2015 Moss Motoring Challenge
Lakes & Rivers - Richardsons Lake:
A popular local swimming "hole" that is not very busy on the first weekend of March. (3/7/15)
Lakes & Rivers - Rainbow Falls Lake:
A popular local fishing "hole" that is not very busy on the first weekend of March. (3/7/15)
Destination - One-Lane Bridge:
Leading north out of the small nearly deserted mill town of Vaucluse, SC. (3/7/15)
Car Show - Augusta Cars & Coffee, March:
The one year anniversary of this city's variation on the Cars & Coffee Saturday automotive lovers paradise. (3/7/15)
City - Lexington, SC:
An opportunistic photo on the way back from Colombia on our first day of point gathering in 2015. We need a city for every letter of the alphabet and you have to start somewhere. The letter L is it. (1/11/15)
Destination - Asian Market:
We should have come here earlier if we wanted to got a spot right in front of the store with just our Miata in the lot. (1/11/15)
Destination - Recordstore:
There is a Starbucks to the left of this place so that even on an early Sunday morning finding a parking spot out front is all a matter of lucky timing. (1/11/15)
Destination - State Capitol Building, South Carolina:
Without risking arrest there is about one spot where you can get a good picture of the SC State Capitol building and we circled the place twice until we found it. (1/11/15)
Destination - Tow Truck:
We pass by this spot every day while on the drive to work. Easy pickings... (1/11/15)
Sneak Peek 1a:
My attempt to get 4 points with one photograph. A Thrift Store is 2 points and by happenstance there were 2 right across the street from one another. We didn't like the way either of the separate stores looked like, so we used neither for the goal. (1/11/15)
Destination - Bookstore:
This is the very essence of a used bookstore. From the titles stored in what appears to be random dusty stacks, to the little old lady who runs the place that can find any book in seconds, right down to the friendly cat who greets all who enter by walking across the tops of those stacks. (1/17/15)
Destination - Ice Cream Parlor:
I didn't notice while posing and the camera woman was more worried about composition than content, so it wasn't until we got home that we noticed that I had the challenge poster upside down. (1/17/15)
Destination - Irish Pub:
Last weekend we had a Pub without the word Irish in it and a Pub that wasn't even there anymore. This week we found a Pub with the word Irish in it, but it wasn't in business anymore. We are going to use this though as the rules never stipulated that the business had to be a thriving enterprise. (1/17/15)
Destination - Water Tower:
The Destination of the Water Tower is worth one point, like last week's Thrift Store photo with 2 of them in it, the two water towers in this image probably won't be worth double points either. (1/17/15)
City - Troy, SC:
Last year's City entry for the letter T was Troy, Alabama...so here is Troy, SC. (1/25/15)
Destination - Historic Landmark:
They claim the Civil War Ended here at the Burt-Stark house in Abbeville. What really happened was Jefferson Davis held his final war council there on May 2, 1865. So maybe. (1/25/15)
Destination - Place of Worship:
One mile down a side road, 9/10 of a mile on a dirt road and a hundred yards into the woods. If you look very carefully above my left shoulder (stage right) you can make out the Miata. If it wasn't the middle of winter there wouldn't be anyway this spot would work for the Challenge. (1/25/15)
Lakes & Rivers - Richard B Russell Lake:
We could have used this to collect two points, but seeing as we were going to be crossing the Savannah River several times we are using this for the lake.(1/25/15)
Lakes & Rivers - Savannah River:
On one of our 6 crossings of the Savannah River on today's Motoring Challenge road trip. (1/25/15)
Lakes & Rivers - Thurmond Lake:
Our favorite spot for watching unimpeded sunsets and meteor showers. (1/25/15)
Sneak Peek 1b:
We were still tossing around ideas for what we wanted to do for Place of Worship when much to our surprise we drove right by the above sign on one of our Motoring Challenge adventures.(1/25/15)
State - South Carolina:
One of the three times we entered back into the state of South Carolina on today's trip we decided to stop and get a picture. (1/25/15)
State or National or Provincial Park - Elijah Clark State Park, GA:
Right across the Savannah River/Thurmond Lake from Hickory Knob State Park in South Carolina. (1/25/15)
State or National or Provincial Park - Hickory Knob State Park, SC:
Right across the Savannah River/Thurmond Lake from Elijah State Park in Georgia. (1/25/15)
City - Bowman, SC:
While driving around the small town of Bowman looking for the UFO Welcome Center for a Sneak Peek point or something we noticed the town's water tower. The hand roller painted name and dozens of buzzards perched on it made us want to use it for the B city letter. (1/31/15)
Destination - Artistic Graffiti:
Happenstance is exactly what happened yesterday on our way home from Wassamassaw. Zipping right along, just passed over I-26 when we both noticed something bright blue off to the right. This prompted an immediate u-turn. (1/31/15)
City - Pinopolis, SC:
Looking for a Lake Moultrie sign and failing, we substituted this qaint old post office in a quaint old resort town on a small peninsula jutting into said lake. (1/31/15)
Destination - Palindrome:
Preemptive Palindrome Sign Length Champion at 11 letters - Wassamassaw. Only two others can tie it, one can beat it, but it is in Western Australia. (1/31/15)
City - Oliver, GA:
Just could not pass up this small Post Office on our way home. (5/3/15)
Lakes & Rivers - Lake Edgar Brown:
On our way to Savannah for a day trip and this Lake was just a bit off our route. (5/3/15)
Replaced Lakes & Rivers - Lake George Warren:
Who knew we had official State Lakes? This is the second of the day for us. (5/3/15)
Sneak Peek 2a:
This place was probably something special when US301 was a main north/south thoroughfare back in the day. (5/3/15)
State or National or Provincial Park - Lake Warren State Park, SC
The official State Lake is nested in the middle of a state park named for the lake. Easy two points!! Never mind, back to one point, using a different lake. (5/3/15)
Car Show - Wish Upon A Car, May:
I pulled into the show because I wanted to take a photo with the banner, but at the registration tent there was no banner, it was back outside. We donated $5 to the cause and drove back out to get the photo. (5/30/15)
Destination - Truck Stop 'Pedro Sez, Get Your Diesel Tank Topped Here' (6/5/15)
State - North Carolina:
Driving half Interstate and half back roads on the way to the Moss Motors Open House in Petersburg, VA. Took this on US301. Turned around and got VA too. (6/5/15)
Rejected State - Virginia:
Driving half Interstate and half back roads on the way to the Moss Motors Open House in Petersburg, VA. Took this on US301. Turned around and got NC too. (6/5/15)
Car Show - Moss Motorfest, June: Biggest, baddest car show I've ever been in. Because we are rolling stones Donna and I left early so as not to gather any Moss. (6/6/15)
City - Zebulon, NC: On our ay into town we stopped and took a photo of this sign because we'd never seen one like it before. Figured we might find something better, but never did. (6/6/15)
Destination - One-Room Schoolhouse: Not ten minutes earlier we were discussing which one-room schoolhouse, of those we had researched, we might want to get when we drove right by this one. (6/6/15)
Rejected Destination - Population Less Than 100 (1): Just a few miles down the road from the serendipitous one-room schoolhouse we found this. Turns out it is not a real town, so it will be a place holder for now. (6/6/15)
Destination - State Capitol Building, North Carolina: We circled the building a couple times while looking for the right picture, including a slow roll right through a red light before taking this photo. (6/7/15)
Destination - State Capitol Building, Virginia: As soon as we parked in a spot clearly marked "No Parking" and started to get out of the car we notice a gray police car with the words Capitol Police emblazoned on it approaching. They just drove on by without a glance. (6/6/15)
Lakes & Rivers - Lake Gaston: Another unexpected find. Not much of the Miata showing, just part of a wiper blade, because of the very narrow shoulder. Probably the reason for the big P with a slash through it. (6/6/15)
Moss Motors Distributors - Sports & Compacts, Raleigh, NC: Never even dawned on me to look for Moss Motors distributors on the trip until talking strategy with last year's 3rd place finisher. Rectified. (6/7/15)
Moss Motors Facilities - Petersburg, VA: The whole reason for the 3-day,thousand mile trip, THREE POINTS baby. (6/6/15)
Sneak Peek 2b: Stood on the base of a lamppost and using the camera's built in panorama function tried to capture as much of the assembled cars as I could.Got most all of them. (6/7/15)
Destination - Fireworks Display: The Valve Store was kind enough to let the employees park in our regular parking area, which just happens to be across the street from the fairgrounds where the city of Aiken has its annual fireworks display. (6/27/15)
City - Cairo, GA: This city was always on our intended route to Tallahassee, but we probably wouldn't have stopped here if it wasn't for Dublin. So what we have here is another example of a well known foreign city growing in a U.S. state. Cairo's city hall wasn't as impressive as Dublin's, but its signage was more awe inspiring. (7/3/15)
City - Dublin, GA: I thought it would nice to take the welcome to sign if it had a shamrock or a leprechaun on it, but it didn't. So Donna started calling out suggestions as we passed a building with the name of the town on it. I kept turning them down. Finally in exasperation she said, "Well how about the City Hall?" In any marriage there comes a time for compromise, in any good marriage one party will recognize that time and this was that time, so I pulled up in front of the City Hall. I'm glad I did as it was an impressive City Hall and it also started a theme for the day. (7/3/15)
City - Havana, FL: Now that the U.S. has decided to normalize relations with Cuba, we decided to visit Havana. Number three in a series of three of refugee towns transplanted to the southern states. (7/3/15)
City - Quincy, FL: Our first stop of the day on the Fourth of July was an All American City, Historic Quincy, FL. (7/4/15)
County - Washington, FL: I had already planned what I was going to take a picture of for Washington County, Florida, the courthouse. I’d eyeballed it on Google Street View, but boy was I surprised when we got to where the courthouse was supposed to be. It was gone. Oh, well, this worked out better because it also identifies the state we are in. (7/4/15)
County - Washington, GA: On the way into the county we stopped and took a photo of the standard state issued green sign. Just after we got back going again and up to speed Donna noticed a nicer county issued one. I asked if I should go back, she said we'll catch it on the road as we exit the county, so we did. (7/3/15)
Destination - Adult Playground: Wow is this 'Destination" wide open for interpretation and we've tossed around quite a few (and this image is subject to change.) This painted wall in Marianna, Florida begged to be photographed, so it will do for now. (7/4/15)
Destination - State Capitol Building, Florida: As a testament as to how much we hate Atlanta traffic, we have driven all the to here to get our 4th state capitol building even though it would have been fewer miles round trip to the Peach State’s capitol building than the one way miles to get the Sunshine State’s. This was originally scheduled to be our first stop early on Saturday morning, but figured with it being late on a holiday weekend Friday night it might be an easy get. It was, there was hardly anyone stirring around downtown Tallahassee. (7/3/15)
Replaced Destination - With A Train: In our Motoring Challenge related drives we have traveled along side dozens of railroad tracks and crossed a countless many more, but had never seen a train. Until this afternoon. (7/4/15)
Rejected Destination - World's Largest Peanut: Georgia may be called the Peach State, but in reality they are the United States third largest producer, way behind California and slightly behind South Carolina. They really should be called the Peanut State because Georgia grows over 40% of the U.S.'s total; so thus, the World's Largest Peanut resides in Ashburn, GA. (7/3/15)
Lakes & Rivers - Bank's Lake National Wildlife Refuge: In our Motoring Challenge related drives we have seen dozens of signs for lakes and crossed countless many bridges with signs stating what river we are over, but finding one where both the sign and water are visible together is rare. (7/4/15)
State - Florida: Tiring of the usual 'State Name, State Tourism Slogan, Governors Name' we tried to mix up signage for some states. Interestingly enough, while the Miata is not an Emergency Vehicle, almost every one who passed up treated it like one by moving over into the passing lane. (7/3/15)
Destination - Drive-In Theater: We drive back from Florida this way quite a bit and in the recesses of our minds we knew this was here, we just didn't expect the reminder. We were actually considering a drive-in closer to home, but this one is too good to pass up. (7/5/15)
Car Show - Augusta Cars & Coffee, August: We got there about an hour after the 8:00 AM start which meant that we ended up having to park in the hinterlands next to lowered & stock pick ups, heavily modified 370Z’s and lightly modded 9th generation Toyota Corollas.
Destination - End of Detour: We were just discussing how we were going to have to possibly do research on state DOT web sites to find this destination, when we just stumbled on it. (8/8/15)
Lakes & Rivers - Ogeechee River: When we crossed this river going south on I-95 you couldn't see both the sign & river together, but coming back north on US17 you could. (8/8/15)
Replaced Destination - Hairpin Turn (<20 mph): There is a 15MPH curve over near the Aiken Medical Centers, but we were waiting until we got in the mountains for a more scenic shot, but we stumbled on this today and couldn't resist any longer. (8/15/15)
Car Show - Mustangs, Music & More: The Mustangs in the title has a double meaning. Of course the car, but that is also the nickname for the folks who attend Midland Valley High School. The show and the more part were to help raise money to help the band with travel expenses for trip to march in a big parade - who's name I have since forgotten. (8/23/15)
County - Washington, TN: With no place to park out front capturing the letters on the courthouse and a car and a person holding a sign proved to be very difficult indeed. (9/5/15)
State - Tennessee: Wee entered the state on an epic sports car road, NC-197 that turned into TN-395 at the state line, but who knew when as there wasn't any "Welcome to" sign. (9/5/15)
Rejected County - Washington, VA: I like this picture, but it almost looks like the back of the Washington County Tennessee Courthouse from earlier in the day. (9/5/15)
Moss Motors Distributors - British Auto Restorations, Roanoke, VA: Our GPS took us around the block a couple of times before we noticed a small side street. Not a British auto in sight. (9/6/15)
Moss Motors Distributors - Gassman Motors Distributors, Waynesboro, VA:- Just like earlier in Roanoke, our GPS made us do a couple circles like a dog laying down on a rug before bringing us to the correct spot. (9/6/15)
Moss Motors Distributors - Webb Motors, Roanoke, VA: Unlike British Auto Restorations this guy looked the part of an actual distributor & purveyor of all things British motoring. (9/6/15)
County - Washington, VA: So even though the hint of white column could have come from any courthouse, this historic marker sign mentions the county of Washington in the state of Virginia. (9/5/15)
Rejected Destination - Falling Rocks:The sign says "Fallen Rocks" and it probably would have counted, we wanted one that said "Falling." (9/6/15)
Rejected Moss Motors Distributors - Union Jack Limited, Roanoke, VA: We'll keep this in our back pocket in case we get totally shut out for the rest of the year, but come on, all we get is numbers on a nondescript door. (9/6/15)
State - Virginia: Cruising along US-11 in Salem when I caught a glimpse of this interesting building. The art deco lettering sets it off. (9/6/15)
County - Washington, MD: Forget courthouses, too hard, going back to the easy side of the road style signs. (9/7/15)
Rejected Destination - Picnic: We will probably stage a real picnic for ourselves later in the year, but this seemed like a fun slant on the picnic destination requirement. (9/7/15)
State - Maryland: We've been driving around in Maryland for about five hours before we happened on this sign near Williamsport. (9/7/15)
State or National or Provincial Park - Washington Monument State Park, MD: Home of the first completed monument dedicated to the memory of George Washington in the year 1827. (9/7/15)
State - Washington DC: I know it is cliche, but it just doesn't get more DC than the Nation's Phallic Symbol. (9/7/15)
County - Washington, PA: The county seat of Washington County in Pennsylvania is a town called Washington which a big town where about three Interstate highways converge, a place we wanted to avoid. So we grabbed this sign just across the Monongahela River and headed southwest towards West Virginia. (9/8/15)
State - Pennsylvania: Stopped to get a new headlight bulb and got a Motoring Challenge point too. (9/8/15)
State - West Virginia: This is the former WV State Penitentiary in Moundsville. Now they give tours or you can play Zombie Paintball inside. (9/8/15)
Bonus 3 - Three Farm Animals (emus score more): Third times a charm when it came to finding those pesky emus. (9/9/15)
County - Washington, KY: I almost talked Donna into not using this, but boy am I glad she won out as it directly led to the emus. (9/9/15)
County - Washington, OH: We didn't get a chance to visit the Washington County Seat, Marietta, yesterday because we got behind in mileage and weather was too freakin' hot, so we settled for a green sign early this more on the way out of the county. (9/9/15)
Destination - Falling Rocks: We took a picture of a sign in Virginia that said "Watch For Fallen Rocks", but thought it might not count because the Challenge Guide says, "Falling Rocks". We are hoping this one will count even though it is missing that last 's'.(9/9/15)
Destination - State Capitol Building, Kentucky: Frankfort is the 4th least populous state capitol city in the US and at 25,500 it is actual 4k smaller than our home town of Aiken, SC. (9/9/15)
State - Kentucky: As we were entering Kentucky's capitol city we still were unsure what to do for the state. When I first saw these, I was unsure what these yellow diamond signs was trying to tell me. Then the light went on - they're a K. (9/9/15)
State - Ohio: Ohio University is located in Athens, OH and the University of Georgia is in Athens, GA. I wonder how many other big colleges are in cities called Athens? (9/9/15)
City - French Lick, IN: Because Larry Bird. (9/10/15)
City - Washington, IN: It started with the counties and then we added DC, so when this town turned out to be right on our loop for the day...why not. (9/10/15)
City - Xenia, IL: The X City is ours. This was the only alphabet letter city that we didn't get in 2014. (9/10/15)
County - Washington, IN: Built back in the 1800's they didn't think you needed to put the county name on the building. What else could a building like this be? Where else would you be? (9/10/15)
State - Indiana: Nice big ol' sign as you get off the Ohio River bridge coming from Brandenburg, KY. (9/10/15)
Car Show - 9th Annual Friends In Deed: 2 Car Shows in one day. This one cost us half the entry fee, $3 at the bake sale and $30 at the craft show. (9/12/15)
Car Show - Gearhead Ministries 5th Annual: We donated half the entry fee amount just to crash the line up for a few minutes. Then we spent twice as much just buying 3 of the shows T-shirts. (9/12/15)
City - Eureka Springs, AR: Even early on a Sunday the tourists (us included) crowded the narrow streets and pulling u-turns trying to find something interesting. We stumbled on the Post Office. (9/13/15)
City - Nixa, MO: The birthplace of David Webb who later became the oft hunted, but never captured, rogue CIA Black Ops Assassin Jason Bourne. This school is too new to have been where David Webb learned reading, writing and rithmetic. (9/12/15)
County - Washington, AR: A nice shiny modern looking county Courthouse with an empty parking lot on a Sunday morning. Cross off number 12 of 15 Washington Counties. (9/13/15)
County - Washington, IL: It had been lightly raining all morning, but by the time we got to Nashville, IL it was coming own pretty hard. I tried to stay dry under the eave of the Washington County Farm Bureau while Donna clicks the shutter in the Miata with the passenger window down. (9/11/15)
County - Washington, MO: The top had been down since we left Illinois, but as we approached Potosi it was starting to sprinkle. Right after we took this photo we put the top back up. (9/11/15)
Destination - Picnic: The rain had almost stopped by the time we got to Chester just a little early for their annual Popeye Picnic. They were setting up the carnival area as we drove through town. (9/11/15)
Destination - World's Largest Rocking Chair: A chance read in the Missouri Travel Guide led us to the town of Cuba for lunch and afterwards a little further down old Rte 66 and a visit to Fanning Route 66 Outpost and this huge rocking chair. (9/11/15)
Lakes & Rivers - Mississippi River: Just outside the town of Chester, IL is a bridge over the Mississippi River. Just out of the frame to the left is the town's Welcome Center and an 8' bronze statue of Popeye. (9/11/15)
Moss Motors Distributors - Swope Automotive, Springfield. MO: Rely hoped to shake Tom's hand to congratulate him on his 2nd place finish in last year's challenge, but the shop was closed on Saturday. Probably because he is out somewhere doing what I'm doing... (9/12/15)
State - Illinois: Searching for a little something different to represent a visit to a state we found these litter pickup ones in Illinois. (9/11/15)
State - Kansas: I hated to repeat the Route 66 sign for Kansas after having just using it for Missouri, but our quick foray into the state left little choice. (9/12/15)
State - Missouri: Seeing as we were traveling a bit of the Historic Mother Road and they thoughtfully put the state name in the sign it seems like a good proof of visit. (9/11/15)
State - Oklahoma: Our second state with literally 30 minutes of driving time in, but at least we could get a nice horsey statue to garnish the typical "Welcome to State Name Here" sign. (9/12/15)
City - Ione, AR: A sans serif font makes this look like lone, but that is a capital I. Maybe it should go the other way, small first letter and the rest capitals. Then it would look like an Apple product - iONE. (9/14/15)
City - Vandervoort, AR: Sounds like it was named after a Harry Potter character. (9/14/15)
City - Y City, AR: This town had to make the list once we noticed we were coming this way. We thought for sure we were out of luck when we got to the spot on the map where this was, but the sign was not on the way in from our direction, it was folks traveling north. (9/14/15)
Destination - Population Less Than 100: Our first try was of a sign that loked very professional, but was not state issued. And that town wasn't on the state map. The second was a state issued sign, but the town itself wasn't on the map. This place was on the map and had a real state issued sign. (9/14/15)
Lakes & Rivers - Arkansas River: Another major river that we could get a nice photo of. Makes us regret not trying harder for a photo of the Ohio River. (9/14/15)
Sneak Peek 3b: One of last year's sneak peek photos was a picture of the Paris Texas Eiffel Tower, so when we ended up driving through Paris Arkansas, I knew if they had an Eiffel Tower replica I would have to take its picture too. (9/14/15)
State - Arkansas: We spotted this sign just as we were coming into Clarksville and just knew this was what we anted to use for the state even tough we still had a day and a half left of travel in Arkansas. (9/14/15)
State - Texas: If you squint and look a little to the left of the left sign support about halfway down you might make out a brown granite marker in the shape of Texas. In last year's photo for the state of Texas these two identifiers were swapped. (9/14/15)
Rejected Destination - Population Less Than 100 (2): This sign looked state issued, but the town itself wasn’t listed on the state’s official transportation map. Plus you can barely make out the content of the sign because of the low angle of the rising sun. (9/12/15)
City - Onward, MS: It was just by chance that we stopped at the Onward Store that is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. And it wasn't until we read the literature on the outside by the door that we realized that how the teddy bear got his name happened in Mississippi. (9/15/15)
City - Stamps, AR: If any city deserves to be represented by a Post Office picture, this on is it. (9/15/15)
County - Washington, MS: Couldn't get a decent shot of the courthouse and couldn't get a county building with the state name on it, so this will have to do. I wonder what that guy's phone call was all about? (9/15/15)
Lakes & Rivers - Lake Washington, MS: With a name like Washington there was no way were going to pass up a picture of this oxbow lake near Yazoo National Wildlife Refuge. (9/15/15)
Lakes & Rivers - Red River, AR: Couldn't get a god shot from the bridge, so we drove down to the boat ramp. (9/15/15)
State - Mississippi: Drove right by the giant *Welcome To Mississippi* sign and thought we'd try for something different and this place popped up a couple miles later. (9/15/15)
City - Georgetown, MS: Name of the town and the state its in, and as a bonus,it has a gravel parking area. (9/16/15)
City - Utica, MS: Always on the lookout for a different way to represent the visit to a city, we spotted this on the way in to this small town. (9/16/15)
County - Washington, AL: Sometimes there is a bit of unfriendly banter between to photographer and the photographee. Some times it gets ugly. (9/16/15)
County - Washington, LA: Just about a month to early to get a taste of the festivities. (9/16/15)
State - Louisiana: Like Kansas and Oklahoma before it, a short visit state gets the *Welcome To* sign. (9/16/15)
State - Alabama: We had run out of unique ways to mark the states we've visited and were doubling up and unsure what we would do for Alabama when this sign presented itself. (9/17/15)
State or National or Provincial Park - Georgia Veterans Memorial State Park, GA: We've visited this park before and it is worth return visit, but we just didn't have time today. (9/17/15)
State - Georgia: The efficient (or lazy) Motoring Challenge participant could get three points for just this one sign. State, County & City. (9/19/15)
Bonus 2 - Sign With Car Year On It: On our two week driving trip there were at least three states we passed through that had fairly large county road signs that had numbers in the 2000 range, but sadly none were 2003. This sign was our fall back position. (10/17/15)
Car Show - Model T's To Olar Festival: Last year we used this town for the Letter O and wondered why there was a Model T on the town sign. When we found out, we knew we had to back for this Festival. (10/17/15)
Destination - Pumpkin Patch: We wanted an actual patch, not some pile o' pumpkins in front of a store. This, according to Google, is the only one in South Carolina. (10/24/15)
Destination - Thrift Store: The first photo we took for this year's challenge was of a two thrift store constellation and we were unhappy with it, so we tabled the photo until we found just the right one. Roughly 500 thrift stores later we decided it was time. The green alien sold it. (10/24/15)
Destination - With A Train: This is photo number two "with a train" because we wanted something great compared our first attempt, instead we got this totally mediocre shot. (10/24/15)
Destination - Your Favorite Restaurant: Their crust makes both our taste buds joyful, plus, their non-red sauce options are sublime. (10/25/15)
Car Show - 8th Annual Hook & Cook Festival, Jackson, SC: Hook for the fishing contest and cook for the BBQ cook-off. The car show attracted a small, but varied assortment entrants. (10/31/15)
City - Jackson, SC: Because of this year's Water Tower Destination we are thinking that maybe we'll use water towers for all of the cities next year. (10/31/15)
Destination - Carnival: Carnival Cruise ship, Carnival Shoes store, all were in the running for this destination, but opted for the carnival across the street from the Valve Store. (10/31/15)
City - Maggie Valley, NC: Right across the street from Ghost Town was the town of Maggie Valley’s sign, so we got all three of our points for today within 100 yards. Try not to hold the rotting pumpkins against us. (11/8/15)
City - Robbinsville, NC: We took a picture of the Robbinsville sign for the R City in last year’s Motoring Challenge too, but ended up using Rome, MS instead, so we stopped on the way into town today and took another to use this year. (11/6/15)
Destination - Ghost Town: This Ghost Town was literally a ghost town, as it was closed for the season. (11/8/15)
Destination - Hairpin Turn (<20 mph): We took a photo of a 10 MPH turn sign locally back in August, but this kind of picture is what we always had in mind for this Destination. (11/6/15)
Destination - Family Reunion: While three of us are are not much of a family, we are pretty much all of it. Donna and I never had kids, my sister and her husband have only raised some cats, while baby brother never even bothered with the marriage part at all. As for the reunion qualifier, this is just the third time we have all been in the same zip code in the past eight years. Plus, before that it was even less frequent… (11/27/15)
Car Show - Aiken Horsepower Association December Cruise-In: We missed this morning's Cars & Coffee in Augusta, but found one last Cruise-In a mile from home. (12/5/15)
City - Appleton, SC: Having been disappointed by no sign for Almeda, SC we were pleasantly surprised to find a sign for this small town of roughly the same size. (12/20/15)
City - Kline, SC: Even though this town is fairly far away from the main South Carolina "peach belt," according to my wife these are the best in the state. (12/18/15)
Destination - Ocean (Atlantic): From the 3rd floor stairs of the Admiral’s Row building on the Hilton Head Beach & Tennis Resort. (12/18/15)
Bonus 1 - Famous Work of Architecture: The definition of famous is in the eye of the beholder and Rainbow Row in Charleston, SC was being beheld by a half dozen Oriental tourists, including one standing in the middle of the street while his companions took photos.(12/24/25)
Destination - Location Filmed In A Movie: Aiken's historic The Wilcox which served as the clubhouse for the Carolina Pines Golf & Polo Club in 2007’s cinematic masterpiece "Who’s Your Caddy?" (12/24/25)
Sneak Peek 3a: A small replica of the Washington Monument in the town of Mount Vernon, IL. We tried to sort of recreate our real Washington Monument photo from 3 days ago. (9/10/15)
Destination - Coffee Shop (with friend): I posted an "Event" on the Masters Miata Club's web site on Christmas Eve and managed to lure a few folks to show up and be my friend with the offer to buy them a cup of coffee. Thanks to Larry & Rita and David for coming out on a foggy day and letting Donna & I regale you with our Motoring Challenge stories. (12/26/15)