Road Trip

Famous?

Bonus 1 - Famous Work of Architecture
Bonus 1 – Famous Work of Architecture: The definition of famous is in the eye of the beholder and Rainbow Row in Charleston, SC was being beheld by a half dozen Oriental tourists, including one standing in the middle of the street while his companions took photos.

The sharp eyed amongst you might have noticed that yesterdays info Moss Motoring Challenge line mentions 4 points and 270 miles, but there was only one photo and I mentioned its nearness to home. Well, that is because the Wilcox was on the way out of town on our way to Charleston, SC. One of this year’s Bonus Point opportunities is a photo that includes a famous work of architecture. While my first thought of Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright and even though our big trip was going right near there, you can’t get a car close to the house.

With the year winding down and the pressure on, we came up with the only real famous bit of architecture we could think of in South Carolina, Rainbow Row. Turns out it was harder that we thought to get a picture of me, sign, car and row house into a photograph. Oh well, hopefully our effort will be worth the two points…

Movie Set

Destination - Location Filmed In A Movie

One of the last of the few Motoring Challenges we had left was “Destination – Location Filmed in a Movie.” We haven’t tried too hard to find anything because we had an ace in the hole, not too far away from the ol’ homestead is The Wilcox. This historic Inn served as the clubhouse for the Carolina Pines Golf & Polo Club in 2007’s cinematic masterpiece Who’s Your Caddy? It was sort of a riff on Cadyshack and caused quite a stir in Aiken while they were filming it, at the Valve Store(TM) we used to get daily updates on sightings of Big Boi or Lil’ Wayne…

I think you can watch the whole movie on YouTube, but you don’t have to watch too much to see the Wilcox’s screen debut. At about a minute and a half in, two Range Rovers full of an Atlanta rap mogul and his entourage pull up in front of the place. Of course it wasn’t decorated for Christmas then (they filmed in the fall), plus they covered the paved street with gravel for some reason and they also had a bunch of stuffy looking whites guys sitting in the rocking chairs on the front porch. Take a look.

Motoring Challenge Points 4, Approx Miles Driven 270
Totals So Far: 167 points & 9380 miles

Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 129

Giant Ball of Lint

Giant Ball Of Lint

On our road trip we stayed in a combination Holiday Inn Expresses and Hampton Inns with a Sleep Inn & Suites thrown in for good measure. The only place we stayed that was not part of a chain was the Blennerhassett Hotel in downtown Parkersburg, West Virginia and it was definitely a step up. The price was really not that bad, about what the average was we paid for all the rooms on the while trip.

When checking in we asked to be away from the elevator and ice machine, our Guest Relations Representative assured us that even though we were not that far away, we would not hear either and asked if we wanted to see the room to check for ourselves. We said, “Sure.” At this point is where the clerk gives us a key, but not here, she hands the key to James the bellman who leads to the elevator and escorts us up. The room looks kind of small with a king bed in it, but it is furnished very nicely. The GRR was right and we head back down to finish the check in process.

They ask if we need help with our luggage and we of course decline, we are after all in the Miata, our luggage consists of 4 small bags, a laptop and a purse. The bellman/doorman does get to hold the door open for us though, both on the way out and again when we come back in.

The very best thing about the place were the towels. Used to the thin rough things you normally get at some chains, these things were a revelation. Normally post shower I grab the hand towel and use it like a squeegee to brush as much water off as possible before getting mostly dry with the bath towel, but here I get almost entirely dry with just the hand towel. These things are like water magnets. Soft? It feels like you are drying yourself with an Angora cat, the same breed that inspired the song Soft Kitty that Sheldon Cooper likes sung to him when he is sick.

I make note of the name on the tag and search the interwebs. One of the hits that come back is an Amazon link to buy them. $200 seems high at first, but it is for 6 bath towels, six hand towels & 6 washcloths, we vow to buy them when we get home.

We do, and they arrived last Friday. Best move ever. Knowing that new towels need to be washed separately, boy do they, we run them set through a cycle. Because these things are so big and so fluffy we have to break it into 2 loads. When load one comes out of the dryer the lint filter is completely covered about a 1/4 thick. When I get them in the house and are ready to hang them up, they are still covered in a bunch of balls of lint. They need to be washed a second time. I start saving the lint because it is prodigious.

What you see above is all the lint from the four dryer loads squeezed like a stress ball into something about the size of a regulation major league baseball.

Grand Loop

Road Trip 2015

While trying to describe the loop driven on our vacation to a co-worker, even I got confused, so I made up this rough estimate of the way we drove. The little red star is Aiken. We left heading northeast and proceeded in a counter-clockwise direction, driving through parts of 21 states and Washington D.C.. We had tossed around the idea of doing it clockwise, but this way had the big advantage of hitting D.C. early on Labor Day Monday instead of mid day during the work week.

On Tuesday night’s MLB.tv broadcast of the FRS game, to go along with the odd “highlights”, we were treated to an actual commercial for some brand of baseball cleats. Interestingly, this stuff only came through when watching on the Roku, on the PC in between innings there was just the usual silence. Then Wednesday night it was back to silence on the Roku. My guess is that they are testing the feasibility to start showing actual commercials. Doesn’t matter to me, next year I’m going back to just the radio broadcasts.

The Emperor Is Acting Like A LBC 1

State - Georgia

He’s got an oil leak. Wednesday when we left Vicksburg, MS in the morning the car clattered a little longer than usual, but I chalked it up to the fact that is was parked nose up at about a 20° because of the slope of the lot. At our first stop of the morning I smelled a little cooked motor oil, but chalked that up to the ratty pickup truck we were next to in the quick stop lot. At the second stop I smelled it again. This time we were all alone in the lot.

I popped the hood and, oh yeah, the smell is coming from there. I checked the oil. The bottom of the dip stick was dry! Added two quarts of oil and it brought it up to full. At least it only needed two…the car only holds four. From then on for the next day and a half and 650 miles we carried around a quart of oil in trunk. Every couple miles I’d add a 1/2 quart or so.

Yesterday I jacked up the car and boy was it oily. I bet half of what I lost was coating the underside of the car. I was more on the right side than the left and it really seemed to be coming from around the oil filter. But when I went to see if it was loose, it wasn’t, it was still tight.

I sprayed Simple Green around the bottom of the car and pressure washed it as best I could using my lame homeowner weekend washer. Changed the oil and filled it up again. Then I washed the car and gave it a quick spray wax. I then laid a towel down in the garage and parked the Miata over it.

This morning we went to breakfast at Steak & Shake in Augusta with the MMC. When I backed out of the garage the towel didn’t look dirty at all. The leak went away? Highly unlikely. On the way to breakfast we stopped on I-520 going into Georgia to get the last State we’ll get for the Motoring Challenge, bringing this year’s tally to 22 (if you count DC as one & they do), this is exactly twice last year’s eleven. When we got home at about 11:00 AM the Emperor got parked back in the garage.

We went out this evening in the Purple Whale to fill it with gas and get an ice cream cone. On returning home I backed the Miata out of the garage and looked at the floor. There was a pool of of about 5 or 6 ounces of clean oil on the floor. I guess the leak is still there. My guess now on the source is near the upper front right, probably the valve cover gasket. It leaks out during operation and falls down on to the plastic under tray and then during that 8 hours of down time drips slowly onto the floor. The dip stick was down a half a quart.

I think it is time for another visit to the Miata Doctors at Panic Motorsports.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 88

Motoring Challenge Points 1, Approx Miles Driven 75
Totals So Far: 143 points & 7640 miles

1. LBC is an acronym for Little British Car.

Home

Bugs

I wish we made it home before dark today so I could have taken an updated photo (the one above is from Monday) because the front of the Emperor is so bug splattered now that I’m actually proud of how messy it is.

Today was our longest day at 445 miles, with our shortest day (the layover day Sunday) coming in at 135 miles. Coincidentally those same two days were our worst point wise at 2 each. Our best points scoring day was last Tuesday the 9th with 10 points gathered thanks to those emus! All told we drove 4,180 miles and tallied 62 Motoring Challenge points, about 67-1/2 miles per point or .015 points per mile. We were gone for 13 days which means we averaged 321.5 miles and 4.75 points per day.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 86

Motoring Challenge Points 2, Approx Miles Driven 445
Totals So Far: 142 points & 7565 miles

158,000 Logging Trucks

Finally Got One

We have now taken photos in 15 different Washington Counties, but if you think about it, with a lot of planning and careful staging, don’t you think you could take 15 different photos around the same county? I’ve always had that thought. So for the last several weeks I hoped to have found a Washington County sign that included the state we were in.

Well, today it happened, and it didn’t matter because in Louisiana the counties are called parishes and as far as I know that is the only state that does that. Not only that we are not even going to use the photo either as we found a better photo op just a few miles further down the road.

On our 400 miles drive today through Mississippi, Louisiana & Alabama we passed or were passed by about 158,000 empty or full logging trucks. Somewhere between Georgetown and Monticello, Mississippi the Emperor passed through the 158,000 mile mark.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 84

Motoring Challenge Points 5, Approx Miles Driven 400
Totals So Far: 140 points & 7120 miles