Road Trip

Full Day Too

We started our day with a trip to Chimney Rock Park. After threading our way through the Eye of the Needle, we climbed the rest of many stairs to the top of the rock. The view up there is great and while the leaves are at peak higher up, in the surrounding mountains at 2 to 3k there is still a ways to go. Donna and I then walked the 1-1/2 miles of the Skyline-Cliff Trail Loop. A lot of the out is on boardwalk, but the way back is mostly dirt and rocky. On all of the loop there is thankfully fences and rails, because the average elevation of the trail is around 2300 feet and you can look straight down at all of it for quite a bit of the walk.

After cruising slowly back and forth through the touristy towns of Chimney Rock and Lake Lure we ended up deciding on Mexican for lunch. In spite of the upper 60’s temps and cloudless skies we were the only two people dining on the porch.

The afternoon was spent at the Foothills Highland Games and Festival in Hendersonville. Pipe bands & Celtic rock, musket fire, bonnie lasses & brawny laddies, sheafs & cabers being tossed and probably hagis for sale, but we didn’t look for any.

I took a couple of Post Office pictures, but they were of towns in North Carolina just in case this is the next state we pick on.

And TDPM is on again tonight, but I’m not watching it, so there.

Pictures from today can be found HERE.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 465

Pretty Full Day

  1. Breakfast in Aiken
    • We went to the New Moon and came to the conclusion that we are still eating there because of past performance. My muffin, while good, was not heated nearly enough. Donna’s hot chocolate had to be requested a second time before being served. If our last 3 visits here, were our first three visits here, they would be our only 3 visits here.
  2. Walk in Hitchcock Woods
    • Instead of our usual ingress point we started at the South Boundary entrance because we were already downtown for breakfast. A beautiful fall day and we shared the 2,000 acres with a horsewoman and her dog plus another woman walking a couple of small dogs. As is usually the case with our walks in the woods, we were certain of our path for approximately 75% of the time, never actually lost, just sometimes not sure where we were in relationship to the map.
  3. Pack the car and head north
    • I am constantly amazed with how much stuff we can stuff in the small trunk of the Miata. I am also constantly amazed with how much stuff we have to take with us for being away from home for a mere 48 hours.
  4. Lunch in Newberry, SC
    • The Grill On Main serves a mean Patty Melt. Donna had a cup of vegetable soup and a half of a chicken salad sandwich. The chicken salad had some mustard and maybe thyme in there to give it a different twist.
  5. Photographed 5 Post Offices
    • Whitmire, Union, Buffalo, Jonesville, Pacolet & Pacolet Mills. We stopped at White Stone, but it was busy and it had enough character that we decided to come back on the way home Sunday when it might not have cars in front of it.
  6. Dinner in Asheville Fletcher, NC
    • We had pizza from the second place we tried. We drove the 4 miles to a place just inside the Asheville limits that had some good reviews I found on the web. We left after we never got any attention from a server after being seated. That and the dozen small ants that crawled out of the menus and had to be squished under our fingers. The next place we tried was take out only so we ended up dining in our room at the Fairfield Inn in Fletcher, NC. The pie was not bad and probably would have been better if we could have eaten it moments out of the oven instead of the 15 minutes or so later that it took us to get back to the hotel and get settled.
  7. TDPM on USA
    • Commodore Norrington: No additional shot nor powder, a compass that doesn’t point north, [looks at Jack’s sword] and I half expected it to be made of wood. You are without doubt the worst pirate I’ve ever heard of.
      Captain Jack Sparrow: But you have heard of me.
Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 463

290 + 9 = 68,000

Caesar's Head LookoutWe set out to get the remaining eight Post Offices in the northwest part of the state and ended up with 9. Midway between Travelers Rest and Liberty we passed right by a mystery CPU. I did a u-turn and went back to get a photo. The closest town to us then was Dacusville, but it didn’t have a Post Office. Donna wrote down the address and this evening when we got home I looked for a Post Office in that town, none was listed. There was a new CPU for Easley that wasn’t on my original spreadsheet, the addresses matched. We have 299 PO photos taken, but we now have 162 to go as the state total just got kicked up a notch. About halfway through our loop we detoured up to Caesar’s Head State Park to see if any of the leaves were changing, they weren’t. The photo above is the view from the lookout near the ranger station, that granite faced mountain off in the distance is Table Rock Mountain with Pinnacle Lake in front of it.

Somewhere south of Calhoun Falls on SC81 the Emperor passed through the 68,000 mile mark.

Started up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 444

It’s Saturday, Let’s Go To Town

As we hit the outskirts of Anderson the road turned to four lanes, we pulled up to a stoplight first in line in the right lane. Next to us, blocking out the sun, stopped a full-size Chevy panel van. The passenger looked over and down at us, gave us the V sign with his fingers and then mumbled something unintelligible in a heavy rural southern accent with a big smile on his face. The light turned green and they lurched forward trying to get the jump on me. I accelerated at my usual brisk pace and as their out of tune van bucked and stumbled, the Emperor pulled away. As the van reached speed it smoothed out and tore right by. Until the next light.

Even again, my rural friend leaned out the window and said, “We figure with this curve up ahead we’ll take you easy.” and smiled big to let me know he was kidding. Then he said, “Look behind us.” I thought he was going to point out an LEO, but no, I could see a red and white two-tone mid 50’s Chevy. “Fifty-five,” my new best buddy says. I ask, “Wonder if he’d trade me straight up?” The passenger just rolls his eyes and the driver says, “Depends on how much money you got in your pocket.” The light changes and off I go.

At the next light, the van is in the right lane next in line behind me and they are directly across from the ’55 Chevy. I can’t hear what they are saying, but everybody’s jaws are moving. I can bet our rural friends are not asking if the guy in the ’55 Belair wants to swap cars with me. And if they are, guaranteed there will not be a swapping of pink slips at the next light.

The next light is a long way off and by the time I get stopped at it, both the van and the ’55 are long gone.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 441

Tough Guy Withdrawl

Pickens, SC 29671I was wrong about the number of Post Offices we did yesterday, we did 16, not 13, in the morning, so with the seven nighttime photos, we did 23 in one day, a new record for us. Though I don’t think we will do too many more nighttime shots. Sometimes you will get a nice picture, but you don’ get a real good sense of what they look like. Plus, these places are hard enough to find in the daytime, what with the usual lack of addresses on buildings and all, making it darn near impossible sometimes once the sun has gone down.

For the first time in quite a few weeks I have no Spenser novel to read. Finished my 26th book last night and I have no others waiting in the wings. I am missing the latest book and the rest are from the first dozen novels. Just this afternoon my wife asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I had no answer, maybe I’ll ask for an Amazon gift certificate and buy some used copies of the earlier books.

I’ve finished up my new theme. Because I left the old theme, ‘Painted Desert’, as an option, most all of you noticed no change. When or if you clean out your cookies, when you come back you will see the new look. If you want to see the new look now, scroll down, look for the Theme Switcher section and click ‘Brian’s Red’. There are a couple others to try if you want. Should you decide you want the old standby, all the themes have a place where you can just pick ‘Painted Desert’ and get back the familiar.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 414

67,000 Kajillion Watts

Gnuclear GnormThe Emperor passed through the 67,000 mile mark not too far from the Oconee Nuclear Station. We stopped in and photographed Gnorm sitting on a concrete block just outside the plant. He really liked the looks of the round water tower that had rings around it so it took on the appearance of an atom. In case you can’t read the words on the yellow tag, it says, Radioactive Material, RWP Required for Entry, Notify RP Prior to Entry, Authorized Entry Only.

We finished up taking pictures of all the fish we could find and ended up missing only two (well, three because we just have a picture of the empty base of one.) All 46 photos can be seen in my Flickr photo set: Fish Out of Water 2.

On the Post Office front, we did 13 this morning and 7 more tonight. May do some more on Sunday morning before heading home (may not either.) So it will take me a while to sort through and post them.

We also brought along my Godson Gnorm and snapped about 10 travel log photos of him that will need to be tweaked and uploaded to Flickr! as well.

Started up, went down, back up, back down, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 413

66,000 Spokes

66,000 SpokesAt least that is how many it seemed like as the peleton streaked by us yesterday afternoon in Greenville. It is also the mileage milestone that the Miata moved past this afternoon somewhere south of Laurens, SC.

We took the “long” way home today by circling north of Duncan before heading south to visit 9 more Post Offices for photographing. That made a total of 33 POs for our three day trip. Going to take a while to get all of those photos edited and online. I know I’m going to have a heck of a time remembering anything unique about every one of them for captioning. Good thing we are not going anywhere next weekend.

Even with all driving, picture taking and bike race watching I still had time to finish one Spenser book and start another. This one won’t make the Spenser’s Crime Buster Rules page, so I’ll post it here:

There was no answer when we rang the bell. The house had that stillness that had Paul had mentioned. In the interests of not looking like a jerk, I tried the doorknob. It was locked.

“I already tried that,” Paul said.

“It’s a Dick Tracy crime stopper,” I said. “Always try the door before jimmying it.”

“Great working with a pro,” Paul said.

Started up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 376