Road Trip

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

Pedro Sez 75,000 Crappy Trinkets Available Here

The Emperor passed through the 75,000 mile mark just east of Columbia on I-20.

After breakfast this morning we hopped on the interstate and headed east not getting off until somewhere north of Florence on I-95. We then spent the rest of the day traveling the back roads of rural northeast South Carolina nabbing photos of Post Offices. We ended up the day with 14 captured. We even had to stop at a library in a city along the way to find a PO we had a map for (we were looking north of town instead of south)and one that we didn’t (even though I have an image of it on the thumbdrive.)

The rude employees at a Subway in Lake City did us a favor. After we walked out in disgust, we ended up at a Mexican place, La Bamba, that was terrific. Their Carnitas were scrumptious and the ice cold Dos Equis was much better than any fountain drink available at the other place.

Tomorrow morning — Cinnamon Bun.

Started up, went down, back up, back down, went up, went down, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 117

What Next?

The Home Shopping Network is going to start showing movies? First MTV, AKA Music Television, stopped playing music. Then CNN Headline News started doing stuff besides continual 1/2 hour news shows. The Weather Channel has stopped doing the weather 24/7. And now, tonight, the Cartoon Network is showing Jurassic Park 3. That’s not a cartoon. Although I guess some argument could be made that the CGI dinosaurs are and Bill Macy has a face that only a cartoonist could love…

We went for a nice walk in Hitchcock Woods this morning. It has only been a little over a week since our last visit and the woods have been transformed, all the dogwoods and the wild azaleas are flowering, plus all the other trees are budding and turning green. I took a couple dozen photos on our walk and I learned two things: 1) I suck at photographing flowers and 2) the add an image thing isn’t working in WP 2.5. Fixed.

Totally forgot about the FRS playing on TV this afternoon. Stumbled on the game in the top of the ninth inning and watched them go down in a ball of flames to the Jays for the 3rd straight day. Plus it just seemed so wrong to hear voices I associate with Braves baseball on a channel that used to do every Braves baseball game calling an American League game. Their record now stands at 3 wins and 4 loses, not a great start. At least the MFY are only 3 & 3 and we can blame the rocky start on the whole 3 country, 12 time zone road trip. Tuesday is the home opener where the players will get their World Series rings and the 0-5 Tigers are in town. Time to wake up and start looking like you want to repeat as WS Champs.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 100

Missed It The First Time

SardiniaWe got the 7 Post Offices we planned for on the return trip, just not in the order we planned. Blew right by the Sardinia PO at first. We knew we missed it when we spotted the sign for the next town south on US301, Gable. After taking Gable’s portrait we made a u-turn and headed back north. We actually drive by it again, but not too far as we were really looking for it this time. It is an easy Post Office to miss as there was no “blue box” out front, the flag pole didn’t taper like a normal pole and Old Glory wasn’t flying from it either. Plus this is the only sign and it was parallel to the road and not noticeable at 65MPH.

The building looks old enough to be the original, but if it was, I would have expected some sort of bronze plaque the be nearby, so I don’t know if that is true. Another interesting tidbit about the town is how it got it’s name. “When the Government was ready to open a post office in the community that is now Sardinia, the residents could not agree on a name. Since they were meeting in the school house, somebody, seeing the globe, suggested that they spin it and let someone close his eyes and put his finger on a spot which would be the name. This happened to be Sardinia.” I found that on the internet, so I don’t know how true that is either.

When we got home I washed the Miata off. It is starting to be spring here as there was quite a smattering of dead insects on the nose. Of course because spring is starting the car won’t stay clean very long as it about time for pine pollen to start blowing in the wind.

Started up, went down, back up, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 60

Lake City, Where? Part II

Lake City, SCWe are staying in the Holiday Inn Express in Lake City, SC, just a couple years later than our first attempt. After a long layoff it was good to get back in the Post Office saddle again – Paxville, Davis Station, Greeleyville, Lane, Salters, Kingstree, Cades, Lake City, Scranton, Coward, Effingham, Pamplico and Johnsonville.

Thirteen POs today and we have 7 lined up for tomorrow’s return trip. This was a second trip to Paxville because the first time we couldn’t find the Post Office, through no fault of our own I might add. Couple of interesting town names today. When you say Johnsonville all I think of is Brats, but my favorite has to be Effingham because if it is pronounced the way I hear it in my head, it sounds like someone is cussing about a ham.

Started up, went down, back up, down again, back up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 57

Young Old Hickory

Young Old HickoryIn another Postal Safari serendipitous history lesson, we visited a state park that is located near Lancaster and is dedicated to the 7th President of the United States. The park encompasses the property that belonged to James Crawford, the brother-in-law to Andrew Jackson’s mother and is where Old Hickory grew up.

On the way into the park we had to stop and wait for a couple of white tailed deer to cross the road in front of us. There are a couple short hikes in the park and we decided to walk the one mile nature trail. I’m not too sure about the hunting regulations on state park land, so after about a half mile I took off my bright white Hilton Head Island ball cap and tucked into my waistband under my jacket.

We attempted to get a bagel for breakfast this morning after discovering that Rock Hill’s Durango Bagel had kettle boiled and oven baked, real bagels. We found their web site which let us know they moved, but no mention of hours. I called their phone last night, but there was no mention of hours on their answering machine. Mainly because there was no answering machine. Up and out early we pulled up outside the place a little after 7:00 AM. We could see someone in the back, probably cooking bagels judging by the smell outside. There were no hours posted on the doors, but there was a 8-1/2 x 11 sheet of paper with the text, “Since moving to our new location we have tried various closing times on weekends and have discovered that 4 PM works best for us, so we will be closing at 4 until further notice.” No mention of opening times though. We went out and shot photos of the other 2 Rock Hill Post Offices and came back 45 minutes later they still weren’t open. We ended up at Hardee’s. I really wanted a bagel too.

The USPS giveth and the USPS taketh away. Yesterday we found an extra Post Office in Clover and today we found one missing in Lancaster. After several passes along Memorial Park Drive looking for number 1979 and the Post Office that was supposed to be there we pulled into a likely strip shopping center, not there, but the building next door with only two small shops in it had the right number over the door to Hidden Treasures, a lingerie store with no sign of ever being a Post Office. When we got home I rechecked the USPS locater page and now there is only one PO listed as being in Lancaster.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 492