Year: 2019

Where’s That Confounded Blimp?

In this year’s Motoring Challenge the two big point earners, worth nine each, are the Wienermobile and a Blimp. We snagged the rolling hot dog back in February, so now we needed the blimp.

Turns out there are 3 active Goodyear Blimps, each with their own home base. The first is just where you’d expect it to be, Akron, Ohio, Home of the Goodyear Company. The other two are on opposite costs of the country, Carson, CA (AKA Los Angeles) and Pompano Beach, FL (AKA Miami.) Akron and Pompano are around 600 miles away, neither would be an attractive drive, and LA, forget about it. Our best bet would be to catch one in its travels.

Unlike the Wienermobile, there is no smart phone app to keep track of Goodyear’s 3 airships, but you can find out where they are going to be appearing right on its very own web page. And as it turns out Wing Foot 3 would be providing aerial coverage of the RBC Heritage Golf Tournament in Hilton Head Island, SC (a mere 130 miles away) on April 20 & 21.

We had a Miata Club event on Saturday, so we planned a day trip down to HHI on Sunday. Knowing they wouldn’t fly the blimp back to its home base for one night it would have to be parked at an airport overnight. But, which one? The small airport on the Island or the bigger one near Savannah, GA. A blimp would be too big to put in any old hanger, so it should be visible by driving by. We would leave early in the morning, take a picture and be back home by mid-afternoon.

Because HHI is sort of on the way to Savannah the plan was to check there first. Plus an early Sunday morning arrival on the Island would make the normally busy traffic somewhat lighter. We plugged the airport location into Google and made a bee-line there. The road leading to the terminal had several places where we could see onto the runway, but no blimp sightings. Pulled into the small parking lot out front and walked into the terminal. We could see through several of those windows onto the runway too, but no blimp. We cruised more of the roads surrounding the one runway getting a few more peeks, but never saw a blimp.

We did spot a vintage VW Beetle in a parking lot of a small business park near the airport. This fits one of the Motoring Challenges, My First Car, because Donna’s first car was a 1971 Super Beetle. After watching us park near his car in two different spots and taking pictures, the owner of the car came out and asked if we needed any help. After explaining what we were doing, I asked, “Have you seen the blimp?” He said it wasn’t at this airport, it was at Savannah International.

That airport is north and east of the city of Savannah and it is easily accessible from Hilton Head in about an hour. The longer, but only slightly quicker way is US-278 to I-95, yuck, so we took the shorter route along scenic coastal back roads that took 5 minutes longer. We circled the perimeter roads around the airport, including a dead end road that led to the Gulfstrean factory where we passed a couple of private jets having their jet engines tested. No blimp. I then circled back and drove near the terminal to see if we could get a view on that end of the airport. As I slowed at a crosswalk near the departure gates there were a couple of women in yellow vests that read SECURITY. I asked them had the seen the blimp. Both responded with, “What blimp?”

It was now nearing noon and by now we should have been heading home. CBS’s coverage of the final round of the tournament wasn’t supposed to start until 3:00 PM. I suggested we head out to I-95 and find a lunch place before starting back to Aiken. Donna countered with, we should drive back to Hilton Head and get lunch there, kill some time shopping and then hunt the blimp in the air. So we re-traced our back road route the HHI.

On our way back through Bluffton, SC we stopped into a little restaurant that we ate at about 28 years ago called Squat ‘N’ Gobble. Probably the only thing different since that last time were the waitresses. Donna had Crabby Benedict and I got a Western Omelet. We did try and eat here a few years back, but it is so popular there was a 30 minute wait (and we don’t wait.)

Our big problem in capturing the airborne blimp would be we couldn’t get close to it. The golf course they were using is in Sea Pines Plantation that takes up the whole end of the island. It is a gated community and any old Joe can’t just drive in. Normally you can buy a day pass for $5 to go to the shops and restaurants in the Harbour Town area, but not during tournament time. Even spectators with tickets had to park on the other end of the island and get bused into the plantation.

When we got back on the Island we took the Cross Island Parkway, which is a toll road that by-passes the congested US-278 to go from one side of the island to the other, because there is an elevated bridge on the end closest to plantation and we figured it would give us a nice view of the sky. It did but there wasn’t a blimp in sight. We still had an hour and a half before the TV coverage was to begin, so we parked and wandered the shops of Coligny Plaza, had some ice cream, decided to toss in the towel and head home.

We decided to drive back across the Cross Island Parkway to get another skyward peek. When I rolled to a stop to pay the toll I asked the women inside if she had seen the blimp. “I can’t see nothing in here,” came the reply. we half repeated the trip to Savannah in hopes that the blimp might come that way, but no blimps were sighted.

We will have another chance at seeing the blimp because it will be covering another golf tournament in Charlotte (about 160 miles away) the first weekend in May…

32,000 + 73,000 = 8 Day Blogging Hole

Somewhere in the last eight days on one of Donna’s trip’s to the gym the Lady Bug passed the 32,000 mile mark.

This past Sunday afternoon on the way home from the South Carolina coast the CTBNL passed through the 73,000 mile mark.

In that same time frame we have taken 8 Motoring Challenge photos worth almost 20 points, but we missed out on the big one (a separate post that will happen sooner than eight days from now.)

Hey, Where Ya Been?

I’ve been here, just one part busy, one part watching TV and one part not feeling like writing anything.

Turns out I wasn’t the savior the Red Sox needed. I watched half a game on ESPN then listened to the other half a game and they lost. I listened to a game and they won. I didn’t listen to two games and they won one and lost the other. Since the last time I posted they have played .500 ball, which if that trend continues probably won’t get them in the playoffs, but it may keep them from finishing last.

I have been re-watching some of my favorite Marvel Cinematic Universe flicks. Not because I’m anxiously awaiting the next Avengers movie, but more because everyone is talking about them. There are a ton of lists online how to watch all of them in order to prepare yourself to watch Avengers: Endgame. There are 21 movies released so far and I was surprised to realize that I had copies of more than half of them. Growing up I was a fan of both the Iron Man and Captain America comic books, so I have the movies with those guys in the titles. I was a casual Thor reader too, so I have those three flicks. The first Ant Man movies struck the right cord with me, so I got the second one too. Never knew of the Guardians of the Galaxy but the first movie was fun, so I picked up the second one as well. I haven’t re-watched it yet and I may not because if I recall correctly I didn’t like it as much as the first. But then again, I am a sucker for origin stories and so far I have liked the first movie of the hero’s series more than any of the followups.

Not just watching movies either. I went back and re-binge watched Season 1 of Killing Eve because Season 2 started last Sunday night and I wanted to remember what went on. I also re-binge watched Season 1 of Fleabag because Season 2 is coming to America soon.

Add on top of that, Donna and I spent nearly 32 hours over 4 days this past weekend sitting on the screened porch watching golf on TV. Neither one of us golfs and we don’t watch it any other time of the year, but, because we have actually trod the hallowed grounds of Augusta National, every year for the first week of April we become fans and watch The Masters. Thank heaven for masters.com where you can watch practically the whole tournament commercial free. You just need to select “featured groups” and they follow 2 groups over the whole 18 holes and when they finish you get 2 more groupings.

We also managed to sneak in a couple of short Moss Motoring Challenge trips locally. We snagged 5 on Saturday morning and 3 yesterday afternoon.

I Found The Problem With The Red Sox

A week ago I was worried that they were going to repeat the first-to-worst trip they took in 2014. That feeling continued. By Saturday they had gone from 1-3 to 2-8!

They have been playing on the west coast, so I haven’t really had an opportunity to listen to a game. Finally, today, they had an afternoon game in Arizona that we listened to while on the porch. They won the game!

Ergo, because I listened, they won. So, now, all I have to do is listen to every game for the rest of the season and they will finish with 154 wins and only 8 losses.

It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like 2014 All Over Again

In 2013 the Red Sox finished first in their division and went on to win the World Series. In 2014 they finished dead last in their division 20 games under .500.

In 2018 the Red Sox finished first in their division and went on to win the World Series. So far in 2019 they are 1 win and 3 loses and have not looked good doing it.

A Few of My Favorites…

…of the 43 lines from 45’s Grand Rapids, Michigan campaign speech yesterday that caught the attention of CNN’s Political Reporter, Chris Cillizza. link

5. “This is the one we want. We want ourselves. We want us and that’s what we got.”

8. “They did it all because they refused to accept the results of one of the greatest presidential elections, probably number one, in our history.”

12. “Then it comes to a place called Michigan. Have you ever heard of Michigan?”

26. “China and by the way we are building that wall as you — we are building that wall. Build it.”

33. “You’d be doing wind, windmills. ‘Wind’. And if it doesn’t — if it doesn’t blow you can forget about television for that night. Darling I want to watch television. I’m sorry, the wind isn’t blowing. I know a lot about wind. I know a lot about wind.”

Aiken Spring Steeplechase

Once again we had a chance to go to the event of season through the generosity of a friend and fellow Miata Club member. Three years ago he offered the use of his railside spot for the Aiken Spring Steeplechase and 4 people took advantage of it, Donna and I and Dennis & Karol. Since then and now there have been 2 other spring events plus 2 fall events and there has been anywhere from 6 to ten people enjoying this hospitality, always including the original Gang of Four. This year it was only Donna and I. The following is a cross posting of the write-up I did for the Masters Miata Club website.

Seeing as it was just going to be Donna and I attending the Steepelchase, we concocted a plan to just walk over. This would make getting out at the end of the day much quicker, there would be no car to have to drive out one of the only three exits, along with the other 10,000 vehicles at 4:15 PM after the last race.

That plan promptly fell apart on Thursday afternoon when we realized that our Little Red Academy Sports Wagon was over 50% full with just our small gas grill in it. After stacking the two small chairs on top of the grill (the other two, optimistically for guests, would be carried by the person not dragging the wagon) there wasn’t any room left over to take all the other items we needed. There was still a tray of chicken shishkabobs, a bag of hot dogs, cookies, brownies, and chip & dip, and another bag with the tablecloth, condiments, paper plates, bowls, and utensils. Don’t even think about adding the styrofoam cooler with ice and drinks on top of that.

Plan B was implemented. On race day, Brian packed up the gas grill, the 4 chairs and the bag with the tablecloth, condiments, paper plates, bowls, and utensils into the Big Red Mini Cooper Wagon and drove over right at 9:00 AM, when the gates opened. He parked the car and walked the mile home. At 11:00 AM we walked over with cooler and food in the Little Red Academy Sports Wagon. Then maybe after the 4th race they would pack everything into the Big Red Mini Cooper Wagon and drive out the gate with maybe tens of cars.

After we walked over and set everything up, we started eating. Hard not to, with the once or twice a year treat of chips and dip staring right at us. Didn’t help that the tent next door was grilling chicken on their grill. After our pre-meal we walked over towards the finish line to the rail side spot of the company (ASCO) we used to work at, to bring them some of Donna’s chocolate cookies in trade for a drink and to sample some of their bountiful spread. When we got back to spot #471, its owner Tom Varallo, was next door chatting up with the the chicken grilling crew. He talked with us a bit and said he’d probably be done working somewhere between 2 & 3:00 PM and would stop back over for a longer visit. We promised to save him some chicken and a hot dog.

The rest of this timeline and details are hazy, might be old age or it might have been the Moscow Mule I got at the ASCO spot, but two women popped into our rail side spot and asked if we knew a so and so. They were supposed to meet them at spot 471. We of course didn’t because as far as we knew we were the only ones from the Club coming, so we told them maybe they got the number wrong. They hustled off texting madly.

A minute or two later a couple showed up and said their names were Renee and Allen. They had run into this nice man called Tom and explained that they had purchased Guarantor tickets to the VIP tent but were supposed meet someone, but those folks couldn’t get in to the VIP tent. Tom, knowing it was just Donna and I at his spot, told them to meet their friends at #471. At this point in the story we said, “I think they were just here.” “Two women, one older than the other?” we asked. “Yes” We said, “They just went that way maybe you can catch them.” But they didn’t.

Sometime after the first race, two women did show up, a mother, Shirley and her daughter, Kate. The daughter is Renee’s dressage instructor and was accompanied by her boyfriend Eric. They brought with them a couple kinds of chips, a couple kinds of dip and some potent potables. We welcomed them to stay. Eric and Allen were sent across the street to their truck to get some more chairs. Then another mother/daughter team joined our group, Randy and Katelyn. At this point I’m not sure which duo was the one that showed up first. The second pair brought some chicken wings and cookies to add to the smorgasbord. After the second race, Donna and Renee walked across the street to get a cooler that had wine and cookies out of their truck (stuff the guys should have brought)

This is where Plan B dematerialized. We were having too good of a time and the weather was too nice to go home early, so Donna and I stayed with our new found friends until all 6 races were through. Everyone pitched in to cleanup and started packing up. Renee and Allen left. Randy and Katelyn drifted off. Finally then Shirley, Kate and Eric left, leaving Donna and I to wait out the thinning crowd. To kill some time waiting for the roads to clear we made a loop of the inside of the track stopping in at the ASCO tent again for a few minutes. We then tried to stop in at Donna’s Yoga teachers spot to say hello again, but they had already gone.

I guess because this was (supposedly) a Masters Miata Club event, I should mention that Chip Cunningham dropped in for a bit of a chit chat and Tom Varallo did make it back in the afternoon, not to eat though as he was still driving around on a golf cart solving event issues.