Road Trip

Three Planets

New Radio

Yesterday afternoon I put the final touches on the new radio install and what better way to put it to the test that a pleasant summer evening drive. Donna had the idea of what to see, a rare grouping of 3 planets in the night sky and I had the perfect spot to see a nice unobstructed view of the west northwest sky, J. Strom Thurmond Dam at Clarks Hill.

We arrived just after sunset with the west sky a brilliant red to find the parking area pretty full. There were people fishing along the shore, people watching the sunset and a few folks there like us to see the celestial triangle in the sky formed by Mercury, Venus and Jupiter.

The middle third of this 75 mile journey is the best part, all rural and with some semblance of windiness to the roads, add to it our own soundtrack and it made for a perfect evening drive.

131,000 Letters

Oliver - 30449

On the way back home from today’s road trip the Miata passed through the 131,000 mile mark. Not too long after that we passed by this cute little Post Office in Oliver, GA and just had to stop.

The Emperor visited the racetrack today, but purely as a spectator. We drove down to watch fellow MMC member John Haff of POS Racing ply his trade at Roebling Road Raceway. There were two other cars with us for the breakfast run to the Lake Restaurant in Waynesboro, one continued on with us and one went home. We were met at the track an hour or so later by another member who didn’t want to get up that early for breakfast. Or anything else for that matter.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1217

Friday at the Beach/Brewery

New South Brewing

A word of advice, skip the cheap Sea Mist breakfast buffet. The only thing that was hot was the made to order omelet prepared by a almost surly woman. They didn’t have hot chocolate, so I skipped getting their coffee meaning that we could go to DD for dessert. We filled up the car and found an ATM.We couldn’t find any takers to join us on a trip to the flea market, so we went anyway and only shopped for a bit before giving up and going to lunch.

We went to the Dead Dog Saloon which was the place the Miata group was set to drive to, but just too late in the day for us. The traffic here is dense and stop and go for long sections of US17. This was another reason we were way early at the restaurant, if there is one thing more annoying than creeping along in bumper to bumper traffic, it is driving in a group in bumper to bumper traffic. We were actually in the middle of that bumper to bumper traffic going back to the hotel as the Miata group was going to the restaurant.

While they were eating, we were watching a movie in our room. Even that didn’t go as planned as about 3/4 hour in, the fire alarm in our building of the complex went off. The bright side of this, beside the place not burning down, was we learned that the sun had finally deemed to make an appearance. Unfortunately because of the long fire caused intermission we didn’t even finish the movie before it was time to line up for the afternoon drive to the New South Brewery.

We opted to go for this drive for a couple of reasons, one we were interested and two the route did not include any stretch of US17. The tour was very interesting and educational, not to mention tasty as we got to sample several of their craft beers.

MAMB VII

Myrtle Beach

We finally get our kitchen back after eight weeks and we opt to drive 200 miles away so we have to eat out for the next 4 days.

Today we drove over to the east coast of South Carolina with a fellow MMC member couple to participate in the seventh annual Miatas at Myrtle Beach. And we “lucked” into a weekend with some of the lousiest weather they’ve ever seen for April in quite some time.

I feel bad for the organizers as they have had to shuffle some things around because of the weather. This afternoon’s Poker Run was moved to Saturday afternoon and tomorrow’s big drive had the morning portion scratched because the plantation we were supposed to descend upon en mass called to say that it wouldn’t be a good idea to drive the 70 or so Miatas down it’s dirt road after all this rain because it will be sloppy muddy. Plus if it was raining, there would be no way to accommodate that many people inside the house.

We’re not sure what we’ll do to fill the empty morning other than take advantage of the Sea Mist’s inexpensive breakfast buffet. We may visit a local flea market.

We Still In Texas

TexasToday was an awesome day, but nearly any day would be that way compared to yesterday. After arriving at DFW a half an hour early, things went downhill in a hurry. The 35 mile drive from rental car center to our hotel was awful. Driving around any big city is always fraught with peril, but this was worse than the I-285 loop around Atlanta. The intersection of TX360 and I-20 in Arlington was 2 lanes merging into two more followed by two more which was immediately followed up with an exit to a giant shopping area. Three miles of creeping and trying not to get crushed by big bully pickup trucks. 15 miles of 4 to 5 lanes of crazy Texas drivers. Later we got to our exit to find it under construction and closed. No, wait a minute, it pops up behind a bunch of orange reflective signs. Two left turns after sitting in two long traffic lights we pull into the HIE parking lot.

It is now 7:00PM (our body time) and we have had nothing to eat besides some apple slices since Chick-Fil-A at noon. Our blood sugar is low, we are frazzled with the traffic and short on patience for each other, let alone a prospective guest at the hotel who is trying to check in without a reservation or a credit card. We decide to eat first and check-in afterwards. The reason we picked this particular hotel because it is right across the street from a Razzoo’s, my favorite restaurant in the whole world. After risking life and limb crossing the busy street to get there, we find that a lot of other people think it is their favorite too. The wait is 25 minutes. Back across the busy street is a strip shopping mall with a couple of likely places to eat. The first was a pizza place, but when we get to the door it has changed into a tofu and lawn clippings place. A few doors down is a Jimmie John’s sub place. Now we are sinking to a hunger place where something that might have been marginally acceptable before no longer sounds even appetizing.

Hey, there was a steak joint just down the street from the hotel, let’s go there. As we get closer to the place it starts appearing like this is not going to work at all, the parking lot is jammed and there are cars parked in the dirt field next to it. I volunteer to go inside and see how long the wait is. We agree on 15 minutes max. As I weave my way towards the door through the throng of people, I can see inside and see it would take a couple of NFL linemen to clear a path to the hostess station, I find a gap and retreat. There is an IHOP with a mostly empty parking across the street. We head over there, admitting defeat and accepting that dinner will probably suck. We were not disappointed.

We had asked for a top floor room and away from the elevator. Our requests were granted and we are assigned Room 427. We drag all our bags inside and start to make ourselves at home. Donna starts unpacking and I fire up the laptop to check the WiFi. Everything is peachy until I turn on the TV. The picture is all snowy on the movie menu page, and when I exit to get to the regular channels the screen goes black. I shut off the TV and turn it back on. The menu screen is better this time, but a black screen shows up for the regular channels again. I go back down, tell the clerk my problem and ask for another room close by so we don’t have to move our stuff too far. He gives me a key to Room 428. The first thing I do upon entering is hit the power button on the remote…nothing happens. Figuring it might be dead batteries in the remote I find the power button on the TV itself. Pressing it has no effect. Back downstairs I go. I tell the clerk, “Very funny. That TV doesn’t even turn on.” “I’ll give you one more shot, if the next room has a non working TV I want me money back.” This time he comes with me up the elevator and we try the TV in Room 426. It works. The clerk goes back to his desk and we I gather our stuff and cross the hall to our new room. Third times a charm…

So today was spent basking in low traffic back roads where between towns the speed limit is 70 MPH. We found 8 or 9 interesting caches while exploring a few small Texas frontier towns. Tomorrow we are planning on geocaching in San Angelo State Park before a short drive to Fort Stockton to spend Monday night.

We in TEXAS

While in the Atlanta airport awaiting our flight, Donna decided to call brother Scott to see how they were doing. He, his wife and the three kids piled into the family vehicle and left Seattle on Friday afternoon. Scott and Beth were going to take turns at the wheel so they could get to Albuquerque virtually non-stop. She called and there was no answer, so she left a message.

Just before we were getting to board our flight she flipped open the phone to give him a call and noticed we had two missed calls and a text message from Scott. She tried to call him back, but got no answer again. I suggested replying to his text. She had never done it before, so I talked her through the process and watched in amazement as it took 5 minutes to compose a couple of four word sentences. She wanted to know where the question mark and other punctuation marks were on our simple cell phone. We don’t have any, so she sent it off. I told her it was texting, you don’t need no punctuation. You don’t need all the letters in the words. Heck you don’t even need verbs.

When we landed in Dallas, she sent him another text, “We in TEXAS.”

29,000 Palm Trees

The Purple Whale Goes To Sea

As soon as we got into Florida we took the second exit off I-95 and got on A1A heading east towards the ocean where we had a picnic lunch on the beach in the city of Fernandina Beach. Because we were not in any hurry we just stayed right on A1A all the way to Daytona Beach Shores where we are spending the night over looking the Atlantic Ocean from the sixth floor of the Holiday Inn Express (mmm, cinnamon buns.)

In the early part of the trip along the coast we get a very short (0.9 mile) ferry ride across the St Johns River between Fort George Island and Mayport Village. It departs every 30 minutes on the 1/4 & 3/4 hour and costs a whopping six bucks. We arrived, pulling up behind 2 waiting cars, with 6 minutes to sailing, talk about great timing.

Just north of Daytona Beach the Purple Whale passed the 29,000 mile mark.