Road Trip

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

79,000 Doves Cry

We got up at 5:00 AM and headed southeast, destinations: Dorchester, Ridgeville, Summerville, Summerville, Ravenel, Hollywood, Edisto Island, Adams Runs, Jacksonboro, Cottageville and Round O.

Just before crossing the bridge over the intercoastal waterway in the South Carolina Low Country at the intersection of No and Where, the Emperor ticked past the seventy-nine thousand mile mark. Somewhere within 25 miles either way of that event a young male bluejay tufted titmouse committed suicide by flying right in front of us. He was given an un-proper burial (i.e. dumped) under a bush along the side of the Adams Run, SC Post Office.

I didn’t listen to the ballgame on Thursday or Friday and the FRS beat the MFY. I watched the game yesterday afternoon and they lost. Tonight they are playing on ESPN and I figured that if I didn’t watch they might win like Thursday or Friday. I’m listening on the internet and that might be the wrong thing to do too, as the Yankees are up 1 to 0 in the second. Maybe I should quit listening… Nine o’clock on USA are new episodes of Law & Oder: Criminal Intent, followed by In Plain Sight.

Oh, word of advice, if you live on a hill and your neighbor has a pool, don’t forget to set your parking brake.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 235

Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez

We took this afternoon off and had intended to go home and eat lunch before heading out, but didn’t make it, we ended up eating at Popeyes. Longtime readers will know that Popeyes and the Bogardi have a checkered past and will wonder just what the heck we were doing there again considering our history there. The rest of you will now be able to ask that question the next time we eat there, which will probably be during a weak moment several months from now.

It was 11:45 and before the lunch crowd so I walked right up and placed an order. We decided to split a #9 meal, popcorn shrimp with 3 catfish strips, dirty rice, a biscuit and a medium drink. Donna filled the drink and found a table while I waited near the counter for our lunch. There was already someone there waiting for his lunch and soon we were joined by a number of other diners as the order takers were more efficient than the order makers. Well, really, order maker because there was only one of him.

If you ordered chicken you were in luck because that was ready, but as usual, anything else needed to be cooked. I could see our order half filled sitting there with the rice and shrimp as we waited on the catfish. Donna by this time had joined all of us near the counter to chat up the poor guy who was waiting when we walked in and still was. Turns out he was waiting on a couple of po’boys. After about 6-7 minutes more his sandwiches were done and the lady tossed an apple pie in his bag for having to wait so long.

We were next and she put a couple of pies on our tray too, but tried to hand us red beans & rice instead of dirty rice. She corrected that and we headed for a table. Once seated Donna had to go back up to get some of the promised tartar sauce and an extra spork for the rice. Wasn’t until we were done that we realized we didn’t get a biscuit either. By then we didn’t want it either. We split one of the apple pie things and gave the second one away to a fellow sitting behind us.

Dinner was also Naw’lins style but a much nicer experience. Then again we have never had a bad meal at Razzo’s in Concord, NC. Donna had a shrimp po’boy and I had my favorite Andouille/Red Beanz ‘N’ Rice. I wish this place was closer to Aiken as I’d like to eat here once a week or so. Probably get old after a while, but I’d like to find out how long that would take. Tomorrow we will drop in at Razzoo’s again to pick up an order of Rat Toes to go. There is someone back in Aiken (Hi Mark) who would be very unhappy If I didn’t bring him back some.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 225

Car 54 Where Are You?

Spent today at Roebling Road Raceway watching NASA racing. Our friend John Haff races a Miata in TTF class (TT stands for Time Trial and the F stand for the sub class determined by weight and HP.) He usually does really great in class, but today his car, nicknamed POS by his race team CFO (wife Carol), lived up to it’s reputation by refusing to shift gears reliably. Made for a somewhat frustrating day for John, but for the rest of us, the weather made for a great day spectating at the track. I took over 200 hundred pictures, but a third of them were of empty track as I attempted to catch speeding automobiles and another third had just part of the car in it for the same reason. Of the remaining third, most were blurry in an unartistic manner or mis-exposed or with crummy composition, so I’ve probably got about a dozen keepers. But not one shining star.

On the way back home we filled up the Emperor with gas in Sylvania, GA paying the bare minimum under four bucks a gallon.

Oh, and Egypt, GA does have a little sign marking the city limits that is noticeable when traveling north, but the road didn’t have a wide enough shoulder to pull over on without endangering our lives when attempting a photo or endangering the Emperor with sliding into the swamp-like ditch lining the side of the road.

Started up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 166

My Mountain Dream

We’re here. The trip up was very nice, we stopped for pizza in Dhalonaga at our favorite Italian place before hitting the real mountain roads. Woohoo. But wouldn’t you know it, when we hit the best part of GA60, AKA The Snake, we would got stuck behind an aptly named Sequoya, big, ponderous and slow going. Minor inconvenience.

The only other minor inconvenience is the 1/2 mile of unpaved road to the cabin. At a couple of points it is seriously slanted up and water is making nice little wash outs to try and steer around. I only scraped the undercarriage once, but I wouldn’t want to drive down it a night. Plus tomorrow should be interesting as we are supposed to get some good rain in the afternoon.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 139