Year: 2016

County, Parish or District

15 County LoopThis year’s Moss Motoring Challenge has the same requirement of just 15 counties as last year and while there are still three other county names (Jackson, Franklin & Jefferson) out there that occur in around 25 states. Donna will have none of that foolishness this time around.

So I’ve cooked up a different bit of craziness for this year’s 15. Last year my reason for doing 15 with the same name, forcing us into a convoluted huge loop, was because we live in a fairly county rich environment and I wondered where the challenge was. I claimed that we could get 15 counties in day trip from home. Well by golly, that is just what we are going to attempt.

There are 6 in South Carolina (Aiken, Saluda, Edgefield, McCormick, Allendale & Barnwell) and 9 in Georgia (Lincoln, Wilkes, McDuffie, Columbia, Richmond, Jefferson, Burke, Jenkins & Screven) that can be run in a loop. We will cross the Savannah River twice, once on US378 and back on US301 and if we drive from county seat to county seat it will be around 370 miles according to Google maps. That mileage should take us 7.5 hours baseline. If we average 10 minutes per photo stop that adds another 2.5 hours. Now we are up to 10 hours and doesn’t include bathroom, gas or eating stops.

I’m hoping we can knock off at least 70 miles or so off that total by dropping the county seat thing and cutting some corners. Either way we will have to do this near the summer solstice to maximize our daylight hours.

We’re Number 5!

We’ve actually known the results for a week or two now, they were published on the new page for this year’ Challenge. I was kind of waiting to see if I’d get some sort of official email like in previous years, but it doesn’t seem forth coming, so here they are.

…Technically Scott and Nancy are third place winners, but since only one grand prize can be awarded to a Challenger, they received the larger of the two prizes. A standing ovation to everyone listed here!!!

1. Charlie Walter – 203 points – Miata 1999-2005 ($1000 Moss gift certificate!)
2. Richard and Susan St Clair – 191 points – Miata 1999-2005 ($500 Moss gift certificate!)
3. Scott and Nancy Gilbert points – 183 – 1952 MG-TD VINTAGE VICTOR – Top score pre-1960! ($500 Moss gift certificate!)
4. Kenneth and Denise Mohlman – 178 points – 1959 Austin-Healey Sprite ($250 Moss gift certificate!)

$50 Moss gift certificates will be received by those listed below…

5. Brian Bogardus – 172 – Miata 1999-2005
6. Michael McDermott – 170 – Miata 1999-2005
7. Greg Foster – 157 – Miata 2006-2015
8. Robin Camblin – 153 – MGA
9. PJ Lenihan – 153 – MGB
10. Paul Rolig – 151 – Miata 1999-2005

After 2014’s contest where we scored 128 points, I set a goal of 150 points hoping that would get us in the top ten. Well, as you can see from above it would have been real close, but not enough. But we out did that goal by a big margin and jumped from 20th to 5th place overall.

Our entry sheet had a total point tally of 169, so we must have been awarded 3 bonus points for intangibles somewhere, but even with that we still fell seven points from finishing in the “big” money at the top. The only real holes in our entry blank were states, we needed more states in spite of visiting 22 of them things.

This year who knows how well we will do, but we will definitely have some fun doing it.

Moss Motoring Challenge Ideas

Last year while driving around hunting for the 2015 Challenges Donna and I tried to come up with ideas for the 2016 contest that we could submit to the organizer(s). Here is the list we compiled that used to be displayed over on the left:

  1. Tattoo Parlor = 1pt
    • Tattoo Parlor w/ Fresh Tat = 2pt
    • Tattoo Parlor w/ Moss Logo Tat = 5pt
  2. Food Bank = 1pt
    • Food Bank,Dropping Off Donation = 2pt
  3. Identifiable Roadkill = 2pt
  4. Military Hardware Display = 1pt
  5. Harley-Davidson Dealer = 1pt
    • Harley-Davidson Dealer & Wearing their T-shirt = 2pt
  6. Photogenic Bridge = 1pt
  7. In a Cemetery/Graveyard = 1pt
  8. College Football Stadium = 1pt
  9. Large Outdoor Mural = 1pt

By the time I sent in the list, it was too late, next year’s flyers/entry forms were all ready being printed/produced. How did we do as prognosticators? Not bad actually.

We had three direct hits, Tattoo Parlor, Military Hardware Display & Cemetery.

And three near misses, Harley-Davidson Dealer came in as Biker “Gang”, Photogenic Bridge became Drawbridge (raised) and College Football Stadium turned into University Campus.

Food Bank and Large Outdoor Mural have real merit and might have made next year’s list, but Roadkill not so much.

$500 Car Wash

The Purple Whale just got back from his 60k service appointment and before they give you car back as a “free” perk they wash and vacuum it.

We dropped off the car yesterday, so this morning I called the Service Adviser to see how how much this was going to set me back I was told it would be $491. When we showed up to get the car back he told me the total was $527 which I figured was the price + tax. We I got home and looked at the back page of the sheet he gave me there were itemized costs for labor, parts, misc and tax with a total of $580.33. Right underneath that he had hand written in -$53.08 bringing the total to the paid $527.29. WTF? The math isn’t even right! The original $491 plus the 7% sales tax should have totaled $525.37.

The recommended service is to inspect a zillion things, the major items are changing several filters and draining, flushing and replacing the big three fluids (oil, coolant & transmission.) Where did the $580 come from, hard to tell, because the inspections aren’t itemized so all the cost is lumped in the blocks for the 3 fluid changes.

While he was in the shop he also had a couple recalls taken care of. One was some sort of brake pedal stopper which might cause the car to not start needed to be replaced. The second was inspection for engine block noise which might indicate possible main bearing failure. Some engines apparently didn’t get all the chips flushed out during manufacturing. The Purple Whale was fine on that count.

A couple of other observations:
1) They noticed a clunk when turning and replaced a steering coupling under warranty. I have been hearing something like that when backing out of the driveway when transiting off the little curb there, but thought nothing of it. In the write up section for this it says, “Replaced steering coupler per TSB 14-ST-002. One time good will for customer satisfaction.” So they changed something per a Technical Service Bulletin and it is goodwill?
2) In another shining example of car dealer math, Hyundai recommends changing the oil every 7,500 miles and in a little note towards the end of my service print out it says “next oil lube service due @ 63,258 miles, or about 3,746 miles more than the car has now.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 141

Cool Vehicles From All Around the World

The title of tonight’s post is a section on this year’s Motoring Challenge. There are ten blanks with the first 6 worth a point each and while 7 & 8 are worth two points, car number 9 is worth three and #10 will be worth four points. It is sub-titled Your car alongside sweet rides from 10 other countries and wins Brian’s prize for the most open for interpretation ever.

Do you need to find cars from ten other countries? Are there even ten countries that make cars?

What country is a car from? Is our Sonata Korean because that is where Hyundai is based or is it American because it was built in Alabama.

And just what does other mean anyway? A country other than the one I’m in? A country other than the country of the car’s origin?

Lastly, who decides what’s cool? If it was up to the folks on Jalopnik I would need to find 10 German or Swedish station wagons preferably brown with manual transmissions…

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 138

Immobile Draw Bridge

A raised Drawbridge is worth a big 4 points in this year’s Motoring Challenge and that was today’s big destination. I found a list of our state’s movable bridges on the SC Highway Information pages. There are ten and only 4 are drawbridges. The one that seemed the most promising was the Wappoo Creek Bridge on SC-171 near Charleston. We have crossed over this bridge several times before, including doing the 2014 Challenge when we went to Folly Beach to get a picture of a pier. According to the page it opens on the hour and the half hour between 9:00 AM & 7:00 PM on the weekends. As a bonus there is a seafood restaurant on one side of the bridge that would make a perfect lunch spot.

There is a boat ramp on the West Ashley side of the creek that offered up a perfect spot to get a photo of the bridge in action. We parked, got out to stretch our legs a bit and then just chilled for a while. Eleven-thirty came and went and the bridge didn’t go up. What the heck? Then the landlubbers that we are, it dawned on us, those opening times are for boats and then only if there is one waiting. SC-171 is a very busy road, especially on a weekend, even on a winter day, so why would they grind traffic to a halt every 30 minutes if they didn’t need to. Doh! This is going to take a bit more planning.

Still, the day was very productive, 8 photos worth a total of 13 points:

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 137

Motoring Challenge Points 13, Approx Miles Driven 310
Totals So Far: 29 points & 440 miles

Happy Curmudgeon Day

For the past however long1 we have worked at the Valve Store ™ we have had 9 holidays off. They were New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, the Friday after, Christmas Eve & Christmas Day.

Depending on what day Christmas & it’s Eve fell on it was mostly always turned into a 4 day weekend with the exceptions being if Christmas fell on a Wednesday or Thursday. A large group of employees would combine this with the New Year’s Day holiday and most of their 2 or 3 weeks of vacation disappear from the middle of December and not return until January 2nd.

I say we had 9 holidays, because the company decided that starting this year they were replacing Christmas Eve with a Floating Holiday of the employee’s choosing. This floater had to be scheduled like a vacation day by filling out a vacation request, but noting that it was your Floating Holiday. But it would have to used like a holiday in that you couldn’t take it in 2 half days and it was not allowed to be carried over.

Around lunch time yesterday Donna decided that maybe it would be nice to turn this into a 4 day work week by taking today off. We decided instead of wasting a vacation day we would go ahead and burn that floater. So I hearkened back to my bicycle club newsletter days and went looking for a esoteric holiday to celebrate. Found several and opted for Curmudgeon Day. So I put on the vacation request handed in to our supervisors, January 29th, Curmudgeon Day (in honor of William Claude Dukenfield’s birthday.)

When my acting supervisor asked me who William Claude Dunkenfield was I told him it was W.C. Fields. Ever the smart-ass he said, “Oh, I know him, he makes the cookies.” Not to be out smart-assed, I replied, “No, that’s his wife.”

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 136

1. cough, cough twenty-seven years, cough, cough