The highlights of today are – Morning latte and a chocolate cookie, at PJ’s Coffee. Lunch of a sandwich made from leftovers of last night’s meatloaf. Buying a second Miata off Bring A Trailer. Dinner of Piggly Wiggly fried chicken. Part 2 of the Steve Martin documentary on Apple TV+.
Wait, “What?” Miata? “Yep!”
Today myself, Sally and a friend of hers walked over to Tune Up Cafe for lunch. The place is a mere 1/2 mile from Casa de Sally. Sally was the only one who ordered lunch, Darcy and I ordered off their extensive breakfast menu which is served all day. When Donna and I visited Sally in 2022 we ate there just based on its appearance on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and I have two of their coffee mugs back in Fairview. This time, as with the last visit, the food was tasty, plentiful and relatively inexpensive.
Late in the afternoon Sally and I headed into old town to wander around and get in a couples of walking and shopping. In today’s two walks and saw more blue sky than I’ve seen back home since probably Christmas.
When we visited the Pacific Northwest this year we flew into Portland instead of our usual Seattle because we wanted to check out our possible (now imminent) new city of residence in Oregon. What we did see of Portland did nothing to dissuade its quirky reputation.
We spent a couple of days in the City of Roses exploring. We were staying near the airport and one evening we took the light rail train into downtown. What amazed us were the number of homeless people that were encamped along the right of way of the tracks. Also, any highway overpass the train went under, you could see a dozen tents, or shirts stretched across the bushes. We thought there were a lot, but didn’t think it was as many as, a Portland State University report says there are, 38,000 of them. That is roughly equivalent to the entire population of our soon to ex-city of residence, Aiken!
This morning when I dropped off the CTBNL with my Fairy Godbrother1 David who is going to park it in his garage until we get an address in K-Falls to have it shipped to. When I was there he said, “You haven’t had a chance to to drive the addition to my stable, the 944 Turbo.” “Got time to go for a drive?” I said said, “Sure.” I probably would have said the same thing even if I didn’t have the time…we promptly spent the next hour or so bombing around the back roads of Aiken County. Going to miss these random drives. Somewhere towards the end of our trip I put the thirty-eighth thousandth mile on this thirty-ish year-old German engineered marvel.
Finished the second half of our trip to Granite Falls trip. It involved a quick stop at our favorite Oregon beach and 2 ferry crossings, one of which we have never been on before.
We got out of the car and walked along Cannon Beach for all of a hundred yards or so before turning right around to get back in the car. It was in the low sixties, 12 mph west winds and sprinkling lightly.
Instead of crossing the Columbia River at Astoria as we typically do, or driving practically to I-5, we opted to try a river ferry halfway between. There is a small ferry2 that runs from Westport, OR to Cathlamet, WA. We pulled into the ferry waiting line and thought, “Hey, wait a minute, we’ve been here before.” We think we were going to ride the ferry, but we just missed it and didn’t want to wait another hour, so we just got back on the road and kept driving.
The other ferry was one we have ridden several times before, and in both directions. This time we traveled east from Kingston to Edmonds. We have a newer Garmin car GPS and are finally getting used to how to search for things. To find our way to the ferry terminal, I started typing and when I finished the word Kingston in the search box, it offered the suggestions of KINGSTON, JAM and KINGSTON, WA. Why on earth would it even offer directions to Jamaica? Can’t drive there … or is there a secret tunnel under the Caribbean Sea.
Today was our shortest day on the road, we were home by 10:30 in the morning. We took just one picture, Roadside Oddity for 1 point, and that was while we were still in Hendersonville before we even started home. All told we took 23 pictures worth 31 points which brings us to 189 total. We have a possible 68 points left on the table. The big hitters are the vehicles from 1900-1909 worth 10 points, and a vehicle from 1910 -1919 is worth 7 and a rainbow is worth 4. there are four goals worth 3 points, five more worth 2 points and twenty-five goals worth just 1 point.
In the seven days we traveled 1645 miles. We filled up with gas 7 times averaging $3.12 a gallon with the lowest being $2.90 in Newport News, VA and the highest being $3.24 in Hendersonville, NC. Average MPG for the trip was nearly thirty miles to the gallon at 29.93.
Today was our longest drive with a total of over 300 miles covered. It was our longest in total time also because the last third of it was on the Blue Ridge Parkway where the top speed is only 45 MPH. The first third was a straight shot down I-81. The middle 1/3 was spent on lovely rural, and mostly empty, two lane VA & NC roads.
Three points in the Motoring Challenge today, 1 for Switzerland, 1 for Blue Ridge Mountains and 1 more for the tallest mountain east of the Mississippi, Mount Mitchell.
Oh, yeah, today was our 41st wedding aniversary, so we had a special dinner of microwavable chimichangas and hot pockets in the hotel room.
This picture was taken on US-15 outside Dillwyn, VA. In the 2014 Moss Motoring Challenge this would have been worth 2 points for Bonus #2, it wouldn’t have been worth 3 points in 2015 or 2016 as a Moss Motors Facility (there are only two official ones) and this year it might be worth one point only if I call it a “Roadside Oddity.” Not long before we took this photo the CTBNL crossed the 57,000 mile mark.
The only real points today were 1 for Stonewall Jackson in the Heroes and Villains category and 2 points for 8% (or greater) grade in the Destinations category.
