Road Trip

RAT TOES!

Thanks to the cloudy day we managed to keep the top down the whole way from Aiken to Chesterfield. We had a nice visit with Donna’s aunt, cousin and spouse of cousin. The cousins had just this year retired from the New Jersey, actually eastern PA, rat race and moved to South Carolina. After getting a tour of the new house we settled in for some reminiscing. We thought for lunch we could all go into downtown Chesterfield and find a nice local restaurant to eat at. But apparently dining options are limited in the town of 1,338, so lunch was had at the local Subway.

After lunch we said goodbye and instead of turning left and heading home we went right and headed north to Concord, NC. That’s right, Razzoo’s for dinner. The wait for a table was 15 minutes, but definitely worth it, although after we were seated we couldn’t figure out why the wait because there were still plenty of empty tables and it looked like there was plenty of wait staff. Speaking of servers, my buddy Mark asked me to pat ours on the butt because everyone of the females that ever waited on us were very young and attractive. I think Mark thought I would get in trouble with my wife if I did, well the joke is on him. It didn’t bother Donna at all, but Spence was a little weirded out by it.

I had Rat Toes for appetizer (I saved you 3 Mark) and Donna got the Crawdaddy Fondue Dip. For dinner we split a Li’l Side Salad and the Cajun Combo Skillet. We were so full we skipped desert…for about 60 minutes. After we got back to the hotel we walked across the street to a Sonic for a Sundae and a Blast.

In an effort to burn off a portion, a very small portion, of the calories consumed at Razzoo’s we risked life and limb walking across the huge parking lot from the restaurant to the Concord Mills Mall. We then risked our charge card balance by walking all the way around the 1.4 million square foot shopping mall. We actually showed some restraint there, I bought the movie Grand Prix on DVD at FYE and Donna bought a couple of bracelets at a kiosk called Be Unique.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 279

“Small” Car

Somehow the other day I got in a discussion about the Dodge Caliber with my current cubicalmate and summer hire. He told me it was a small car. I told him he was nuts, I had seen one in a motel parking lot on Donna and my last road trip. It was parked right next to a last generation Mustang and the Caliber seemed to dwarf the ‘Stang. From my vantage point, a second story balcony, it looked taller, wider and longer. I countered with, “The Neon, the car the Caliber is replacing was a small car.” Adam countered with, “The Caliber is smaller than the Neon.” The gauntlet was thrown down. Off to the internet for some research.

The following are from Automotive.com:
2005 Dodge Neon
– Overall length (inches): 174.4, overall width (inches): 67.4, overall height (inches): 56, wheelbase (inches): 105, cargo volume (cu. ft.): 13.1 trunk, curb weight (lbs) 2,582.
2007 Dodge Caliber
– Overall length (inches): 173.8, overall width (inches): 68.8, overall height (inches): 60.4, wheelbase (inches): 103.7, cargo volume (cu. ft.): 18.5 w/seats up, curb weight (lbs) 2,996
2004 Ford Mustang
– Overall length (inches): 183.2, overall width (inches): 73.1, overall height (inches): 53.2, wheelbase (inches): 101.3, curb weight (lbs) 3,254

Boy do I feel like a fool, somewhat. The Caliber’s length and wheelbase is shorter than the Neon, but it is 1-1/2″ wider and nearly 4″ taller with 5 more cubic feet of storage (35 if you fold the back seats down.) The only thing bigger about the Caliber over the Mustang is height. Must have been parallax error or maybe too many refreshment from the mini-bar.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 273

828 Miles Later…

828 Miles Later?…we are home again. Maybe 275 of that was today (I didn’t keep track) on the way home. Half the trip back was mountainous twisty and only about 1/3 of that was spent at “speed.” It is during the 4th of July week and high tourist season in the mountains. Most of the time I was stuck behind a car from Florida or an old man in a hat driving a Camry. Secretly there were times when Donna was happy to have a slow poke in front of me for some of the trip, by mid-morning she had had just about enough of being tossed around, bless her heart.

The Blue Boar Inn is a mile and a half into the woods on a dirt road and after about 8 trips on that surface, the car was ugly dirty, so I washed it this evening. Much better.

One last story from the trip. On Friday when we went out to see the Milky Way, but were thwarted by the bright moon, we did get a substitute show. Right across the Skyway from the overlook we stopped at was a big old hill full of trees that spread from left to right traversing our whole view. The hill side was alive with fireflies. It reminded me of people flicking their lighters at an outdoor stadium rock show. We sat on a little wall and watched for about 10 minutes oohing and aahing, until some animal snorted in the woods behind us. Being city folks this noise made us get up quickly, dust off our butts, walk to the car and head back to the Inn.

Started up, went down, back up, back down, up to wash, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 250

Robbinsville Part II

We did go up on the Cheohala Skyway last night, but the Milky Way was a no show. It wasn’t cloud cover it was the moon. Amazing the amount of light generated by the 1st Quarter Moon when there is no other ambient light present.

And we did do an out and back Gap run before breakfast. Donna normally loves riding through the twisties as much as I love driving them, but the chemo has made her a little more sensitive to jostling around. I ran through the 318 turns at about 3/4 speed and it went good as we had an uninterrupted run. On the way back I dialed the speed up a little bit and she was a real trooper about it. We got about 9 miles of free running before I caught the tail end of a 3 cruiser motorcycle group. When we finished she told me that that was quite enough Gapping for awhile. We made it back in near perfect time for breakfast.

As always the food was fantastic, but way more than we normally eat. So instead of going for a hike after breakfast we returned to our room and laid on the bed like lizards in the sun digesting. At 11AM we finally got in the Miata for a trip all the way across the Cherohala Skyway to reconnoiter lunch or dinner spots for a future MMC visit. Whenever we have gone over there in the past we have always eaten at the same ol’ place and while the food is good it is kind of pricey. Guess what? other than that place the picking are extremely thin. A Subway, a Hardee’s (where we ended up and were sorry we did), a pizza place and a little family restaurant. The most interesting thing about Telico Plains was that the natives spoke an entirely unintelligible form of English. The accent was 1/2 mountain south and 1/2 mumble. One women in the Hardee’s parking lot spoke to us and we had to say what twice in an effort to understand her and we finally just shrugged our shoulders and moved on. The nicest part about Telico Plains was leaving it.

For our evening meal we ended up in Robbinsville at a BBQ we had eaten at before. Last couple of times we had been in there we wondered how they stayed in business as the customers were nearly non-existent. This night the joint was jumping, it was jammed with motorcyclists and we had to finally wave over a waitress and demand she take our order. After dinner I wanted to go to the start of the Gap once again to get a sticker for the trunk lid to replace the one that used to be on the old trunk. Strangely enough the Crossroads of Time was closed this morning at 6:30 when we went by. When I hung a left out of the BBQ place Donna asked why. She thought we we going the long way, over the Stecoah Gap and up NC28. I said I didn’t think you wanted any more really windy roads, but she said 28 is so pretty a drive and even though it is very twisty, the curves are not as densely packed as the Gap itself. So we went that way turning a 12 mile return trip into 60 miles…cool.

Tomorrow we are going for today’s scheduled hike before the huge and delicious breakfast so we won’t have any excuse not to go for a walk in the woods.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, back up, down once more, and back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 245

Robbinsville

Fun drive up. We stopped a couple times and took short walks. Once at Whitewater Falls which we have visited before and once in Gorges State Park which we hadn’t. Took our usual Wyah Bald Road from Franklin to Nantahala. Instead of fighting the expected crowd at the NOC restaurants, we stopped at a roadside place and had a pretty darn good BBQ sandwich and some nachos.

By the time we got to Robbinsville we were pretty worn out, so we did a little shopping at Ingles and headed up to the Inn. The Blue Boar now has wireless internet, so I could blog and listen to the FRS beat up on the Marlins. I took a few pictures today and about the only thing missing in my mobile office now is a way to transfer images from the camera to the laptop. Kodak had an Easy Share camera similar to the one I bought with wireless connectivity, but it lacked a couple things I really wanted, so I didn’t get it. While looking around on the net for a sort of multifunction USB thumb drive and SD card reader I found the perfect solution. Behold, the transforming SD card that folds to reveal a USB connection – Sandisk 1 GB Ultra II SD Plus.

Later tonight we plan on a quick trip up to the Cherohala Skyway for some star gazing. We get up to almost 5000′ and far enough from any lights that, weather permitting, we can see the milky way. Breakfast at the Inn is from 8 to 9AM, so tomorrow morning we plan on an early rise to get in a out and back run through the Gap and then get breakfast.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 239

Aiken

As Glenda the Good Witch told Dorothy, “There’s no place like home.”

US1 runs through Sanford, NC and Aiken, SC too, so we decided to just follow it home. This caused Donna to remember that 42 years ago when her family moved from NJ to New Orleans the traveled down via US1 in a station wagon. They drove straight thru with Mom and Dad splitting the driving, figuring it was easy to remember what roads to take by picking one and sticking with it. They folded the back seat flat and the 4 kids rode down in the back of the wagon with their sleeping bags. No minivan with child seats, seat belts or DVD players, just sleeping bags and some kiddie books. I then shared that my mom and one of her male friends took 2 weeks to travel the whole length of US1 from Fort Kent, Maine to Key West, Florida. She asked how old I was thinking that perhaps in some weird coincidence her family and my mom had crossed paths, maybe saying hello at a gas station or sat in adjoining booths at a roadside diner. No such thing happened though as my parents were still together when I was nine. Mom and Leo did their trip some 4 or 5 years after the Morrisons, because I was in my early teens when my mom and he were an item. Kind of strange that our parents passed through Aiken long before Donna and I lived here.

Around Camden, SC we actually got tired of the back roads and feeling the pull of home, jumped on I-20 to speed up the trip. This is also about the time the car started to make a loud rattling noise. It seemed to happen when shifting between 2nd and 3rd, but was entirely restricted to just then. It would occur between 2500 to 3000 RPM. I suspected it was somehow exhaust related, but wasn’t really sure. It didn’t sound life threatening, so the plan was to get home and take a look underneath the car. We made a detour into Columbia for lunch. Donna wanted spaghetti and meatballs and we remembered a restaurant in downtown called The Old Spaghetti Factory. We drove around where we thought it was, did I mention that the last time we ate there was 8 or 9 years ago? We finally gave up and asked someone. They remembered it, but was sure they had closed some time ago. We ended up at Subway where Donna got her meatballs, just in a sub, not on a pile of pasta.

With all the city driving the noise was getting a lot louder and a lot more frequent. We decided to head a few miles back and stop in at the Mazda dealer in Columbia. They were open and said they would get a technician to look at it. We retired to the waiting room with thoughts of possible expensive repairs floating in our heads. About 45 minutes later the service adviser came over and said it was fixed, they found that a bolt had come loose on an exhaust hanger up near the front of the car. When I asked how much we owed them, he replied, “Nothing.” Cool. We thanked him and finished the trip home in quiet.

At home the Emperor got a well deserved bath. I want it to look good because tomorrow we go back to the body shop for them to fix their errors when they repaired it earlier this month.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 173

Sanford

Breakfast was at the “River City Diner” that was attached to the Holiday Inn. Could be a chain restaurant and seeing as most big towns have a river running thru it, it would fit right in nearly anywhere. The waiters wore bowling shirts and the waitresses wore something with very short sleeves and a collar that were left over from Rizzo’s closet. All shiny chrome and vinyl, the only thing missing were the classic diner shape and little jukeboxes in the booths. The food was diner plentiful, I ordered pancakes with 2 eggs scrambled and the flapjacks were as big as Frisbees and the eggs must have been from ostrich-sized chickens.

After saying so long to Sally and “little” Claire we were off to the west side of Richmond to visit Donna’s cousin Sue and family. Susie and Alex live in a tree lined planned community that is the picture next to the term suburb in the central Virginia encyclopedia. They have three beautiful girls and whenever we pop in for a visit (approximately every half decade) we bring gifts for them. This time it was t-shirts with Aiken and horses on them, three different designs for three different ages. When kids are little they will put on anything mom pops over their heads, but at some age they will develope a style sense of their own making clothing a risky gift, so who knows they might put them on and never want to take them off or the only use they’ll get is to wipe up spilled Pepsi. The only daughter home was the oldest, 13 or 14 and she hung out in the kitchen with us adults as we discussed Donna’s breast cancer which then segued into medical insurance. Maybe there was nothing on MTV or she just wanted to hang with the grown-ups. I just hope in 2055 or so she thinks back to that “aunt” who had breast cancer, was cured because they caught it early and starts getting yearly mammograms herself.

We didn’t leave there until about 10:30, so we hopped on I-95 and started south. Donna drove for 60 miles then I did a 60 mile shift before we stopped at a Cracker Barrel for lunch where we both ate too much again. After lunch, I continued south on I-95 until we could take the monotonous snapping of tires over concrete expansion joints no more. We jumped onto the back roads and made our way over to the town founded by Fred and Lamont in 1977 after they quit the junk business, Sanford, North Carolina.

There was a Sagebrush right across the street from the hotel, so that is where we went for a late dinner. This is the fourth different Sagebrush I have dined at and they are now batting .500. Rock Hill, SC and Monroe, NC are winners, every time I’ve been there I have wanted to go back. The one that lasted a year and a half in Aiken was awful all three times we went. Sanford, NC now joins them in the losers column. Our waiter had to be asked to bring us the usual bucket of peanuts that are their equivalent of the chips and salsa at a Mexican eatery. Our salads arrived 3 or so minutes after our main course. My blue cheese dressing was the worst I ever had and that is saying something. The steak was good, except the cook was a little heavy handed with the grilling spices. Plus I think whoever cooked up the Bunkhouse Beans mistook the teaspoon abbreviation for tablespoon, because those bad boys were peppery. I didn’t say anything because this is the first time I’ve had them and for all I know that is their signature way of doing beans…

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 171