Road Trip

Leaf Peeping & Caching

We took a half a day off from work and drove up to North Carolina to retrieve our extra sheets and towels from the SMH and do a little leaf peeping. Early on in the drive we noticed that in the lower elevations in SC there were quite a few trees already changed and a lot that already dropped their leaves. We both thought that this would mean that as we got into the mountains everything would be dull and empty, but boy were we wrong. Along I-26 in the upstate of SC the trees were in peak color and as we got into the higher elevations of NC they were still plenty colorful.

Now that we are here the weather has turned against us. In the beginning of the week it looked like rain so we were hesitant, but as the week progressed the fore cast looked better. Yesterday when we made the reservation the chance of rain on Saturday was down to 20%. It is actually misting and wet that we are here and if you check the forecast for tomorrow in the SC upstate they are calling for a 70% of rain.

We have several caches mapped out do to for our challenges in the morning on the way home, we will just have to see how it turns out in the morning. Rain we head straight home, misty we cache until damp, dry we rack ’em up.

Started down, went up, back down, up again, down again, up once more, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 461

The Long Way Home

It is about 140 miles from HHI to Aiken and it usually takes a little over 3 hours to make the trip, but today it took us eight. No problems, unless you count 6 DNFs against just 4 Finds, but it was a bit longer than we had planned on spending on the road.

Caching

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 454

Nice Morning

We drove down to HHI last night because I have to do a little Hilton Head Condo Rentals web page updating. Some photos needed to be taken, units removed and dates updated. We will be meeting Donna the Condo Queen for dinner, but until then we are going to do some geocaching of course. We watched the beginnings of sunrise from the balcony of the condo we were staying in, then took a nice walk on the beach as the day began in earnest.

The sky over the water to the east was just awesome this morning:
Sunrise

If you looked to the opposite direction, you got another pretty good show, a double rainbow:
Double Rainbow

I’m cheating and posting a Saturday entry on Sunday because we didn’t have internet at the condo. The choice was between high speed net access or ocean front condo, a no brainer, ocean front wins every time…

Started up, went down, back up, down again, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 453

98,000 Pieces of Coal

Loading CoalSaturday the MMC took a trip to Winnsboro to visit the South Carolina Railroad Museum. This weekend there was a visiting steam engine to give that old time feel (and smell) to your train ride. We combined the Club’s monthly breakfast with the train event, plus following the hour long train ride we drove to a nearby town for lunch making for almost a full day Miataness.

After lunch Donna and I went our separate ways from the group because we had an alternative agenda, that’s right, geocaching. Before leaving we made tentative dinner plans with another MMC couple to meet in Lexington at the Uno Chicago Grill at 5:30 to complete the Trifecta (all 3 meals out.)

Got all caught up chasing camo’d containers in the north central part of the state and ended up not being able to make it back to Lexington in time for pizza with Rudy & Patti. We were disappointed on two levels. With the dreary day and approaching of dusk we opted for the more direct way home from where we were and resigned ourselves to eat in Newberry at whatever place we could find. Luck was on our side though, willing to dine in a Hardee’s or a Subway, we stumbled on The Flying Pie on Main St and had a wonderful pizza about half way between the thin crust of West One in Hendersonville and the thick Chicago style pie in Lexington.

Saturday by the numbers:
299 – Miles driven on the day
98,000 – Total miles now on the Emperor
1 – Tank of gas used
5 – O’clock wake up call
14 – Hours from leaving home until returning
58° – High for the day, 20 below normal
9 – Cars in a line (7 Miatas, 1 Boxster and a Jeep)
11 – Mile train ride (5-1/2 under steam power)
100 – Pounds of coal burned by the train per mile traveled
8 – Caches found
3 – SC County Challenge caches and
2 – DeLorme Challenge pages finished

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 437

Full Day

SMH SunriseWe were treated to a nice sunrise from the second floor deck of the SMH. Grabbed a couple shoots through the screen on the porch and this is one that the camera didn’t actually focus on the screen (I didn’t even think that it could focus on something that close.)

The rest of the day was spent wandering around the back roads near Hendersonville with no particular destination in mind, but to capture a few of the 400 some odd caches within 25 miles of H-town that I have loaded into the GPS. Snagged a half dozen of them. The leaves are just starting to change around here, perhaps 20% or so are now yellow, orange or red which made the rural roads twinkle in brief flashes of color as we zipped down them.

SMH SunsetMy sister and her husband arrived at their southern home around mid-afternoon and we spent several hours catching up over dinner and a UCONN football game on ESPN. We didn’t see the sunset, but on our evening walk we were treated to some interesting reddish clouds.

Like the last time we met them here in late July, we spent one night at the SMH and then vacated the place so Allen’s sister and her husband could spend the night there. Like last time, they weren’t supposed to get to the townhouse until later. In July we left in the early afternoon and missed them, this time we hung around until about 8 PM and they still hadn’t showed up. We are getting together with Diane and Allen in the morning for breakfast at a local restaurant and we asked if the sister and brother-in-law would be joining us, but he laughed and said, not that early. 8:15AM? The last (and first) time we saw his sister and her husband was at Diane and Allen’s wedding about 20 years ago. My paranoid side is now convinced they are avoiding us.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, up again, down again, up once more, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 429

Half Day

We only worked a half day and after lunch at home we hit the road to the SMH. We grabbed three caches on the way up and had our first DNF in three weeks behind an abandoned shopping center in north Spartanburg.

Instead of driving the whole way from Newberry on I-26 as usual, after the miss in Spartanburg Donna let me finish the trip on US176 which parallels I-26 to Hendersonville, but is a lot more scenic and more of a Miata road – read windy, twisty, switchbacky.

Guess what we had for dinner? Right. Pizza at West One in H-ville. We opted for a change of flavor and went for the prosciutto pie. This is the third variety of pizza we have tried here and we are both hard pressed to pick a favorite.

Started down, went up, back down, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 423

Birthday Boy Goes Caching

We came back from the SMH via US25 instead of the Interstate and snagged a few caches on the way.

The eight finds put us over the two hundred mark, 202 to be exact.

We crossed off three counties, Greenville, Laurens & Greenwood, bringing us to 17 of 46 completed in that challenge.

Plus we filled in 3 DeLorme pages, 17, 18 & 33 meaning we are now finished with 14 of 47 pages.

We also crossed off the letter X from the SC Alphabet Challenge leaving us needing only J & Z to complete the 26 needed for that one.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 412