Road Trip

Sunday

One more walk on the beach before loading up the car and we were on the road to Aiken by 8:00 AM. We like to get home so we can eat lunch at the house, plus we need the rest of the afternoon to grocery shop for the coming week and do the laundry without feeling rushed.

We also had time to watch a movie, rake leaves (front yard only) and I washed/vacuumed the sea salt/beach sand off/out of the Emperor.

Now I just have to tweak and re size the photos and edit the text for the condo web page, then type up the MMC meeting minutes from Thursday — tomorrow.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 26

Saturday on HHI

We got up and had breakfast on the balcony (see yesterdays post for the view) and even though the temps were in the lower 60s it still felt warm enough because the sun was right there 20º above the horizon (Donna had to wear her sunglasses.) We then took a nice long stroll on the nearly deserted beach. When it is low tide like that the beach is about 50 yards wide and there were more gulls standing at water’s edge than there were people within eyesight.

Around 9:00AM Donna (Horsman) the Condo Queen came over for our photo safari. She needed pictures of 3 condos for the web page. One was interior updates in the one we were staying at because the living room and dining furniture were new. I had taken them already yesterday before we started strewing our stuff around, so we already had one down. The second one was an ocean front unit on the second floor of the A Building. When Donna opened the door she could see right away we weren’t going to be taking pictures, all the furniture was pushed in to the center of the rooms as it was being repainted. The Queen was displeased because she told him we would be taking pictures today and he said he would be done. Things happen, so we moved onto the third condo. This was a two bed room unit in Admiral’s Row and it is amazing how much bigger it is compared to the single bed room places. It was ready, so I snapped away. We then parted ways and told her we would see her about 5 that afternoon for dinner, my Donna was making sish-ka-bobs for grilling, while DTCQ was making potatoes and a cobbler for dessert.

We watched another disc of An Unsuitable Job For A Woman. Unfortunately this is the last one done, so now I have to find another British mystery show to watch. We then went out and visited the end of a Fall Festival at a local church and before having some lunch. The afternoon was spent watching three episodes of Law & Order between cat naps.

Dinner was wonderful and afterward the three of us took a 3 mile walk around the bike paths in Hilton Head Plantation where Casa Horsman is. DTCQ and I quickly ran over the verbiage changes needed on the site and we made tentative plans to return over Thanksgiving weekend to photograph the one condo, if it is finished…

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

Nice Day All Around

Even though is was still quite chilly, we put the top down in Williston and as we drove south and east the temperature warmed into a perfect fall day. We got to the condo, checked in and headed right out for an over-stuffed sandwich from Gruby’s New York Deli. After shopping we returned to the condo and settled in. I read and Donna napped.

Because we didn’t have time on Thursday, we watched two episodes of TDTVS with our heat up pizza dinner. It wasn’t until after that when it was fully dark that we took our first walk on the beach. There was a 1/4 moon high in the sky which was enough to relegate the flashlight to quick peeks to make sure we didn’t step on a beached whale or something. Because of the time of the year we saw no one else at all on our short half hour stroll.

Started down, went up, back down, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 22

Title Wanted

This photo was taken by Donna as I wound my way up the many switchbacks to the entrance to Black Rock Mountain State Park yesterday.

Not satisfied with driving over 400 miles on Saturday we decided to drive 60 miles (one way) for lunch today. We met Donna’s cousin Laurie in Columbia at California Dreaming where we caught each other up on the doings of the respective branches of the family tree. We rode to there with the top up because we took the interstate, but on the way home it was down because we traveled the two lane back roads on the another perfect autumn afternoon.

We finished watching the last 3 episodes of Mad Men tonight and now have to wait until July of ’09 for new shows…

Started down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 18

83,000 Chlorophyll Deficient Leaves

Saturday was the MMC Leaf Peeping Run of which I was the leader. We met at the Cracker Barrel over in Augusta. The restaurant was packed with people eating breakfast, but only two other couples were members of the Miata Club, seems the rest of them were just there coincidentally. After eating we headed west and north to the upstate of Georgia (with a brief foray into South Carolina) to see the colorful trees. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of us driving the windy back roads enjoying nature’s beauty, but there was just our one car from the Club, seems the rest of them were just there coincidentally.

The weather was absolutely perfect for leaf peeping and the roads were mostly uncrowded. We ended up at Black Rock Mountain State Park near Clayton, GA where the club has visited several times before on these excursions. Instead of opting for the mega-meal at the Dillard House just up the street we drove the 35 miles to Clarkesville (where the rock group the Monkees are from) to eat at Zanzo Italian Cafe where we you get the best Italian food this side of, well, Italy. Two words: Baked Ziti.

Somewhere in northern Georgia, the Emperor zoomed past the eighty-three thousand mile mark.

We got home a touch more than 12 hours after we left it, tired, wind burned and completely satisfied. We would have gone right to bed, but seeing as we were going to get an extra hour of sleep, we opted to watch episodes 8, 9 & 10 of Season 2 of Mad Men.

Started up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 15

Gas Strand

Tomorrow is my birthday and Monday is Donna and my anniversary, so we decided to get away for the weekend. Last week we made reservations at a hotel in Myrtle Beach. This week, for what ever reason, gas became scarce around these parts with half of the stations in Aiken not having any gas and the ones that do, usually only have regular. The gas station at Krogers has had a line 20 cars long in both directions for the past two days. Maybe they have premium?

Yesterday we checked the Myrtle Beach newspaper online and they had an article about the gas shortage, but they only mentioned one station that was out of gas and the rest of the story was more general about the whole southeast region having availability issues. We started to question as to whether we should make the trip. One thing that was making us want to go was we had put a non-refundable one night deposit down on the charge card. But we didn’t want to get 200 miles away and not be able to find enough as to gas to get back home. So this morning we decided to go get some breakfast and check to see how easy we could find some gas in Aiken. There was already a line at Kroger and the next couple of stations we passed had bags over their pump handles. On the west and north side of town gas was a little more plentiful. We stopped at one northside station and filled up the tank as we were a little below a half a tank. All they had was regular. We almost decided to pack it in and go home, but agreed to go up to I-20 and see if those stations had gas. If they didn’t we would just turn around and go home. Of the the 4 stations at the interstate only one was pumping gas.

Screw it we said and pressed on. If worse came to worse we could always turn around at Columbia. About 45 miles into our trip we pulled off at an exit for a snack break that only had one gas station. They had gas, all grades, and no line. The station is several miles from a town of any size, so the only people who get gas here are the few folks who live out this way and the random interstate drop-ins like us. Not enough people I guess to create a critical mass of panic making everyone keep topping off their tanks when ever they see a gas station with a line. When we got to Myrtle Beach, everybody has gas. When we spoke to someone at a welcome center she said the only place that was out of gas was the one mentioned in that online article we read.

When I filled up this morning in Aiken I had been 170 miles and the tank took 6.5 gallons meaning that my time running mid grade netted a 26.3 MPG average. That might be slightly less than my usual average with the normal premium gas, but seeing as I haven’t really been keeping track there is no way to tell for sure. When we got to Conway, at the first gas station we saw, I stopped in to fill up with premium like Mr. Mazda wants me too. There was still a little over a half a tank left so the car only took 5.4 gallons, but we had been 194 mostly interstate miles. That resulted in an average 34.7 MPG! Usually all interstate driving results in around 32 MPG, must have been that magical mixture of a half a tank of mid-grade and a half a tank of regular…

The real reason for the higher MPG was probably because I didn’t drive at my usual speed. Normally I set the cruise for an indicated speed of 80 MPH which means I have an actually ground speed of 75, my typical five miles an hour above the posted speed limit, today I set the cruise at 75 so I was probably moving along at right around 70 MPH.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 363

Fees

Today our summer intern was lamenting the cost of going to college. Not so much just the tuition, but all the fees that get tacked on top, from a $400 lab fee, a $300 engineering fee, down to a parking sticker that is required, but doesn’t guarantee a spot and the 50¢ fee to print a piece of paper in the library. It put me in mind of the 1980 movie Popeye.

The Tax Man: You just docked?
Popeye: I has.
The Tax Man: Ah ha, let’s see here, that’ll be 25? docking tax.
Popeye: What for?
The Tax Man: Where’s your sea craft?
Popeye: It ain’t no sea craft, it’s me dinghy and it’s under the wharf.
The Tax Man: Ah ha. ahh-ha. This your goods?
Popeye: They is.
The Tax Man: Yeah. You’re new in town right?
Popeye: If you call this a town, yes.
The Tax Man: Well, first of all, there’s 17? new-in-town tax, and there’s 45? rowboat-under-the-wharf tax, and one dollar leaving-your-junk-lying-around-the-wharf tax, so all together, you owe the Commodore $1.87.
Popeye: Uh, who’s this Commodore?
The Tax Man: Is that the nature of question? There’s a nickel question tax.
…
Popeye: How come carrots is a dollar?
Geezil: $1.50. You buy what I don’t feel like selling will cost you $2.00.
Popeye: [Takes the carrots and tosses Geezil a nickel]
Geezil: Ah ah. Nope, this is a nickel.
Popeye: I’m payin’ what I feels like payin’.
The Tax Man: You’re not up to no good are you? Because if you are there’s a 25? up to no good tax.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 281