Motoring Challenge

Saturday at the Dragstrip

Motorcycle with a Sidecar: As we were leaving the Carolina Dragway we had to wait for incoming traffic to pass first and what should drive by but a motorcycle with a sidecar. If it was worth just a point we would have shrugged and continued home, but for 5 we chased him down. (3/10/18)

The Augusta Coffee and Cars has had several homes in its 4 year history. They outgrew the first one, a shopping center parking lot, after about a year and a half. The second, another shopping center parking lot made it less than a year. The third was a county convention center and while they still had more than enough room, after about a year they wanted a chunk of change to continue using the place. The current home is a local Harley Davidson dealer and the huge grass lot next door that belongs to church.

This month was the 4th Anniversary of the event and for the second time the folks at the Carolina Dragway have opened their doors to Coffee and Cars and the crowds was huge. There is plenty of parking, think 8-10 rows deep and a quarter mile long, but the big draw is of course the two long straight lanes that you can test your car and nerves on for a mere $20. This is a bargain because for your money you can run as many times as you can fit it in, getting there early helps as it is first, come first serve. There was a very eclectic mix of cars, from a brand new Acura NSX to a front bumperless 90’s Honda Civic, to the usual Corvettes, Mustangs, Camaros and Cadillac CTSVs. Plus plenty of two wheeled sport bikes.

We stuck around for the first three hours before having enough of looking at static cars and the folks taking their cars out and drag racing a 1/4 mile. We also weren’t having much luck with our ulterior motive for attending, Motoring Challenge points. In amongst the hundreds of cars we found two vehicles that had flames, worth 3 points, but both were very subtle and there was no way to get a good photograph of them because of where they were parked. We did manage to get the last two vanity plates we needed, but we had our best luck when we went to leave.

Waiting to cross the road to the exit, what should drive right in front of us, but a motorcycle with a sidecar on its way in, that’s five points! I had to wait for a couple more entering cars, before I could get going on pursuing the target. We lost him for a second, but managed to see him drive right into area up front cordoned off for motorcycles and the vendor tents. Drat. We tried circling around looking to see if we could get somewhere where the motorcycle might be visible in the background, with no luck. After careful negotiations between us, we decided to leave and catch that photo at another Coffee and Cars as there were going to be 9 more this year.

Once more we headed towards the exit. The way out led right by a sign for the racetrack. So even though we plan on passing right by the Darlington NASCAR track later this month, we stopped for the one point as insurance. As we passed through the exit gate we both simultaneously noticed a car back inside that was covered in flames with an open parking spot next to it. I pulled a u-turn and entered the gates to the dragstrip once more.

Since we were parked, we decided to walk over to the motorcycle/vendor area and see if we can find the motorcycle with sidecar’s owner and ask if we can get together and take a picture. There was no one standing right next to the bike, so we were out of luck. And because neither one of us got a good look at the driver there was no way to track him down in the crowd, so we opted for Plan B. Since our target was the last in a long line, if we could find someone in charge, we’d ask for permission to move an orange cone and drive over next to it to take the photo. Donna went off in search of someone official and didn’t have much luck. We were about to leave when I said let me ask in here. There was a back door open on one of the concession stands, so I asked a woman inside. She asked someone else where so and so was. No one knew, so they made a front-line decision, whether they were authorized to or not, and told us go ahead. So I ran back and got the car and drove in like I belonged there, so we could get our five point Motorcycle with a Sidecar picture.

What looked like a measly 2 point day turned into a dozen pointer. Not bad.

Mr. Meniere Makes A Visit

Sunday morning I woke up at 5:30. I was lying on my side facing the alarm clock and when I opened my eyes the image I saw spun quickly up and repeated and repeated and repeated…so I blinked a couple times, but it wouldn’t stop. I closed my eyes and decided that maybe if I rolled onto my back that would help. Trouble came about when I started to roll over I opened my eyes! I can only equate the visuals to what I imagine is a portion of a potent LSD trip. Once on my back the ceiling fan was scanning across my vision rapidly from left to right.

I closed my eyes and lay there for a few minutes contemplating. I knew what it was, it was the one symptom of Meniere’s Disease that I hadn’t suffered from back in September — vertigo. With experimentation I found that I could make it stop by jamming my eyeballs all the way to the right (direction everything was spinning.) I then woke Donna and told her what was happening. She wanted to know what we should do and I told her the first thing was I needed to go to the bathroom. Using a combination of eyes closed, eyes opened hard to the right and her supporting me, mission accomplished.

It was still early, so I suggested let’s go back to bed and see where we are when we next wake up. I woke up again at 7:30 and I was lying on my side facing the alarm clock. When I opened my eyes the image was perfectly still. I blinked my eyes a couple of times, normal. I closed them for a minute or so and opened back up to the return of ordinary. There hasn’t been a return of the dizziness since.

I’ve given up caffeine as the doctor suggested, so was it the small coffee in the morning and the 20oz. Dr. Pepper in the evening on Saturday? Was it the 300 mile road trip, more than half of it with the top down that brought it on? The pizza in Milledgeville? The glass of wine with dinner? Not getting a lot of sleep two nights before? Watching the synchronized drones of the Olympic’s Closing Ceremony?

61,000 Water Droplets Per Cubic Foot


I bet you didn’t know that once a year I volunteer to help out at the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in Macon, Georgia. Every time I go I get a different job and today it was valet parking little sports cars on the sidewalk out front. That’s me above after successfully completing parking the first wave of cars.

OK, that’s really not the truth, I’ve never volunteered there and as a matter of fact, I’ve never visited there until today. And even now I haven’t ever really visited because I never went inside the building. This was our meeting point for 4 other Moss Motoring Challengers because a gaggle of 5 or more of us would be worth 10 big points.

The first 4 arrivals were parked in a tight group of spots right up front, but there wasn’t another one open near us. While we were waiting on the final participant to join us someone wondered out loud what the most of the rest of us were thinking, “Maybe we could line our cars up right on the wide sidewalk entrance way.” Then someone else piped in with that eternal truism, “it is always easier to ask forgiveness than it is to ask permission.” A plan was born.

When car #5 arrived we briefed them on the plan, and we all backed into position. Everyone jumped out to line up their photographs while I just waited by the car. I started to wonder what was taking so long, so I started to go see, and that is when Donna took snapped the photo.

Afterwards the team from Atlanta had worked out a few places that were right there in Macon for us to drive to, to get some more Challenge points. All and all, with the Grand Opening sign we discovered on the way down, today’s 300 mile road trip was worth 27 points.

On the way down to Macon to score major Moss Motoring points, the Car To Be Named Later passed the 61,000 mile mark in a thick fog just outside the community of Grange, Georgia.

How Was Your Weekend?

In between raindrops and watching the Olympics, we managed to donate some books for the AAUW book sale coming up the first weekend in March (where we will probably spend money on books), stopped by our usual local eyeglass place and tried on some frames and gathered a bunch of Moss Motoring Challenge points. I also installed and uninstalled a pneumatic hood lift on the Miata, but that is a whole ‘nother post.

The first glasses shown are made out of something called TR-90 and they weigh next to nothing. Also they are close to what I wanted two years ago because they have blue temple pieces, but instead of clear face pieces, these are gray translucent. The second one is a wild card like those clear frames I so wanted a couple years ago, I like the idea of round frames, but I’m not sure if I love the way they look. I am going to get another set of 5 from Warby Parker and will probably include a couple rounder ones in there too.

This year’s Motoring Change has spots for 5 “clever” Vanity License Plates and they have waved the “your car must be in the photo rule” for it. So we opted to laminate another catalog cover and keep it in the Mini. This paid off on Saturday morning when we were dropping off those boxes of books. We knew this was a personalized plate by the look, but we were not sure what it meant, until we saw the accompanying bumper sticker.

Sunday we were in the Miata, so we included it in our second Vanity Plate, which was instantly understandable because of the car it was attached to. The bare trees were our third and last Sign of Winter and I hope to recreate that shot for each of the other three seasons, flowering in spring, green leaves in summer and reddish-brown for fall.

Motoring to a Miata Club Meeting

Thursday was the Masters Miata Club February Dinner Meeting and because they were meeting at a restaurant we like and haven’t been to in a dog’s age, we went. Also factoring in was the weather, for once in a quite a while we caught a day when the temperatures were actually above normal, so we could ride with the top down. For an appetizer, we took a couple of motoring challenge photos on the way over and for dessert, we grabbed one, on the way home.

Runners-Up Again

The results of the 2017 Moss Motoring Challenge are in and we finished solidly in the Runner-Up field once more. We scored a total of 243 points and ended up tied with 4 other people for 16th place. Although if you go to the winners list on this page we are marked as tied for 19th with another person even though the two of us have the same point total as the 3 tied for 16th.

The first year we did it, 2014, we finished in the #20 spot of the runners up with 128 points. In 2015 we scored 172 points and finished in the number one runner-up spot just 7 points shy of cracking the top three. The year 2016 was a lost cause. The Emperor stared giving us fits, so we didn’t feel comfortable taking road trips in it. We racked up a mere 60 points and didn’t even submit the results. Even if we had, we would have been 27 points shy of making it into the runner-up category.

Hey! That Rhymes!

Saturday morning was the first Masters Miata Club Breakfast of the year at the traditional spot, the Steak & Shake in Augusta. Donna and I went with them the first time in 2013 and her eggs were served cold. This, on top of a couple slow or sloppy services at past visits to this franchise, made her swear off ever going the January MMC breakfast again.

My meal was fine back in 2013 and I was feeling bad about not going to a club event in a while, so I convinced Donna to go this year. Well, you can guess what happened, cold eggs. She ordered the bacon, egg & cheese biscuit, but asked them to leave off the cheese. Well, you guessed it, there was cheese on there and that is how she knew her eggs were cold, the slice of cheese was showing no signs of melting what so ever. You can now bet that if the only restaurants left on the face of the planet are Steak & Shakes, Donna will learn to catch wild animals with her bare hands or starve to death before going into one. The sign on the pole outside of our dining spot was the best part of breakfast.

I think the tradition for the Club is over as well because Donna’s wasn’t the only one who got cold food. My hash browns were cold, as were the ones served the wife of the couple who instigated the Steak & Shake breakfasts. As we were breaking up, I heard her say to her husband, “Maybe we should start going across the street to the Cracker Barrel.”

When we started the morning, the was top up because it was cold and we really weren’t thinking Motoring Challenge, so we didn’t bring the clue sheet. Not knowing just what to look for, except for the “Signs of Winter”, I choose a route to breakfast along a very commercial road hoping to catch a Winter Sale sign. No luck.

When talking about this year’s challenge over breakfast when asked what some of the challenges were, we came up a couple off the top of our memory, Roller Derby Rink was one and another was a Sign that Rhymes. Turns out that Augusta has a Roller Derby team and they practice at a rink over on Washington Road which was between where we were and home. A stop was planned to see if they had a sign outside the skating rink. No luck there either, so I started to drive off when Donna said, “No. Even though no roller derby, we still need a plain old roller skating rink.” A few miles from home we pulled into a strip shopping place near Walmart and found my Winter Sale sign at a The Shoe Dept store. So we ended up with a three point day even though we had zero expectations.