Road Trip

119,000 Drops of Water

The Emperor passed the 119,000 mile milestone just outside Thompson, GA this afternoon on his way home from a geocaching adventure in northeast Georgia. We marked off three State Parks, three Counties and two DeLorme pages in two days on one tank of gas.

RE: The picture above, “What were you thinking? Where are you driving to?”

Started up, went down, back up, down again, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 967

Wednesday

$3.29 a gallon gas
226 miles
9 geocaches found
4 Georgia counties
3 GA State Parks
2 GA Delorme pages
1 tick bite

I was wrong about people mailing Christmas cards from Santa Claus, Georgia, it can’t be done, there is no Post Office. I think people mailed it to City Hall where they used a special postmark, then carried the cards up to Lyons for actual mailing. The city hall building was locked up at 2:00 o’clock on a Wednesday, so we couldn’t get a definitive answer on how it worked.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 919

Santa Claus, GA

Tomorrow morning we start a small trip to meet up with the Florida wing of the Morrison Clan. Aiken to St. Augustine is about 300 miles and in typical Bogardus fashion we will be taking 2 days to get there while geocaching through five Georgia State Parks on a slightly zigzagy route. Our path will take us right through the small town of Santa Claus, GA.

I have known about this place almost since we have lived here, because some people would drive there to have their Christmas cards postmarked there. Always thought that would be a cool thing to do, but it is 100 miles away and who looks at the postmark anyway? We’ll find out who, because Donna is finishing up a couple of late Christmas cards tonight which we plan on mailing from there tomorrow.

I would have thought that there would already be a geocache in town, but nope there’s not. We have a small bison tube lying around the house that is perfect for hiding somewhere, so I’ve attached a couple of little super-strong magnets to it and if we spot a suitable location, there will be one there tomorrow.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 915

Worst BBQ Ever

We went geocaching today in Crawfordville, GA and A.H. Stephens State Park. We took along a coworker and because the Miata does not seat 3 comfortably we took her car. Crawfordville is where Hollywood comes calling when it needs to film in a quintessential small southern town. There have been about a dozen films that have used this town as a bit player in them and there are 8 caches here with names that are the titles of those movies. We looked for 4 and found 2. The two we missed I don’t count as DNFs because they were in locations that made us very nervous searching which was only heightened by the fact that we were driving a car with New Jersey plates. There were 6 caches in the state park that you can get to by land and we found 5 of them.

Probably the most recognizable movie that was filmed in town was “Sweet Home Alabama” and for lunch we decided to eat at the BBQ place that was used in the bar scenes (Stella’s Roadhouse) of the movie. We were talked into getting the Plate by the almost surly woman behind the counter at Heavy’s as it included meat, brunswick stew and coleslaw. We opted for a rib plate and a chicken plate to split between the three of us. The coleslaw was too vinegary and had way too much pickle taste. The “stew” was run through a food processor for too long as it was kind of a sickly looking brown mush. The only thing remotely edible was the meat and that was overpowered by the amount of BBQ sauce it was covered in. Interesting place to visit, but you don’t want to eat there.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 911

The Rock House


The Rock House

We spent the whole day, and I do mean the whole day, geocaching. We were gone from 6:30 AM until 6:30 PM traveling a total of 250 miles. We had breakfast at Dunkin’ Donuts in Aiken, lunch at McDonalds in Louisville, GA and dinner at Cracker Barrel in Augusta. We found 11 caches, collecting 5 GA Counties, 2 GA DeLorme map pages and 2 GA State Parks, while DNf-ing just one. We walked a total of 6 miles, 3 in one state park, 2 in the other and 1 more chasing the rest of the caches.

There were several memorable finds, including the last one, The Rock House outside of Thomson, Georgia which was built around 1785 and is the oldest stone residence in the state of Georgia. The home is now owned by the Wrightsboro Quaker Foundation and has been rumored to be haunted. The Augusta Paranormal Society visits this location from time to time. Maybe because it was light out we didn’t see any ghosts.

The first find of the day was pretty cool too, but that is a story for another day.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 907

Saturday By The Numbers


High Falls State Fall State Park

397 miles driven.
13 hours away from home.
6.2 miles walked on 4 different trails.
5 caches found.
4 restaurants in Greensboro, GA that we didn’t get served dinner in.
3 meals out (AKA, The Trifecta.)
3 GA State Parks completed.
2 DNF caches.
1 cache found, but too impatient to sign the log.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 891