Vacation

Michabelle Inn

Normally when we take a vacation and are driving, we are typically spending each night in a different hotel, but this time we were spending the bulk of away time in the same spot, a B & B called the Michabelle Inn in Hammond, Louisiana.

Hammond was our destination because Donna’s 2nd mom was going to be celebrating her 90th birthday and that is where she is living after being exiled there by the Wicked Witch of the Gulf, Katrina. We would also get to spend some time with Adele’s daughter Sally who has been friends with Donna since they were like 9-years old. Also we’d get to see these “little” tykes who at one-time used to be sort of our god children, Claire & Stuart, Sally’s offspring.

The Inn, as well as being a really nice place to stay and costing slightly less than the Holiday Inn Express, it is within easy walking distance (less than 1/4 mile) to Adele’s house, AKA Party Central. Because we weren’t going to be up at Oh Dark-Thirty for a dawn departure as usual we would actually be able to take advantage of the breakfast part of the B & B, normally by the 8:00 AM breakfast start time we are 50 miles away from whatever table it would be served on. All four mornings we were there we woke at 7:00 AM (or our normal work start time), made coffee and tea in the Keurig machine in the hall and sat on the 2nd floor balcony until it was time to eat.

The only real negative about staying in this place for me was the crappy WiFi. I couldn’t get a decent signal in the room, on the balcony, in the hall or downstairs in the parlor, which is why I wasn’t writing about this while there. I’d give it 4-1/2 stars out of 5 and if we are ever near there again at a logical overnight stop we’ll probably stay there again.

Visibility 66,000 Inches



Two weeks ago I changed the oil and rotated the tires on the CTBNL because we were getting ready to take a weeks vacation and drive to Louisiana. After studying the future weather in Hammond all week with figures crossed, on Friday night we gave up hope and started to pack like we had 3 times the storage space of a Miata, because we did. The forecast said anywhere from 100% to a low of 60% chance of rain/thunderstorms for the entire four days we’d be there and for the drive both there and back. We’d take the Sonata.

We still were going to take the back roads as both Donna and I abhor the Interstates. We simply enter home as the start and add our the destination into Google maps while selecting the Avoid Highways option. We then made a couple of slight shifts in the route to accommodate our choice of an overnight stay and a small bit of nostalgia. 673 miles/12 hours 56 minutes There was of course a few more minor shifts (and one major) in the route on the fly as usually happens when we get going.

The minor shifts mostly involve wandering around looking for suitable lunch places. Because the route and timing may fluctuate it is nearly impossible research every little town and every little eatery on the internet beforehand, so we are usually end up relying on our Garmin GPS. And while I try to keep the maps updated (and I did just before the trip) its database of places to eat is not that comprehensive, so we’ll roll up on what is supposed to be a chosen lunch spot and it will be out of business, only serves dinner or there are no cars in the parking lot. So we try again. If that fails we will try and find a local and ask, “Where is a good place for lunch.” This works well, if you can find someone knowledgeable, but you might be surprised at how many people say, “I don’t know, I just work here. I live in another town.”

The major one happened because we were using the map of Alabama that we used 2 years ago for the Motoring Challenge Loop and it had a nice highlighted route on it. On that trip our last stop over was in Evergreen at a Sleep Inn & Suites, somehow we got that in our heads that that was where were going, except we were staying at a Holiday Inn Express this time. As we got closer and closer to Evergreen the GPS was kept telling us to veer north. Finally Donna pulled out the reservation email and noticed that the HIE was up the road northwest 35 miles. If you leave the GPS in the Avoid Highways mode and select Shortest Distance under navigation, the route turns very zig-zaggy and adventuresome just to save possibly a few feet.

Visibility along the Gulf Coast last Friday was a little more than a mile in spots (or 66,000 inches) and along there somewhere the Purple Whale passed the 66,000 mile mark.

Seattle Souvenir

(c)Tom Schelfaut 2016

©Tom Schelfaut 2016

Donna’s brother Scott gave me the above little trinket while we were visiting with them last weekend. It is something that the place he work at makes. It came as one big flat piece that needed to be bent in two places to form the business card card holder you see. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it as I don’t really give out business cards on a regular basis, I thought, ‘What the heck, I’ll give it to somebody who could use it.

From: Bogardus, Brian [INDAUTO/ASCONUM/USAK]
Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2016 7:29 AM
To: Fab Guys – Carlos; Keith; Rob; Ian; Tom
Subject: Seattle Souvenir

All,

I have a souvenir from Seattle, that trust me, will make you the envy of anyone who sees it, but because of the expense, I only have 1. So, I have written a number between 1 & 50 inclusive on a sticky note and placed it in a hermetically sealed mayonnaise jar on Funk and Wagnalls’ porch since noon yesterday. Reply to this email before noon today with your guess and the person closest to that number will win. In case of a tie, a coin flip will be used to pick the winner, the runner up will receive a somewhat less impressive item, but still be more than anyone else has.

Brian

After I had gathered all 5 co-workers guesses, the winner was obvious and I sent this out:

From: Bogardus, Brian [INDAUTO/ASCONUM/USAK]
Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2016 11:25 AM
To: Fab Guys – Carlos; Keith; Rob; Ian; Tom
Subject: We Have A Winner

All,

No one got the number exactly and there were no ties, so there is only one winner – Tom Schelfault!

Tom guessed 30 and the actual number was:
image002
Be sure and stop by Tom’s cubical to see his fabulous prize. And if those of you who didn’t win the grand prize would like I have enough of the runner-up prizes to go around – sticks of spearmint gum bought at the Seattle airport.

As an interesting note (at least to me it was) here are the guesses in the order in which they were received.
Carlos – 2
Keith – 5
Ian – 17
Rob – 22
Tom – 30
Those numbers correspond to the first 5 numbers in the Bernolli Sequence exactly. Take a guess what the next number would be…

Brian

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 171

4 Hours & 54 Minutes

Sunset at SeaTacIt takes 4 hours and 54 minutes to fly from Seattle to Atlanta, then you add the 3 hours clock time and you end up with a whopper of a trip back. Although we have had a blast out west, it is time to get back home.

No pictures from yesterday as it was filled with nothing but NW Washington weather, AKA liquid sunshine, so we spent most of the day indoors. There was breakfast followed by a snack, which was immediately followed by a big ol’ family style meal with the 5 Morrisons (Scott, Donna’s brother, Beth his wife and the kids James, Madilyn & Susan) who we were staying with, 3 other Morrisons (Donna’s brother Jim, his wife Linda and their daughter Jennifer) from California, a family of three that centered around Beth’s sister (Meghan, her husband Tyler and their son Eli) and last but not least, Beth’s parents Les & Joanie. Dessert was a birthday brownie for the newly 4-year old Susan. An afternoon of building Legos with the grand finale of going to bed early.

Today the 8 Morrisons along with Donna and I rode a couple of Washington State Ferries including the one from Winslow (Bainbridge Island) into downtown Seattle with fabulous views of the skyline. I didn’t take any pictures because I’ve become jaded, this has been our tradition to take this ferry on the way to the airport the last bunch of times while out here. See photos here and here from a couple of previous visits.

Let’s Go To The Races

[photonav url=’https://www.mr-miata.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Evergreen-Raceway.jpg’]

We went geocaching with the kids (and their parents) this morning and in the evening we went to the Evergreen Speedway to watch the Western Washington Racing Association put on their monthly Friday night racing extravaganza. It is short track madness that couldn’t be explained here if I tried and it was free!

Granite Falls

The View From Our Second Floor Balcony

The View From Our Tolovana Inn Second Floor Balcony in Cannon Beach

After a somewhat noisy night in the Tolovana Inn, we awoke to partly cloudy skies instead of the rain that we thought we’d get. A few minutes later it poured for about 5 minutes then stopped.

Because it was low tide this morning when we walked down to Haystack Rock, we could walk right up to it. On the way back to the hotel we stopped in to a local place, Sea Level Bakery + Coffee for a light breakfast.

We got sprinkled on during the short walk back to the hotel, that and the earlier shower were a harbinger of the day to come. The whole drive from Cannon Beach to Granite Falls it rained, sprinkled or was sunny for brief and alternating periods.

One for Tuesday

Mt Shasta

A lot of driving today and not much sightseeing. Not that we needed it as driving on the back roads of northern California is a treat in itself. I took exactly two photos today and both were of the same thing, Mt. Shasta. The first was from about 80 miles away when it first became visible to us along CA-89 and the second (above) from about 5 miles away.