Population Less Than 100 Again

Destination - Population Less Than 100

Our first try for this “Destination” was of the sign for a place called Doodlum in Virginia that had a population of 34. The sign looked very professionally done, but it was most definitely not state issued and Doodlum wasn’t on the state map.

The second, attempt just the other day, was a sign for the town of Goodnight in Missouri that had a population of 18. The sign looked state issued, but the town itself wasn’t listed on the state’s official transportation map.

Morrison Bluff, Arkansas has the real deal state issued sign and was on the map too.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 80

Motoring Challenge Points 7, Approx Miles Driven 388
Totals So Far: 132 points & 6405 miles

Off Day

Clinton Museum, Fayetteville, AR

We got a little lost in Fayetteville looking for a way out of town after the Courthouse photo and stumbled on this unassuming house. It wasn’t open yet, so we couldn’t go in to drop off the Trump for America bumper stickers.

We did the loop to Eureka Springs in the morning and in the afternoon we washed some clothes and then visited the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. I didn’t get most of the modern stuff, but I did enjoy the visit. Afterwards we walked a bit of the attached trail system.

Tomorrow it is back on the road.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 78

Motoring Challenge Points 2, Approx Miles Driven 135
Totals So Far: 125 points & 6015 miles

157,000 Walmarts

Moss Motors Distributors - Swope Automotive, Springfield, MO

One of this year’s category of Challenges is getting 5 Moss Motors Distributors. I combed through the 273 addresses of them in the 20 states we are visiting on the trip to see if we were driving anywhere near them. The big winners were 2 cities in VA and one in MO. We took pictures of all 4 in Virginia and used 3, the other one was just a couple of garage doors and a regular front door with the three digit address.

Because we already had one in the bag from the June trip to Moss Motors, we only needed to get one of the two that were located in Springfield, Missouri. We followed our GPS and it zigged and zagged us through north Springfield’s industrial area before leading us right to the first one. We took the picture just in case for some reason we couldn’t locate number two, the one we really wanted. Swope Automotive is owned by a fellow named Tom Swope who was the 2nd place finisher in last year’s Motoring Challenge. We were kind of hoping he would be open and not off chasing Challenge points like us. We pulled in and the OPEN sign was flashing – cool. The door was locked and the little sign with hours had Closed next to Saturday and Sunday. Oh, well, at least we did get the picture we wanted.

We are spending the night in Bentonville, Arkansas which is the home of Walmart. This means there is a Walmart or Sam’s Club on every street corner in town for a total of 157,000 locations in a place with only 40,000 residents. Sometime just before crossing into Kansas from Missouri the Emperor passed the 157K mile mark.

After a week of averaging 282 miles a day we are taking a break by spending 2 nights here in Bentonville. So we don’t lose our edge, we are treating tomorrow like the cyclists do on a rest day during the Tour de France, we will go for a shorter drive. Probably drive a 100 mile loop and visit Eureka Springs.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 74

Motoring Challenge Points 7, Approx Miles Driven 280
Totals So Far: 123 points & 5880 miles

Replacements

Destination - Worlds Largest, Rocking Chair

Even though we took seven photos today towards the Motoring Challenge, we only picked up 5 points. This is because nothing is final until I mail off the CD of photos to Moss, any photo taken or posted here is subject to being replaced.

A chance read in the Missouri Travel Guide led us to the photo above of the World’s Largest Rocking Chair on Old Route 66 which is replacing (possibly for now) the World’s Largest Peanut from Georgia. The Popeye’s Picnic one below replaces the lame one we took the other day.

Sometimes the changes happen before we even finish driving for the day. Today’s state of Missouri is one such case. Right after we crossed the Mississippi River there was a nice, but typical, Welcome To The State sign, so we took the photo just to check that objective off. Later in the day as we drove the last stretch of road, which just happened to be Old Route 66, I noticed that the nice little Historic Byway signs had the state’s name in it. We both liked this idea better.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 72

Motoring Challenge Points 5, Approx Miles Driven 315
Totals So Far: 116 points & 5600 miles

Tiny Washington Monument

Tiny Washngton MonumentStarted in Kentucky in the rain, crossed the Ohio River into Indiana and the sun came out, so the top went down. It stayed down until after lunch in French Lick. It stayed up for the rest of the way to tonight’s destination, Mt. Vernon, IL.

French Lick was not at all like we pictured in our heads. We thought small town USA, but what we found was Disney-esque mixed with historic, mixed with wanting to be a real tourist destination. We ate lunch at a newish place called 33 Brick Street which is trying to play on Larry Bird’s jersey number to bring in the clientele. I don’t know how it’s doing, but judging by the lunch crowd at 12 noon today, not so good as Donna and I were the only customers in the joint and I’m betting our $13 lunch check didn’t even cover the cost of serving it to us.

When I was standing in the lobby of the hotel I noticed what looked like a small replica of the Washington Monument through the door next to I-57/64. I asked the desk clerk what the deal was with the tiny monument and she explained the Washington connection to me, we are in a town that has the same name as the plantation owned by the Father of Our Country, Mt. Vernon. Duh! She said it gets even better, the Ford dealership in town is run from a replica of that plantation home.

After dinner we drove over and took a photo and tried to sort of recreate our real Washington Monument photo from 3 days ago, I’m going to use it as one of my two Sneak Peek Bonus photos for July-Oct.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 68

Motoring Challenge Points 6, Approx Miles Driven 335
Totals So Far: 111 points & 5285 miles

Second-Largest Living Bird?…Score 156,000 Points!

Bonus 3 - One or More Farm Animals (Emus Score Three)

We had a good day today, 7 photos with a total worth of 10 points. Unlike what I implied in the title, the Bonus 3 – One or More Farm Animals (Emus Score More) photo above is only worth 3 points, but the Emperor did pass the 156,000 mile mark somewhere in Ohio. I don’t have time to tell the finding emu story, but I hopefully will soon (well I did a couple weeks later – Part 1 & Part 2.) Here are the other six pictures:

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 64

Motoring Challenge Points 10, Approx Miles Driven 350
Totals So Far: 105 points & 4950 miles

Wild Emu Chase Afresh

FallingwatersOn our way to visit the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Fallingwaters we stopped in for our second breakfast1 at a small cafe in Confluence, PA. After we finished splitting a delicious breakfast sandwich on potato bread Donna asked the woman who waited on us if she knew of any emu2 farms around.

She thought for a minute and said, “Yeah, there’s one between Somerset and Berlin.” We showed her the state map and she pointed out about where she remembers it being. We were about an hour too early for the 10:00 AM opening at Fallingwaters anyway, so we thought what the heck, it’s only 25 miles in the wrong direction. Let’s go.

We used a combination of GPS and state map to find our way to Berlin, PA via the road the woman mentioned. We saw no emus on our drive, so when we hit the main road outside Berlin I turned right towards “town” to see if we could find a shop with someone else to ask about the elusive emus. The first thing we came to was a NAPA garage which would work out perfect because the Emperor was blind in one eye.3

This garage was kind of a small shop so I wasn’t sure they could help with the headlight portion of our quest, but was hopeful on the emu front. Turned out it was the other way around. The 9006 bulb they had and it cost just nine bucks, about what Advanced Auto would have charged, but these guys installed it for me. It wasn’t for the lack of trying that the emu hunt came up empty though. One of the fellows called someone he knew and they gave him the name of the place, so he looked it up on the interwebs. He gave me the phone number, which I called and got the generic answering machine leave-a-message recording. He then called his wife who told him they sold all the emus a year or so ago and actually the farm was sold off too.

As a bonus, while we were standing around waiting on them to find the headlight bulb Donna noticed the Official Pennsylvania Inspection Station sign and thought it would make a nice proof of the State of PA for the Motoring Challenge.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 62

Motoring Challenge Points 3, Approx Miles Driven 295
Totals So Far: 95 points & 4600 miles