 288, but we ended up going 330 because of route changes (for the better) and circling the downtowns of both Jonesbourgh, TN and Abingdon, VA trying to get a good angle on their Washington County courthouses (VA above.)

Besides the points for the two Washington Counties, we also nabbed the state of Tennessee (NC & VA were scored on the Moss Motors trip back in June.) We entered Tennessee after a drive on an epic sports car road, NC-197 that had branched off NC-226 at Red Hill. I don’t know exactly when and only realized it when I saw a sign that said 395 in a triangle instead of the previous 197 in a square. We didn’t get the usual “Welcome To” sign, so we stopped and took a picture of the first thing we did see with the state name on it, a Tennessee Route 81 sign.

We used 4 different state maps today, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee & Virginia, but tomorrow we’ll only need the Virginia map. And because we now have the Washington County of this state, our only goals will be a couple of Moss Motors distributors in Roanoke & Waynesboro.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 52

Motoring Challenge Points 3, Approx Miles Driven 330
Totals So Far: 83 points & 3715 miles

All Over The Map

Car Show - Mustangs, Music & More

We were all over the map yesterday in the Miata. Driving somewhere over 300 miles, like the last two Saturday’s trips to Savannah & then Athens that involved something like 300 miles of driving, we are considering it training for our driving vacation that is coming up.

For breakfast we drove to Lexington to the closest to us Bruegger’ Bagels. The reason for this destination was two-fold, one, breakfast, and two, bagels for breakfast for the next couple of Fridays when we bike ride to work.

We then killed a couple hours at home before heading back out to go to M3, a fund raiser for the band at Midland Valley High School in Graniteville. The M3 was for Mustangs/Music & More with part of the more being why we were there, a car show (see above.) Another part of the more was food vendors and we thought we might get a bite to eat, but there wasn’t any shade available to get out of the heat, if we did buy something there.

In what turned out to be my biggest misstep of the day, when Donna suggested Firehouse subs for lunch, I thought we should just continue a little further west to go to the one in North Augusta instead of heading back to Aiken.

That Firehouse Subs was very busy and it was taking so long to even get our order placed that both of us separately, to ourselves, though maybe it was time to find another lunch spot. Just about the time one of us was going to say something aloud, I got to the cashier.

After eating we walked down a couple stores in the strip shopping center to a Dollar Tree to get the three alternate prizes for the MMC’s Bug Splat later that night. We shopped a bit, picking out some cheesy prizes somewhat related to the name of the award and headed to the check out. There we were greeted with another long line, anchored by a woman with a cart full to the brim. This time when we thought to ourselves maybe it was time to go, we both took action simultaneously and headed for the door.

On the way home we made a quick stop at the Dollar Tree in Aiken, right next to the Firehouse Subs I should have driven to, where we got those same cheesy items and were in and out in less than 3 minutes. We then had a couple hours to hang out at home, have some dinner before driving back over to North Augusta to drive the 40 mile loop to Edgefield and back swatting bags out of the night air with the nose of the Emperor.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 41

Motoring Challenge Points 1, Approx Miles Driven 30
Totals So Far: 80 points & 3385 miles

2016 Motoring Challenge Challenges

At the end of last year’s contest the guy running the event asked for suggestions for this year’s event. I’m not sure I submitted any, but I’d like to think one of last year’s Sneak Peek photos of ours inspired a Destination idea for this year – With a Train.

As we have been driving this year I’ve been sort of filing away ideas to suggest for next year’s Destinations. Trouble is my filing cabinet, an aging brain with rapidly deteriorating synapses, keeps losing them. So I’m going to make a widget to put over on the left that will become the repository for those ideas.

I’ve got a couple ideas to add right now, at least those I remember, and hopefully lots more to come. The first year we had Ski Resort w/o Snow = 1 point and Ski Resort with Snow = 2 points, so along those lines I’ve got:

Tattoo Parlor = 1 point
Tattoo Parlor with Fresh Tat = 2 points
Tattoo Parlor with Moss Logo Tat = 5 points
Food Bank = 1 point
Food Bank & Dropping Off a Donation = 2 points

More on the left…

Wild Goose Emu Chase

Destination - Hairpin Turn (<20 mph): There is a 15MPH curve over near the Aiken Medical Centers, but we were waiting until we got into the mountains for a more scenic shot. Today we stumbled on this, and thinking the number would not get much lower, took some pictures. (8/15/15)

Destination – Hairpin Turn (<20 mph): There is a 15MPH curve over near the Aiken Medical Centers, but we were waiting until we got into the mountains for a more scenic shot. Today we stumbled on this, and thinking the number would not get much lower, took some pictures. (8/15/15)

There is a spot at the bottom of the Moss Motoring Challenge form for 3 Bonuses worth 2 points each. These are emailed to participants at various times throughout the year, well that is what happened in 2014. This year on Friday we got the email with all three “challenges” at once:
Bonus 1: Photo includes a famous work of architecture.
Bonus 2: Photo with a permanent sign that displays the same year as the year of your car.
Bonus 3: Aaaand… A photo with one or more farm animals (an extra bonus point if the animal is an Emu!)
Off to the web we went for research.

For number 1, it turns out our already planned trip took us withing 10 miles of a fairly famous house called Fallingwater, designed by a fairly famous guy named Frank. Unfortunately you can’t drive right up to the front door of the place, but it turns out that there is another Frank Lloyd Wright home nearby that I think you can do just that.1

Number 2 has numerous possibilities (see what I did there), a business founded in 2003, a billboard advertising a business whose phone number has 2003 as the last four numbers, a business with a prominently address of 2003, a sign proudly announcing the Such Andsuch High School won the state football championship in 2003, a county road numbered 2003…

Because we were headed to Athens, Georgia with the MMC on Saturday and the group was not returning together I looked for Emu Farms in Georgia. We were going to go for maximum bonus points right off the bat. Jackpot! There was one, Fancy Feathers Farm, practically on our preferred return route. Their facebook profile picture shows a big ol’ sign with the word EMU all over it. I loaded the address in the GPS and we were off. When we got to the spot, I recognized the view, but it was missing something, the sign. The posts were there, but no sign. Dang. This is not going to be easy. I got home and looked at GSV for the address and it looked just like it did when we stopped along GA17 just north of Bowman, posts, but no sign. Click on the little clock next to the words Street View and you can see what it looked like in past drive-bys and sure enough, in May 2008 – emu sign, October 2013 – not so much.

Motoring Challenge Points 1, Approx Miles Driven 50
Totals So Far: 79 points & 3355 miles

1. There is at least one sure thing, it is in Bartlesville, OK, but it is a 100 miles extra out of our way…

Finishing Up the Loop

The initial daily routes are done, I’m sure there will be some fine tuning between now and departure as much as I’m sure there will be adjustments mid-trip, but for now we’re locked in.
Day 9: Bentonville, AR to Texarkana, TX – 282 miles
Day 10: Texarkana, TX to Vicksburg, MS – 285 miles
Day 11: Vicksburg, MS to Hattiesburg, MS – 234 miles
Day 12: Hattiesburg, MS to Columbus, GA – 323 miles
Day 13: Columbus, GA to Aiken, SC – 245 miles

The total trip if driven as now written will be 3278 miles, but considering last year when we drove to Texas and back, we drove 391 miles over the pre-trip estimate of 2504 or an extra 15%, this year will probably end up somewhere closer to 3790 miles.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 35

A Little Trip To The Bookstore

Destination - End of Detour

We made a run to the Book Warehouse in Richmond Hill, Georgia for some more analog reading material. I bought 3 and Donna picked up 8 more hardcovers, all for less than twenty bucks. Of course we burned a $25 tank of gas to drive the 300 mile round trip. We also grabbed a couple of Motoring Challenge points to make the trip “worthwhile.”

Sort of like our Place of Worship photo from January, we were just discussing where we might find an End of Detour sign when we drive by, a Detour sign. We never saw the start of the detour and because we were pretty much in the middle of nowhere, somewhere south of the unincorporated community of Tarboro, SC we were kind of unsure as to its authenticity. Luckily Donna was paying attention, as I definitely would have missed it, because just as random as the first sign we spotted, an End of Detour materialized in “downtown” Tillman, SC just a few miles further south on US321.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 34

Motoring Challenge Points 2, Approx Miles Driven 300
Totals So Far: 78 points & 3305 miles

MMC Meeting

For the first time in quite a while we attended a Masters Miata Club meeting tonight. Must have really wanted to go too. It was raining when we left the house and it was freakin’ pouring by the time we got to the other side of town. We spent almost all of the rest of the way to North Augusta driving in a real frog strangler.

About a mile from the restaurant it turned into sprinkles. It was still sprinkling when we left to come home, but it basically quit a few miles later. Didn’t drop the top because the skies were still dark.

Did some more route planning last night for the middle part of our trip, 6 more states, 4 Washington counties and the birthplaces of Larry Bird & Jason Bourne:
Day 5: Parkersburg, WV to Frankfort, KY – 299 miles
Day 6: Frankfort, KY to Xenia, IL – 270 miles
Day 7: Xenia, IL to Lebanon, MO – 300 miles
Day 8: Lebanon, MO to Bentonville, AR – 255 miles

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 32