Eating Out

Worst BBQ Ever

We went geocaching today in Crawfordville, GA and A.H. Stephens State Park. We took along a coworker and because the Miata does not seat 3 comfortably we took her car. Crawfordville is where Hollywood comes calling when it needs to film in a quintessential small southern town. There have been about a dozen films that have used this town as a bit player in them and there are 8 caches here with names that are the titles of those movies. We looked for 4 and found 2. The two we missed I don’t count as DNFs because they were in locations that made us very nervous searching which was only heightened by the fact that we were driving a car with New Jersey plates. There were 6 caches in the state park that you can get to by land and we found 5 of them.

Probably the most recognizable movie that was filmed in town was “Sweet Home Alabama” and for lunch we decided to eat at the BBQ place that was used in the bar scenes (Stella’s Roadhouse) of the movie. We were talked into getting the Plate by the almost surly woman behind the counter at Heavy’s as it included meat, brunswick stew and coleslaw. We opted for a rib plate and a chicken plate to split between the three of us. The coleslaw was too vinegary and had way too much pickle taste. The “stew” was run through a food processor for too long as it was kind of a sickly looking brown mush. The only thing remotely edible was the meat and that was overpowered by the amount of BBQ sauce it was covered in. Interesting place to visit, but you don’t want to eat there.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 911

White Friday

No it didn’t snow here (it did rain some though.) Donna and I spent exactly zero hours waiting in line for and spent zero dollars on any door buster deals. We didn’t even leave the house until 5:30PM and that was only to go out and get a Firehouse sub for dinner and ice cream for dessert from the Marble Slab. Tomorrow we will also avoid any sort of areas of consumerism by taking to the back roads of rural Georgia hunting the wily tupperware with guile and the aid of multi-million dollar military satellites.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 905

Breakfast At Home

Not home, home, but the Home Cafe in Washington, GA. Six Miatas with 11 persons onboard made the drive to dine at the spot the locals eat at. From the Bogardus table we can recommend the hash browns and the pancakes, but the biscuit with sausage gravy was unexciting. We didn’t order any breakfast meat because we had cheated on the way to the rendezvous point in Evans, GA, we stopped for an appetizer at the Golden Arches. Sausage McMuffin for me and a breakfast burrito for Donna.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 830

Geocaching Trifecta

I have often spoken here of hitting the trifecta, but that is in reference to eating out all three meals in a single day. Today we hit the Geocaching Trifecta. We hid a cache, found a cache and we DNF’d a cache.

In other Tri news our neighbor the ultra-marathoner saw us dragging out the tandem for our caching adventure and mentioned that she had gone for bike ride yesterday and has given some consideration to maybe trying Triathlons.

This prompted Donna to say later in the day we had done our own triathlon today, we rode 14 miles on the bike, took a 1/2 mile walk checking on a cache and then taken a shower.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 580

One Hundred and Three Thousand :-)

We were gone for 12 hours, basically from dawn to dusk. A couple miles out of Aiken the Emperor passed by the 103,000 mile mark. Drove 325 miles total, probably 45 with the top down, and spent $22.50 on gas. We ate breakfast at Hardee’s, lunch at Jack’s Cosmic Dogs and dinner was chicken salad sandwiches Donna had made and we took with us. Walked around 2-1/2 miles of the West Ashley Greenway. We found 12 caches (a personal best) and DNF’d 2 (pretty much average.) Crossed off Charleston County and Pages 59, 60 & 61 from our South Carolina Challenges.

So were the hot dogs worth the trip? Yes and no. They were My-T-Fine and if I’m ever in the neighborhood again I’ll definitely stop by and try another variety, but I probably wouldn’t hop in the car drive straight there, eat a dog and drive right home.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 529

Onions Are Like Underwear…

…you gotta have ’em. Or so said a contestant on Chopped this evening.

This morning we met the MMC for breakfast in Augusta and Donna and I left a bit early with plans to do a little geocaching on the way. Well it turned out we weren’t that early and didn’t stop anywhere. There was a cache that was located right behind the shopping center where breakfast was to be, so we walked around to grab it before going inside. With the title and the hint we think we found a part of the cache, but the actual container didn’t appear to be around. Dang.

The eleven of us finished eating by 8:15 and we were then stuck, the bowling alley, our post breakfast entertainment, didn’t open until 9:00. We stood around outside the door of the restaurant chatting and watching someone in a truck in the parking lot tossing bread out of his window feeding seagulls. After the novelty of that wore off, we trooped down to Kmart (the only other place that was open in the center) and shopped for blue light specials. Tiring of this Donna and I said, “We’ll meet you there.” There was geocache right down the street. Found it, yeah!

A couple of games of bowling was quite enough (my wrist was sore by frame 5 of the second game) and most of the group were busy picking out a lunch place while Donna and I and another couple walked 2/10 of a mile to behind a restaurant to try and find a cache that was hidden there. It was sprinkling slightly and GZ was between the back of the restaurant and its dumpsters, it wasn’t the tidiest place, so we gave up looking after about 3 or 4 minutes. Darn.

After our failure the 4 of us went our separate ways. Donna and I were going home, but couldn’t agree on what we wanted for lunch, so when we drove by the place the rest of the club had picked, we pulled in. It was BBQ place, not atypical as they had other meat items and seafood on the menu, called Flyin’ Cowboy. The food was slightly better than good and I could probably eat here 2 or 3 times a year, but probably won’t because it is 25 miles away. One of our group ordered a “Manhandler” which consisted of 6oz of pulled pork piled on top of a softball sized loaded baked potato. John was up to the task and finished the whole thing, along with both his side dishes, earning himself the title of “Potatohandler.”

To recap, on today’s Miata Club event, we all drove separately to a restaurant and had breakfast. Afterward we did some shopping together followed by driving to a bowling alley separately. We bowled a couple of games together and then drove separately to another restaurant and ate lunch. Well, at least some of us actually drove Miatas…

Here is the top count from yesterday, the first nice day since it seems like Thanksgiving. Today it was cold in the morning and now hasn’t stopped raining since this morning.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 521

Hi, I’m Zeke And I’ll Be Taking Care Of You

After a pleasant afternoon geocaching we decided to eat out for dinner. Because a couple of our favorite haunts are not open on Sunday we settled for a third tier option, Chilis. They have that 2 for $20 thing going on which we had enjoyed at one in Statesboro, GA on our way back from Florida at Thanksgiving. This dining experience wasn’t as good as that one, but that is a whole ‘nother post.

While waiting for Zeke to bring our drinks, Donna spotted an application booklet on the table to join their E-mail Club. They ask for your birthday, so we figured maybe you get a free margarita or something on your special day. Trouble was we didn’t have anything to right write with, so we asked Zeke if he’d lend us a pen. We both filled one out and handed them and the pen back when Zeke brought our appetizer.

As we finished our desert Zeke asked if we wanted anything else, when we replied in the negative, he dropped off our check and disappeared. Trouble was, he didn’t leave us a pen. I eyeballed the receipt and noticed that it was that thin glossy stuff, almost like old time fax paper, and thought, I bet this is pressure sensitive. I grabbed the salad fork, which I hadn’t used, turned it backwards and test wrote the total on the *guest copy*, with the handle. It worked, it was a little light, kind of like I signed it in pencil, but fully legible.

Zeke returned a few seconds after I had finished filling out the charge slip and said, “Did I forget to leave you a pen?” “Yep,” I replied, “But not to worry, I signed it with the fork.” He was so stunned than he forgot to say thanks for dining with us or hurry back or whatever the corporate mandated server’s last line is.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 519