Road Trip

Around Macon

61.4 Miles. We watched a bit of a women’s crit in downtown Macon and had planned on just hanging around waiting for the Tour de Georgia finish. We got bored, so we headed out of town and caught the Tour about 20 miles out. After they passed we raced back to the finish via an alternate route to catch them actually finish.

My plan for starting a dead musician’s grave site photo gallery was squelched when we visited Rose Hill Cemetery and couldn’t get close to the grave sites of Duane Allman and Berry Oakley because a state prison crew was doing some lawn maintenance.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 102

Aiken to Macon

188.7 Miles. Breakfast – $3.79 (two muffins and OJ at the New Moon Cafe in Aiken, SC) Lunch – $7.14 (ruben sandwich & tomato & rice soup at Chester Dean’s in Sandersville, GA) Dinner – $28.00 (seafood teryaki & katsudon at Tokyo Grill in Macon, GA) Total $38.93 for both of us. Eat your heart out Rachel Ray.

Started down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 100

Mr. & Mrs. Bogardus Go To Washington

Wednesday:
Arrive Dulles midday. Wait 1/2 hour in bitter cold, accented by bitting wind for Metrobus. Three bucks each, 3/4 hour later, arrive hotel in Rosslyn section of Arlington. Thaw briefly. Walk 1/2 mile to Iwo Jima Memorial. The regular size canteen holds 1 quart. The one on the monument holds 8 gallons. Passing the Norwegian Carillon (?), we walk 3/4 mile to Arlington National Cemetery. Walk 3/4 mile through Cemetery to Tomb of the Unknowns. Wait 1/4 hour in bitter cold, accented by bitting wind to witness changing of the guard. Walk 1/4 mile to grave site of President Kennedy. Eternal Flame does nothing to ward off bitter cold, accented by bitting wind. Walk 1 mile back to hotel. Thaw completely. In early evening walk 2 blocks to friend’s apartment. Walk 4 more blocks in bitter cold, accented by bitting wind to Red, Hot and Blue a Memphis style BBQ joint. Thaw out while eating ribs. Walk 6 blocks back to hotel. Really long hot shower. Bed.

Thursday:
Breakfast on 17th floor of Holiday Inn. Good view of the city. Good coffee. Bland buffet. Hey, its free. Walk 2 blocks to Metro station in bitter cold, accented by bitting wind. Get off at Union Station and walk to Capitol Building. Giant construction project in front so you can’t get near. Walk around giant construction project. Snap photo of Supreme Court while standing in bitter cold, accented by bitting wind. Duck into National Botanical Gardens to thaw out. Walk behind Capitol, snap picture of group of students gathered to have panoramic photo taken of them. Walk to Smithsonian Air & Space Museum to have lunch and escape the bitter cold, accented by bitting wind. Cross mall to National Gallery of Art. Wander though fabulous sculptures, not really paying attention. Paid attention to exhibit of Ed Ruscha. Walk further down the mall in the bitter cold, accented by bitting wind to the National Museum of American History. Thaw out completely viewing the The Price of Freedom: Americans at War exhibit. Head to Washington Monument. Can’t get close because giant construction project. Tiring of the bitter cold, accented by bitting wind duck into Metro station and return to hotel. After a couple hours in room thaw completely. In early evening walk 2 blocks to friend’s apartment. Walk 6 more blocks in bitter cold, accented by bitting wind to The Mediterranean Cafe. Thaw out while eating kabobs and humus. Walk 8 blocks back to hotel. Really long hot shower. Bed.

Friday:
Breakfast on 17th floor of Holiday Inn. Good view of the city. Good coffee. Bland buffet. Hey, its free. Walk 2 blocks to Metro station in bitter cold, no wind. Yeah. Take three dollar Metro bus to Dulles. Ask about shuttle to National Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center at airport. Doesn’t exist. Shuttle is from museum at mall. $12 cab ride from disappointed American Dream immigrant we arrive at center. Bag inspector at the door tells Donna that she must put snacks in her purse back in car. He lets her in after she explains we came via cab. Bag inspector at the door says nothing to Brian while looking through dirty underwear in suitcase. Big Damn Place. Lots of cool stuff to look at. Lots of blurry pictures taken (need tripod next time.) $12 cab ride back to airport. Long wait in crowded, noisy terminal for plane. Gratefully arrive back in small quiet Columbia airport. Real South Carolina BBQ for dinner. Ride part way home with top down.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 47

Beaufort & Back

In June I’m leading the Master’s Miata Club on a trip to the Hwy21 Drive-In in Beaufort. We are going to be joined by the Low Country Miata Club from Charleston. Last year the 2 clubs got together to go to the only other drive-in in operation in SC, The Big Mo, just up the street from us in Monetta.

Today, Donna and I took our first fact finding mission to Beaufort. We left Aiken at 9:00 AM and it took 2-1/2 hours to make it there, with 2 small breaks. This seems like a good start time, as it will get us into town around lunch. After lunch, activities will probably be walking around the historic downtown, shopping or just sitting around the waterfront. Mid afternoon we will drive to the hotel and check in, maybe freshen up before heading over to the drive-in to get in line so we can get good parking spots.

The drive-in is about 5 miles from the historic district and is across from the Marine Corp Air Station. You can’t miss it as they have a huge sign right on US21 visible for about a mile in either direction. The drive-in is about 200 yards down a side road. Because they also do a flea market thing on Saturdays during the day it was open, so Donna and I stopped in for a visit. The first thing you notice is that it is a lot bigger than the Big Mo. There are 9 rows for cars where as Mo has 6, maybe seven. The concession stand and the restroom facilities are light-years improved over the Big Mo’s. They are bigger, brighter and better kept up. We chatted with the owners a bit, told them we were coming with a car club in June. They seemed very friendly. When we told them where we were from they of course asked if we knew of the Big Mo. These guys are only coming up on one year of drive-in ownership, so when they were starting out they of course visited the Boaz’s at the Big Mo to get pointers on running a drive-in. As a matter of fact the FM transmitter they use for the movie audio is the Big Mo’s back-up unit. The cool thing about the Hwy21 is that they didn’t actually need the transmitter, but felt they should have one for modernization, because nearly all of their corded speakers still work!

We thought at first we would try to stay in a B&B. That might have been an expensive proposition and we were not too sure that the Miata Club folks would want to go that way. Plus it seems a shame to stay at a place like that when you are really getting a short night sleep and leaving, what with staying out late at a drive-in. A B&B should be savored. There is a Best Western right in the historic district, so we went inside to check it out. They were already all booked up for the Saturday night in question anyway. For kicks we asked the price, $139 to $169. Yikes! Those B&B’s are not sounding so expensive after all. When we left town we drove back the way we came and there are about 6-8 chain motels in between downtown and the drive-in. There was a Country Inn and Suites that looked promising. When we got home we went to the internet to check prices and they are $115 a night. Ain’t nothing cheap.

More research is required. I envision at least one more day trip in our future. Cool thing is I now have a Beaufort phone book, no I didn’t steal one from a phone booth, they had them as giveaways at the Visitor’s Center. While we were they we also picked up a bunch of menus from restaurants in town. In tomorrow’s installment I will tell you all about lunch in Beaufort…

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 25

The Hat

While on a road trip, an elderly couple stopped at a roadside restaurant for lunch. After finishing their meal, they left the restaurant and resumed their trip.

When leaving, the elderly woman unknowingly left her glasses on the table. And, she didn’t miss them until after they had been driving about twenty minutes. By then, to add to the aggravation, they had to travel quite a distance before they could find a place to turn around in order to return to the restaurant to retrieve her glasses.

All the way back, the elderly husband became the classic grouchy old man. He fussed and complained and scolded his wife relentlessly during the entire return drive. The more he chided her, the more agitated he became. He just wouldn’t let up one minute.

To her relief, they finally arrived at the restaurant and as the woman got out of the car and hurried inside to retrieve her glasses, the old man yelled to her, “While you’re in there, you might as well get my hat.”

Back Home II

As promised, the lowlights:

  • Friday Morning: Spray painted graffiti on Georgia’s Stonhenge.
  • Friday Mid-day: Road construction in Clarksville, GA kicking up clouds of dust that settle on our cars as we eat lunch.
  • Friday Night: The mostly crummy meal served for dinner at The Sweet Magnolia Caf? in Robbinsville.
  • Saturday Early Morning: The continental breakfast at the Microtel.
  • Saturday Mid-Day: The freakin’ traffic in Gatlingburg, TN.
  • Saturday Afternoon: Some members of our group holding up a rice rocket longer than they needed to while transiting the Gap.
  • Saturday Night: Driving 49.7 miles on the Cherohala Skyway to dinner in Townsend, TN (although to be fair this can also be listed as a highlight.)
  • Sunday Morning: A crowded drive with straight piped Harley cruisers and old folks on the way to church through Maggie Valley on Hwy 19/74.
  • Sunday Mid-day: Meeting my sister and her husband at their Asheville hotel to find out they just got water restored after the flooding from T.S. Frances.
  • Sunday Afternoon: The drive home always seems so long…

Comet Gestation Counter: 48 days

Back Home

Great trip, here are the highlights:

  • Friday Morning: Oddball side stop on the way up at Georgia’s Stonhenge.
  • Friday Mid-day: Lunch at Zanzos in Clarksville, GA. Great Italian food in an unexpected place.
  • Friday Night: 2 clean runs through the gap, out and back. First time that has happened in 3 or 4 years and if we had gone home immediately afterwards the trip would have been worth it.
  • Saturday Early Morning: 2 nearly clean runs. About 8 miles out of a possible 11 before being temporarily slowed for some motorcycles. Nearly similar result for the trip back.
  • Saturday Mid-Day: Carnitas at No Way Jose’s in Gatlingburg, TN.
  • Saturday Afternoon: Coming back to Robbinsville through the gap, this time with a little more traffic, but sometimes it takes a slower drive through to appreciate the sights outside the yellow lines…
  • Saturday Evening: A Cherohala Skyway scenic overlook with the slowly setting sun as a backdrop on the way to dinner in Townsend, TN.
  • Saturday Night: That same Cherohala Skyway scenic overlook with the field of stars spread across the night sky with a background of the milky way overhead on the way back.
  • Sunday Morning: A nice lonely drive on the normally crowded Hwy 19/74 through the Nantahala Gorge on newly resurfaced asphalt.
  • Sunday Mid-day: A meatloaf sandwich at Cracker Barrel.
  • Sunday Afternoon: Home unscathed except for the layer of dirt, brake dust and insects on the car.

Tomorrow, the lowlights…

Comet Gestation Counter: 47 days