Road Trip

138,000 Seconds Too Late

We have a North Carolina road map, but it is dated 2007, so we thought it might be a good idea to update it this trip and because of the way we were driving up we had an opportunity to cross into the Tar Heel State via I-85. So we planned to pop into the official Welcome Center grab a new map and also take the NC state photo for the Motoring Challenge.

As we cruised into the rest area the state name was on the back of the building, so we figured there would be a nice sign in the front. We were wrong. There is a wood sign that is too far from the parking lot to be seen well and it also had wood letters spelling out North Carolina Welcome Center above the front door, but it too could not be captured photographically. We then struck out on the map front too as we were about a half hour too late, they lock the doors at 5:30 PM.

We did manage to manage to successfully grab three other challenge photos on the trip to Statesville, a County, a National Forest and a Destination:

A little north of Kings Mountain, NC the Emperor passed the 138,000 mile mark this afternoon.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1315

The King’s Donuts

The King's Donuts

Took a 400 mile road trip to Fairburn, GA today to go get a doughnut. And to see a friend who recently bailed from working at the Valve Store(tm) to become the COO and head baker of a Christian doughnut shop called The King’s Donuts. Yesterday was their soft opening and they sold out of doughnuts by mid-afternoon. We were there for about an hour and there was a steady stream of customers the whole time. Just before we left at 4:30 he gave us a tour of the kitchen and there were only 3 mostly filled trays of wares left to sell.

We took the long way there on the back roads to get a couple more of our Moss Motoring Challenge objectives:

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1309

Oh Savannah!

Claire, Mark & Us

For the second time in a little more than a month we visited the city of Savannah, GA. In February it was a side trip & diversion in our escape from Ice-ageddon. This time it was to catch up with recently wed (6/13) friends Claire and Mark. They were in town from Lexington, VA for the big music festival, so we drove down to spend a couple hours walking around town, eating lunch and watching maritime traffic on the Savannah River with them.

On the way down, and more so on the way back, we grabbed a couple items off the Motoring Challenge checklist.

Started down , went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1300

Friday In Florida

Hutchinson Island

Shopping in downtown Stuart, followed by a drive up to Fort Pierce along the Indian River. From there we went over to Hutchinson Island to have lunch at the original Hurricane Grill & Wings followed by quick step onto the sand to gawk the Atlantic Ocean before heading home to relax on the lanai. Tough life…

Silver Springs Conservation Area

Silver Springs Conservation Area

Just a couple miles south of our hotel was the Silver Springs Conservation Area which has a 2-1/4 mile loop trail with about 2 dozen geocaches. We walked the whole trail, but only grabbed 12 of the caches. We wanted to save the other half for a future visit and besides we needed to get on the road to make it to Palm City in time for wine time.

The plan was to drive south to the turnpike, get on it for 60 miles or so and get back off onto some two lane county roads. By the time we made our way to the turnpike the crowds had dispersed, so we just stayed on the back roads. With the combination of a store bought map, a slightly uncooperative GPS and “rush hour” in Okeechobee we made to Sandy’s with only 15 minutes to spare.

40,000 Ghostly Images of Old Florida

We are on our way to visit Donna’s sister and her family and my snowbird cousin for a couple of days. Because we will drive back on Sunday on mostly Interstate we are taking two days to drive down on mostly back roads. On today’s drive we came into Florida and took aim half way between Lake City and Jacksonville where we found some small town’s and uncrowded back roads.

We originally planned on driving the Miata and doing some more Motoring Challenge photos, but the weather was supposed to be crappy today and then again Sunday for the drive home, so we opted to take the Sonata for the trip. Turns out there were some towns, counties and photo ops that would have been good for the challenge, but they were mostly mid-Georgia, so we filed them away for a weekend in the future.

Somewhere near the small town of Orange Springs the Purple Whale eased by the 40,000 mile mark. Tonight we are in a new HIE in Silver Springs. While this section of town is too full of modern amenities to be considered Old Florida, once inside our dinner spot we were thrown back in time. The Denny’s was located inside a Days Inn and it was filled with characters from Central Casting, including; a really old man alone at a table wearing shorts, sandals with black socks, a Veterans of Foreign Wars ball cap with large-lensed sunglasses who was chewing with his mouth open and eyeballing us because we didn’t belong, a skinny androgynous African-American who spoke on his cell phone loudly in a high-pitched stereotypical gay queen manner, plus the cook teasing a couple of regulars were they going to eat or were they here for the paranormal meeting.

I thought she was just joking, but when we used the restroom before walking back to our hotel, right next to them was a “banquet room” that was shared by Denny’s and the Days Inn and it was all set up for Investigating the Paranormal with Carolynn and Carla.