Motoring Challenge

Washington Counties Revisited

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Back during the 2015 Motoring Challenge there was a requirement to “get” 15 counties and I decided that I would get all 15 of the same name. Washington, with 26 states having a county by that name, got the nod. If you look at the image above, Donna and I drove through a large swath of the country’s southeast and midwest missing only three states. Our home state of South Carolina doesn’t have a Washington County and neither does West Virginia. North Carolina’s was way too far east to get to on our loop.

Guess what county we drove through today? Right. Washington County North Carolina. We don’t need counties this year, but there is a category of Heroes or Villains that General George Washington fits into, so we took a photo.

Only three photos today for three points. Mr. Washington and Bill Gates for the Heroes and Villains column and Plymouth for the Around the World one.

: Heroes and Villains 06 – George Washington: During the 2015 Motoring Challenge there was a requirement to “get” 15 counties and I decided that I would get all 15 of the same name. If you start with Pennsylvania, go west to Missouri, south to Louisiana, east to Florida and north back to Pennsylvania that encompasses 18 states. South Carolina and West Virginia don’t have Washington Counties, North Carolina does, but it was too far east to get on our loop that year. This year we were that far east, so… (9/26/17)

: Heroes and Villains 07 – Bill Gates: Hero to geeks everywhere (and now the world’s poor through philanthropy) and a villain to PC users everywhere when the Blue Screen of Death appears. (9/26/17)

: Around the World 07 – Plymouth: The Pilgrim Fathers left for the New World in 1620 from the town of Plymouth, Devon County, England. They landed at a rock near what today is Plymouth, Massachusetts. This is Plymouth, North Carolina. Some pilgrims moved south after a couple of really cold winters up north and became the first snowbirds. (9/26/17)

There is Something Fishy at Fort Fisher

Monday, September 25, 2017

One of four of North Carolina’s aquariums is there, and although we weren’t really in Fort Fisher to visit it, we were there for the 3 points awarded for riding on a ferry in the Motoring Challenge, visit it we did. Today we only took three photos towards the challenge, but received almost as many points as we did for yesterday’s eight.

: Natures Giants 02 – Atlantic Ocean :The Atlantic Ocean surf is just starting to get a little rough due to Hurricane Maria here at Fort Fisher on the North Carolina coast south of Wilmington. (9/24/17)

: Favorites Revisited 04 – On a Ferry: Aboard the North Carolina River Class Ferry Neuse traveling from Fort Fisher to Southport. (9/25/17)

: Bird Sanctuary: We were excited to find this “elusive” Bird Sanctuary sign in the town of Northwest, NC. But as we continued our week long road trip the elusive became a point of humor for us because it seemed like 75% of the towns we passed through in NC, VA & MD were Bird Sanctuaries. (9/25/17)

Sunday Fun Day

Sunday, September 24, 2017

A fun day on the road today, we drove through the largest city in Tuscany, before driving south of the border into Mexico on our way further south to Bolivia to shop ironically in a Thieves Market. Along the way we took in a lecture about early guerrilla warfare from The Swamp Fox, asked for directions to the East Indies from a fellow named Christopher and we nearly robbed by a highwayman until we showed him the contents of my wallet and he let us pass.

: Around the World 04 – Florence: Not Italy, South Carolina. (9/24/17)

: Roadside Oddities 02 – South of the Border: We probably could have found 5 items here that we would need to fill the Category of Roadside Oddities, but that would be like shooting fish in a barrel, so we took one of the giant billboard to count as just one. (9/24/17)

: Around the World 05 – Mexico: Ahhh, thank you, politically incorrect South of the Border. (9/24/17)

: Around the World 06 – Bolivia: If Bolivia is the next right, this must be Brazil. (9/24/17)

: Example of Irony – Thieves Market: Is this a market for thieves to sell their stolen goods or a market where you go shopping to find a thief to steal something for you? (9/24/17)

: Heroes and Villains 04 – Francis Marion: The Swamp Fox was a Revolutionary War hero and is considered the father of modern guerrilla warfare. (9/24/17)

: Heroes and Villains 05 – Christopher Columbus: Christopher Columbus was a hero to the Catholic Monarchs of Spain in spite of never making it to the East Indies as he first proposed and it turned out he was a villain to native Americans although they didn’t really know it at the time. (9/24/17)

: Heroes and Villains 03 – Robin Hood: A hero to the poor and a villain to the Sheriff of Nottingham. (9/24/17)

Thought We Forgot About This?

Sunday, September 17, 2017

It has been almost 2 months since we last took any Motoring Challenge photos, but we were out cruising yesterday evening when Donna remembered seeing this rug shop in downtown Augusta she had seen before. Seeing as we were somewhat close by, we detoured that way to grab a point.

We are now at 158 points out of 257 possible or 61% and we are 260 days into the 365 days or 71% of the allotted time to get those points. I guess we better pick up the pace some.

The CTBNL got a wash this afternoon to remove all the plant matter stuck to its sides from driving around post hurricane and get rid of the dead bug on the nose from the Bug Splat 6 weeks ago.

Got It

Monday, July 24, 2017

117 Years of Transportation – 2017 Fiat 124 Spider: A co-worker has had this Fiat 124 Spider for several months now and this is its normal parking spot, but this morning she was early enough, and I was early enough and we both had our tops up, so that I could get an uncluttered photograph of the 2 of our cars. (7/24/17)

I have been planning on taking this photo for the Moss Motoring Challenge of the CTBNL next to this Fiat 124 Spider for several months now and this morning my co-worker was early enough, and I was early enough and we both had our tops up, so that I could get an uncluttered photograph of the 2 of our cars.

Two hours later at my morning walk this is what that corner of the lot looked like:

More Motoring Points

Sunday, June 18, 2017

On the way home from yesterday’s Peach Parade we opted to drive back by ourselves and take a couple photos. First up was an old abandoned peach farm barn, first is worth a point. Then a few yards down the road there was nice little sign advertising for the festival in front of a big ol’ orchard, yet another challenge point available.

Halfway Home

Thursday, June 15, 2017

I vowed to write one post a night for the entire month of June, well today is the 15th, so with this post I am halfway to my goal. On the way to Olar to get a 1927 car for that challenge we passed right through the Town of Denmark. We used a Denmark picture before in the challenge, the first time is was for the “Letter D” in our first Challenge in 2014. This time it was for the “Around the Wold” category (Signs with the names of locations outside of North America.)

I don’t think we’ll use Denmark’s sister Scandinavian country city names (Norway & Sweden) for this year’s Challenge this year though, we have plenty to finish the category just using city streets in Aiken.

Life of Brian

Almost One Tenth As Old As America