Motoring Challenge

Closer Than You Think

What started six months ago as a hare-brained idea, quickly morphed into a weirdly themed road trip and has settled into a 2 week vacation from work to drive 3,000 miles visiting 21 states and Washington DC. Is now only about4 weeks away.

I’ve route planning for a few weeks now and now I’m busily finalizing, as final as we can make it, daily routes. So far, 4 days done, which is 7 states, plus DC and 5 Washington Counties.
Day 1: Aiken, SC to Abingdon, VA – 288 miles
Day 2: Abingdon, VA to Culpepper, VA – 295 miles
Day 3: Culpepper, VA to Frostburg, MD – 225 miles
Day 4: Frostburg, MD to Parkersburg, WV – 222 miles

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

Cars and Coffee, Part II

Ready For My Photo

We went over to Augusta’s Cars & Coffee this morning because they count as a car show for the Moss Motoring Challenge. We got there about an hour after the 8:00 AM start which meant that we ended up having to park in the hinterlands next to lowered & stock pick ups, heavily modified 370Z’s and lightly modded 9th generation Toyota Corollas.

As we were lining up to take photo for the challenge there was a woman sitting in the passenger seat of the truck next to us. She looked at me kind of strange as I stood there holding the challenge poster, so I launched into my 50 words or less description of the Motoring Challenge. When I finished she said, “But is the picture supposed to be upside down?”

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

Motoring Challenge Points 1, Approx Miles Driven 60
Totals So Far: 76 points & 3005 miles

Bank’s Lake National Wildlife Refuge

 

 

Lake number 9 of the 12 needed for the Moss Motoring Challenge turns out to be Banks Lake National Wildlife Refuge. The entry form calls for Sign Required and I’m betting quite a few will take the easy way out and just photograph a sign. Not us, we want to be able to see both the sign and the body of water it is calling out. You might be surprised just how difficult this is.

Started up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 17

This Come Off Of The Emperor?

Dropped Something

About 50 miles from home, half way between No & Where, there came a bang and a loud clattering from under the Emperor.

Donna: What was that!?!
Me: Ran over something.
Donna: Something fall off?
Me: Dunno.
Donna: Think we should check?
Me: Guess so.

So I pull a u-turn and about a 100 feet back is a big bolt smack in between the yellow lines. I continue past a bit and pull another u-turn. Stopping in mid lane I get out and pick up the bolt. Yikes! It’s hot. And it has a very thin coating of something that looks like anti-seize compound. Now is it hot because it just came off our car or a car not too far ahead of us or because it is 95° out and laying on a dark surface? Time-wise I can narrow it down only to it has been on the road since after the last thunderstorm here because otherwise the fluid on it would have washed off.

I pull the car off the road onto the shoulder and crawl around a bit underneath looking around at the suspension because that is the last thing that was worked on. I also take a peak at the brake calipers as it almost looks like a slider pin, but see nothing amiss. Might be off the PPF as that was probably loosened or removed for the recent clutch change, but I can’t get that far under there to see.

We get back in the car and slowly start back down the road. I get it up to about 15 MPH and hit the brakes hard and the car responds as it should, with a sudden stop. I then wig/wag down the road like a race car driver warming his tires on the pace lap and the Miata dances back and forth with no drama. But we are both a little spooked, so I drive home at the speed limit with both hands on the wheel.

When we got home I jacked up the car about 12″ off the ground and put all 4 jack stands under it. Looked at everything I could possibly see and there was nothing missing on the PPF or nothing absent at any of the suspension connections. Must be someone else’s bolt.

I swear I did not see anything on the road in front of me before the sudden noises1, so I’m guessing it was there already and I scooped it up with a tire and bounced it back and forth between the car and road a bit before ejecting it out the back.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 10

Motoring Challenge Points 2, Approx Miles Driven 260
Totals So Far: 75 points & 2945 miles

1. Of course if you ask my wife or the guys at Panic they’d tell you I don’t see anything in the road.

Disappearing Courthouse



We started today with two goals, the letter Q and Washington County number two, we finished with five. There were two options on our track for the Q; Quincy, Florida and Quitman, Georgia. Quincy came first and won the day without us even having to go to Quitman, it had a cute mural on a downtown wall.

I had already planned what I was going to take a picture of for Washington County, Florida, the courthouse. I’d eyeballed it on GSV, but boy was I surprised when we got to where the courthouse was supposed to be. It was gone.

There was a small sign saying where everyone had moved to, so we plugged that into the GPS and headed over there. What we found was a totally unassuming one-story structure. Eeh. In the end we drove across the street and captured another totally unassuming one-story structure, that of the Washington County branch of the Florida Department of Health.

Driving towards Chipley knowing I was going to get the courthouse for Florida’s Washington County, it got me thinking that maybe I should get courthouse photos for all 15 Washington Counties. I’d only have to retake the one Georgia county, but now that plan was moot. Seeing as the Georgia Washington County sign had a Georgia shaped “Buckle Up, It’s the Law” sign in the background we’ll just have to differentiate using signage. Which is why we picked the unassuming one-story building we did.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 8

Motoring Challenge Points 5, Approx Miles Driven 320
Totals So Far: 73 points & 2685 miles

152,000 Acres of Peanuts

Washington County, Georgia

We had been running through on and off rain since we left home and it seemed to have stopped when we took the image above. It didn’t seem as quite as hazy in person as it tuned out looking in the photo. We kind of planned on using this picture for Washington County Georgia because last year we used the sign for Jefferson County that was on the other side of the Ogeechee River on the other side of the road. But we ended up liking the more interesting one we found when leaving the county heading south on GA-231.

Somewhere between Pineview & Rochelle amidst about 152,000 acres of peanut farms the Emperor moved past the 152,000 mile mark.

As a testament as to how much we hate Atlanta traffic, we have driven to Tallahassee, Florida to get our 4th state capitol building even though it would have been fewer miles round trip to the Peach State’s capitol building than these miles one way to get the Sunshine State’s.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 6

Motoring Challenge Points 9, Approx Miles Driven 365
Totals So Far: 68 points & 2365 miles

Fire Over Aiken

The city of Aiken along with Atlantic Broadband and a couple other sponsors put on a fireworks display tonight for the 4th. They held it at the Western Carolina Fairgrounds which just so happens to be right across the street from the Valve Store(tm). The company was kind enough to open the normally closed on weekends gates and let the employees park away from the maddening crowds of the city’s hoi poloi.

The weather folks were all week calling for a big chance of rain for this evening. And they were right. It rained pretty good at our house at around 7:30 then quit, but a look at the Weather Channel’s future estimation showed a large cell of nasty thunder boomers arriving around 9:00, or about 15 minutes ahead of the planned firework display starting time.

We decided to drive up to work anyway. It is a short trip and the weather guessers have been wrong once or twice before. There were about 10 cars in the lot when we arrived and about a half dozen arrived after us. While were waiting for the show, Donna and I visited with a few folks and right on cue at 9:00 o’clock it started to sprinkle and few lightning flashes lit the clouds. But instead of getting increasing worse the rain stopped and held off for almost all of the 20 minute show. Towards the end it started to sprinkle again and on the drive home it did rain some more, but it never did get real nasty.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 0

Motoring Challenge Points 2, Approx Miles Driven 15
Totals So Far: 59 points & 2000 miles