Motoring Challenge

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

Sneak Peek 2b

I’ve already submitted one sneak peek photo for this quarter, but with just three weeks to go, I don’t think I’ll capture another picture worthy of Sneak Peekdom, so I’ll go ahead and use the panorama from this last weekend’s Motorfest as my second. When I got long winded on my reply to his reply on my submission email I thought I’d include this slightly longer description of our Saturday here.

Subject: 2nd April-July Sneak Peek Photo
From: Brian ‹xxxxx@gmail.com›
To: David ‹xxxxx@mossmotors.com›
Time: June 8, 2015 10:04 PM

This past Saturday I attended a big ol’ car show at the warehouse of a famous Miata (and others) Parts & Accessories vendor1. I wanted to capture as many participants as possible so I stood on the base of a lamppost and using the camera’s built in panorama function tried to capture as many as I could. Got most all of them.

Brian

Moss Motors

Subject: RE:2nd April-July Sneak Peek Photo
From: David ‹xxxxx@mossmotors.com›
To: Brian ‹xxxxx@gmail.com›
Time: June 9, 2015 11:58 AM

Hey you made it!
Hope you had fun, Brian! Thanks for the photo!

David

Subject: RE:2nd April-July Sneak Peek Photo
From: Brian ‹xxxxx@gmail.com›
To: David ‹xxxxx@mossmotors.com›
Time: June 9, 2015 1:45 PM

David,

We’ve been to the Miatas at the Gap in July and a couple of National Meets so we have seen that many Miatas in one spot, but the collection of LBC’s was staggering. There were everything from what looked like unrestored cars pulled from a field to ones that looked in showroom condition. There were daily drivers and race cars. Very impressive.

We watched some slot car antics and took a tour of the facility, but as you could tell from our lack of car show participation on 2014’s Challenge, they are not really our cup of tea, so after eyeballing all the cars once or twice we got antsy*. Two hours of sitting still were enough and we pulled out of the parking lot around 11. There were motoring Challenge points awaiting.

The real objective for the trip was to cross off two states and their capitol buildings along with the 3 points for the facility. Everything else was gravy; Car Show point for the “fest”, a truck stop, a lake and a Z city.

When we left Petersburg we were heading to Raleigh to spend the night (State Capitol buildings are easier to get early on Sunday mornings.) Because we traveled enough Interstate on Friday we vowed not to set wheels on one on Saturday. Donna pulled out the Virginia state map and plotted a course on gray lines with three numbers on them.

About 15-20 miles south of Petersburg on VA-619 we zipped right by a one-room schoolhouse. Whoa, we were just a few minutes earlier discussing one-room schoolhouses and of those we had already researched, we might want to get. Serendipitous. We made a U-turn. It had a small sign on it that said “Concord School 1906” (when we got home we tried researching it on the net, but couldn’t find anything about it. It is definitely a one-room schoolhouse though, the only thing missing was the proverbial red paint.

This is no sea story, but less than 5 miles further down 619 we spotted a sign that said “Doodlum, Population 34”. Wow, another unexpected bonus. Of course, you could see it wasn’t any sort of official sign (and research later on the web confirmed this), but we took a picture anyway.**

Brian

*There is a rolling stone and Moss joke in there somewhere…
** We are not worried though, as we have a big trip planned for the fall that includes at least one state with population numbers on their signs.

Subject: RE:2nd April-July Sneak Peek Photo
From: David ‹xxxxx@mossmotors.com›
To: Brian ‹xxxxx@gmail.com›
Time: June 9, 2015 3:37 PM

It was after the Guide was sent to the printers when I had the though: “You know, Dave, Miata owners aren’t into car shows like the Brit folks are. You should have probably changed that up a bit.”

And so I shall. Next year…

1 I thought this was funny because David works for the company that not only runs the Motoring Challenge, but put on the Motorfest too.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1509

Running A Red Light In Search Of The Perfect Look

North Carolina Capitol

After checking out of the hotel this morning we headed to downtown Raleigh to get a picture of the State Capitol Building. The GPS led us right to it so we slowly cruised around the block looking for the best angle. Then we cruised around the block a second time. Then we missed the turn we wanted to take to check out this one street where we could legally park to take a photo. So we made a larger diameter circle because of all the one way streets to get back to it. Once we found our way there it wasn’t that great of a picture of the building (see above), so we made one more slow loop.

Turns out there are a couple of streets that come in from the east and west, that although aren’t cross streets they have traffic signals. I rolled right through the one at New Bern Place at about 5 miles an hour on that last loop. We ended up at the end of Fayetteville Street parking illegally with the flashers on to get the picture we will submit (see below) and I’m expecting a photo citation in the mail for at least one of those infractions…

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1501

Motoring Challenge Points 2, Approx Miles Driven 300
Totals So Far: 57 points & 1985 miles

151,000 Cars On Moss Motor’s Front Lawn

[photonav url=’http://www.mr-miata.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Moss-Motors.jpg’]

Not exactly that many cars, but they had over 300 pre-registered and with the nice weather I bet they 30-40 more day of registrations. The Emperor passed the 151,000 mile mark on a perfect rural back road in southern Virginia.

Donna and I managed to stay about an hour and a half before growing bored looking at little sports cars and crashing the exit gate to go drive the one we came in. Like rolling stones, we gather very little Moss.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1499

Motoring Challenge Points 12, Approx Miles Driven 295
Totals So Far: 55 points & 1685 miles

The Cops Took My Biscuits

Pedro's Truck Stop

We left Florence this morning and took a combination of back roads and I-95 to get to Midlothian, VA. This stop is for two reasons, Donna’s Cousin Susie & Family live here and it is 6 miles from the capitol building of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

One of the first things we did this morning was make a stop at South of the Border because one of the Motoring Challenge destinations this year is a Truck Stop and Pedro has one. While I’m sure any Pilot Travel Center, Love’s Travel Stop or Travel Center America would count, they said truck stop and by golly I was going to get one that said Truck Stop. The photo above is the out-take, the one below is the official submission.

Another reason to take US301 here is that you could get two state signs (1 point each) with ease. So we checked off NC & VA within 100 yards.

Today’s title comes courtesy of some high as a kite patron of a quick stop. We got off I-95 near Dunn, NC to make a pit stop and start on a back road, but couldn’t go much further than a 1/8 mile because a state trooper car had the road blocked. It was then we noticed the two police mobile command centers parked across the street with perhaps 2 dozen LEO vehicles parked there too. When we got to the counter with our drinks there was a dreadlocked individual in front of us trying to explain why he was so upset. After he loudly proclaimed he had to use the restroom, he exclaimed that he was upset because the cops took his biscuits. We asked the proprietor what was going on and it turns out that the house just past the stationary trooper’s car there was a big drug bust.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1497

Motoring Challenge Points 3, Approx Miles Driven 310
Totals So Far: 43 points & 1390 miles

Wish Upon A Car

There was a car show this morning in Aiken to benefit the Make A Wish Foundation, so we thought we’d go to it score a Motoring Challenge point and see some cool cars.

Mission accomplished, although neither were as good as we hoped. The turn out for the show wasn’t that great. The largest class of vehicle seemed to be the 10-20 year old slammed pickup trucks finished in a 50-50 mix of Custom & Rat Rod. Instead of just photo bombing the car show as we have done in the past, drove up to the registration tent and donated $5 (about a 1/4 of the entry fee) just to take a photo actually in the show.

The first photo looked weak with the limited turnout. Turning around to get a photo of the Registration Tent and you couldn’t I was in a car show. To get a picture of the banner for the show, we ended up back where we belong, on the outside looking in on the action on the inside.

You can tell we are in South Carolina by the USC Gamecock tent and the propensity of the people to buy maroon cars.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1490

Motoring Challenge Points 1, Approx Miles Driven 10
Totals So Far: 40 points & 940 miles

Got Some Splainin’ To Do

Splainin'

I’m now averaging sucking a bird to its death into the grill of the Emperor every 7 years or so.

Yesterday we took a long overdue road trip. The first objective was to head to our favorite bookstore in the Richmond Hill, GA. Objective #2 was to gather some Moss Motoring Challenge points and lastly was to enjoy a nice drive with the top down before the brain-frying weather that is called summer in the south shows up.

Inside a half full outlet mall just south of Savannah, Georgia is Book Warehouse. Hard cover books for $1.99. They are used /returned / off-lease library books, so they are about a year old and covered in shiny acetate with stickers plastered everywhere. In spite of the convenience of the Kindle, there is something neat about holding a hefty collection of inked paper bound together, inside a couple sheets of cardboard. For around thirty bucks we came away with half a trunk full of fine literature, Daniel Steele for her and Robert B. Parker for me.

On the trip down and back we made a few stops and racked up 5 Motoring Challenge points, two lakes, a state park, a city and one sneak peek.

Mission accomplished. We were gone from home on Sunday for 2 meals, nearly 300 total miles and 9-1/2 hours. This splains why all I had the energy for posting last night was two pictures, one from Saturday (we helped set up the reception room for a co-workers wedding) and one from Sunday (a variation of the sneak peek photo.)

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1476

Motoring Challenge Points 5, Approx Miles Driven 215
Totals So Far: 39 points & 930 miles