Road Trip

33,000 Orange Trees

33,000 Orange TreesToday’s State Park of the Day was Lake Louisa in Florida. There was no fancy lodge for lunch like yesterday, but there were a few hiking trails available for a walk. We didn’t walk any because we were pressed for time, but we did drive around and check the whole place out. A nice oasis of nature not too far from Orlando.

Somewhere around the state park driving through endless miles of orange groves, the Emperor passed the 33,000 mile mark. It was exactly a week ago that it went by 32,000. The miles can really mount up when you are having fun

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 386

Lake City, Where?

Lake City, Where?When Donna and I planned this little Holiday trip we decide to take two days down and one back up. To pick a place to stay that was about half way I used the scientific method of stretching my finger from Point Aiken to Point Stuart and looked at a spot about half-way for the overnight stay, unfortunately that point was in the middle of the Okefenokee Swamp. Went a little past half, to make the second day’s driving easier, and settled on Lake City, FL. Made a reservation at the Holiday Inn Express there and started counting down the days until I would get a cinnamon bun for breakfast.

After we had eaten lunch and gone for a hike in the Little Ocmulgee State Park, Donna took out the reservation sheet for the Holiday Inn Express and went to check the directions to get there. For the life of her, no matter how hard she looked, she couldn’t find US52 nor US378 anywhere near Lake City, FL. It was then that she noticed the address on the reservation confirmation I had printed out, Lake City, SC. At first I thought it had to be a misprint, but then I noticed the hotel’s phone number and sure enough I recognized it as a SC area code. DOH!

Got on the cell phone and called Lake City, SC and canceled my reservation. Asked the clerk there to give me the phone number of the Holiday In Express in Lake City, FL. There was not an Express, but there was a plain ol’ Holiday Inn, with a vacancy, so we reserved a night there. I wasn’t going to get my cinnamon bun, but at least we would be staying in a room on the way to Stuart, FL not 300 miles away in the wrong direction.

Started down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 384

30,000 Orange Barrels

30,000 Orange BarrelsOn last night’s trip up to the mountains to spend the night, there was construction on US441 between Clayton and Dillard, GA. We must have past 30,000 of those orange construction barrels as the Emperor past through the 30,000 mile mark.

Yesterday morning I washed the car because we had a MMC event in the early afternoon. This was our Senior Drive. One of the Club members is the Administrator of the Elmcroft Assisted Living Center in Martinez. He and I concocted a scheme in which the Club would come over and take the residents who wanted to go on a top down Miata drive instead of their usual Saturday 8-passenger van ride. We had a perfect day for it too, lower 70’s and a cloudless blue sky. We had 5 cars and 5 passengers for the first trip and when 4 more people showed up, we did a second slightly shorter trip for them. The one fellow who I drove was so appreciative that I was embarrassed by it. This is definitely an item we should do at least once a year.

When we got up this morning in the north of Georgia it was in the lower 30’s and there was a layer of frost covering the car. We wimped out for the first couple of hours of driving. The leaves didn’t cooperate in the whole picturesque, blazing fall color, Norman Rockwell painting we had hoped to see, but you take what you can get and we got extremely patchy color. We even did a 20-mile segment of the Blue Ridge Parkway in hopes, but the colorful vistas never materialized. There was one short stretch of NC 215 coming down off the parkway that in a matter of minutes we went from bare trees to patchy color to green. Never the less we had a wonderful time in our 24 hours of the mountains. We got in a night away from home, a short hike in the woods, a look at a beautiful twin waterfall and miles of twisty roads.

Started down, went up, back down, back up, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 343

Say What?

Say What?I apologize for last night’s entry. I started typing out the story when I realized I didn’t have a spell checker built in to the browser like at home. I copied what I had so far in to Word and finished the story. I then corrected the spelling and any of the suggested grammar errors. A quick copy and paste into the browser, followed by publishing.

I never did read what I posted on the web, until tonight when I got home and told my wife what I had written and she wanted to see. I called up the web page and started reading along with her, I noticed a mistake, then another and another. When I noticed the misspelling of sandwich was exactly like what it was before I corrected last night I knew something was amiss. The fact that there were several paragraphs missing on the end made me realize that when I thought I pasted the complete and edited story back in from Word, it didn’t get there because that is exactly where I was before trying to fix things. Oh, well, I guess I’ll leave it alone as a testament to my scattered thoughts.

On one of our wayward wanderings in search of food yesterday we passed right by a auto repair shop with this interesting bit of Roadside America parked outside. Today on our way to lunch I made sure I had the camera.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 337

Ollie’s

Here is a photo montage of the June 11th lunch spot in Beaufort. Clockwise from top left: The front awning, the view from the small dining deck on the left of the restaurant, the back of the restaurant from the marina and the view from the right side of the restaurant.

Ollies

Here is a PDF of Ollie’s Menu (Warning! 1/2Meg in size.)

Beaufort & Back II

Today was our second recon mission to Beaufort for our June trip with the Master’s Miata Club to the Hwy21 Drive-In. We made it a non-Miata road trip because it was Donna’s mom’s birthday yesterday. We took her along (in her car) so we could have a nice seafood dinner together when we got to the coast.

We ate at a place called Ollies on Lady Island. The food was a little high, but satisfactory and the view is really nice. You are right on the shore of the Beaufort River with the town on the other side.

After eating we drove the 10 miles further south on US21 to Hunting Island State Park. From memory the beach at the park is real nice and they have a lighthouse you can climb, but it is $4 per adult for park admission and an extra $2 for the privilege of climbing up to the top of the lighthouse, so we politely asked the fellow at the gatehouse for a brochure and how did we get back out of there. I’m thinking when we go with the Miatas we will skip the park and head downtown to wander the shops and riverfront.

I got back into town with enough daylight left to spend two more hours pressure washing more of the deck. I think the pressure washer was invented by a woman as a sneaky way to get men to clean up around the house. “It’s a powertool honey! You can use it much better than I can.”

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 141

Dahlonega to Home

245.3 Miles. We didn’t go to the start and didn’t dare try the finish, but instead went to Clarkesville to see the tour roll through. We camped out on a corner just after the sprint line and watched the remaining riders come through in a bunch. After that we just drove home. We have no desire to deal with the final day and the huge crowds in Alpharetta. Plus we always like to be home on the Sunday before returning to work so we can decompress from vacation. Total trip distance was 944.4 miles and there were 24 top transitions.

As you can see I posted a bit about each day on a post dated that day through the wonders of MT entry editing. Come back tomorrow or the next day as I’ll be posting a picture for each day too. I may even try and match them to the three photo memes I’ve been entering regularly…

Started up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 121