Road Trip

46,000 Floridians Waiting At A Light

The Purple Whale clicked past the 46,000 mile mark just before we got off I-95 to head into Palm City, Florida. This is about the fourth trip down to visit Donna’s sister in as many months and we are starting to get the hang of it. It is still a long dang trip, but each successive time it seems to get easier.

The part that we still despise is the side trip off the Interstate to get gas, snacks, a meal or a rest room break. Invariably there is a traffic signal at the end of the off-ramp with a No Turn On Red sign in which we have to wait 2 or 3 minutes to turn in our favor. Then we race 100 yards or so to be stopped at another light with the same or longer wait for the cross traffic left turns, the cross traffic straight across traffic, then we wait for our left turners before we can finally proceed. Sometimes we even have to wait through yet another light a 1/4 mile further down the road before we reach where we want to be. Then we repeat the process all over again to get back to the Interstate.

I think this adds at least 20 extra minutes on top of whatever time it takes to complete what we got off the highway for…

45,000 Cars A Hour

About 15 miles south of Jesup, GA the Purple Whale hit the 45,000 mile mark.

We were traveling north on US 301/GA 23 and if I would have taken a picture through the windshield, with the rear view mirror in the frame, it would have shown almost a mile of two lane road total, with zero other cars on any of it. As we traveled the 45 mile stretch between Folkston and Jesup (a few miles outside the city limits of both towns) we probably saw 2 other cars. Using totally made up calculus, I figure that works out to forty-five thousand cars travel on that road that way a month.

I probably would have taken that photo if I had though to take one using the same framing while Donna was driving on I-75 just north of Ocala, FL. All 6 lanes of the Interstate (3 in each direction) were stuffed with cars with usually nothing more than a car length between them. If you could have stood in the median so you could watch both flows of traffic and could count really, really fast I bet it would come out to be about 45,000 cars an hour.

Woo-Woo

Auto Train

On Friday night, just south of Ludowici, GA we were stopped by a train. Ohh, its an Amtrak train going north, it’ll be stopping in Denmark, SC soon. Hey, it’s one of the Auto Trains, it won’t be stopping until Lorton, VA. That is what my sunbird cousin uses when she transitions between Maine & Florida. By the time I get my camera out and turned on I almost missed getting a picture.

143,000 Cars On The Interstate

Destination - Dude Ranch

We started the drive home this morning from Ocala on I-75 with plans to make a little time and get off on to the back roads north of Lake City. Donna was driving and all three lanes were pretty full, so I started map perusing to look for a way off the Interstate earlier. We hated to have to drive thru Gainesville on surface streets, so she gutted it out until north of the home town of the University of Florida.

We have really been racking up the miles on the Miata with this whole Motoring Challenge thing, added another 1200 miles since last Thursday. The Emperor actually went over the 143,000 mile mark yesterday around Groveland, Florida, but I forgot to write about it yesterday. It seems like I forgot to write about when we went over the 142,000 mile mark too, but it probably had to be over the Memorial Day weekend…

Started up, went down, back up, back down, up again, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1376

Visit Florida

Rainbow

Where is it all rainbows, all the time.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1371

Welcome To Florida

Welcome To Florida

We got the Florida sign. I stood there posing for so long waiting on the person standing behind me to leave that my smile turned upside down… We got our ferry ride in between Fort George and Mayport, FL and that photo, but struck out on the pier at Jacksonville Beach.

Today was National Donut Day and we started it we a free one at DD. Today is also the 70th anniversary of the Longest Day, AKA D-Day and we ended it by watching the movie The Longest Day.

Started down, went up, went down, back up, down again, up once more, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1369

Was Clean

Was Clean

This is what the front of yesterday’s washed Miata looks like now. And look at those dead bugs! Any of them would be Big Bug Trophy winners. Where are these things when you need them?

So we slept in this morning, until 5:00AM, and had a nice breakfast at home before hitting the road. First stop was Denmark for an Art Gallery photo. We were in Denmark a couple months ago getting the “City starting with a D”, but ignored this South Carolina landmark because we thought the challenge wanted an Art Museum. Mr. Harrison paints rural scenes of barns with Coca-Cola ads painted on the side and I always wanted to commission one of those with a Miata in it. I’m sure he would laugh at the idea or offer to do it a price that even Warren Buffet would balk at.

From there we captured Olar for the City O, Hampton for the County H and Varnville for the City V. We now need just the Q to complete the City alphabet. Well, all except the X. The closest X town is Xenia, OH which is “only” 575 miles away. There are now only 5 County letters left, with F, K & Y obtainable. There is no X county in the US at all and the closest Z is Zavala County in Texas which is still 350 miles further southwest from Fort Worth where we just barely made it to last week.

We also snagged a vineyard in Ridgeland, SC, a cobblestone road and an island in Savannah, GA from the Destinations Column. This leaves only 12 left on that list and all look doable if only Donna and I can agree on exactly what constitutes a harbor…

If you could get every point available in the challenge you could score 201 points. After today we are halfway there at 100 points. My best guess for our highest possible score is 139 and that is going to take crashing 9 more car shows and a trip to Richmond, Va to a Moss Motors Facility.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1361