Miata Life

Half Dozen More

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Today was Sunday, so that means Post Offices. My first stop was to get the Hillsboro DCU, because for some reason 3 weeks ago when I got the regular Hillsboro PO photo, I didn’t take this one. I think I remember circling the block looking for it and giving up.

From there my thoughts were to get the two Newberg POs and maybe Dundee, just a little south of Newberg, to make it an even four. But when I got to Dundee I realized I could two more, Dayton and McMinnville, for a little over 20 extra miles. On my way into McMinnville, I saw a 747 on the right side of the road with the words EVERGREEN in green on the side and just past it was a building that had a 747 on its roof. My curiosity was satisfied a second later when I saw sign that read, “Aviation Museum Next Right.” I pulled in.

The place seemed deserted, so I pulled over by a static MIG-29 and looked up their web page. The museum was about to open up in a few minutes and now there was a steady trickle of cars coming in the driveway. I decided, that I’d come back another day and spend a few hours here. When I arrived home, I looked a little more closely at their website and found out that the museum is the home of Howard Hughes’ folly, the Spruce Goose. If you look in the glass walled hanger behind the Miata in the photo above, it was right there!

As I was mulling about the Spruce Goose while heading home, I’d swear I’ve had a conversation with someone recently about that plane being in my neck of the woods. It thought it might have been Santa Fe Sally, but during our evening chat today, she swore it wasn’t her. So, who?

And as further proof of my diminishing recall, on my way back towards I-5, I passed right by a Post Office I didn’t see on my to-do list. So I circled the block and got out and took a photo. It wasn’t until I got back home that I realized I did have a photo of it already, it was taken on that same photo trip 3 weeks ago.

Mojo

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Way back in the early 90’s Donna and I added mountain biking to our cycling CV and we both bought a Bridgestone MB-4. As you can tell if you’ve hung around here long enough, you know I like the modify things I own to express my me-ness. The first things I did to the bike is I threw a bright pink seat and matching handlebar tape on it. I also glued a little blue and pink gecko to my top tube in what was referred to as a Mojo in the mountain biking community.

A decade or so later I added a Mojo to Miata #3, that we named The Emperor because compared to the high mileage Miata #2 we traded in on it, this car was Regal. It was the LS or top of the Miata lineup and came with leather seats and a cloth top. The maroon-ish color with tan interior added to its high class feel as well. I bought a little Hasbro Emperor Palpatine figure and double stick taped it to the car’s dash.

Fast forward 2-1/2 decades later and now I own Miata #6 that has earned the nickname Bucky for two reasons which you can read about it here. The other day in Klamath Falls I wanted to wash the road gunk off Miata #5, so I went over to the local Dollar Tree looking for some small towels to use at the hand car wash. I found a couple of “Microfiber” ones for a dollar (and a quarter) each. Whenever I’m in one of these stores I always check out the miniature action figures to see if they have anything cool.

Surprisingly, they still had a bunch of The Incredible figures on the hooks because I bought a set of all 5 characters way back 5 years ago when we lived in K-Falls. I found a DC Comics figure of Black Adam that I opted to buy for Bucky’s Mojo. When I got back home, I shrunk down the logo for that gas station place and glued it to Black Adam’s chest. Tomorrow I’ll stick Buc-ee Man on the dash.

Pull Caffé Run

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My second Run with the Mt Hood Miata Club took me into the wilds of southern Washington with a dozen or so Miatas and one Fiat 124 Spider (AKA: Fiata.) What they call a Run is what we called a Rally back in the Masters Miata Club realm.

We met in a Home Depot parking lot in Vancouver, WA and if you’ve ever been in a Home Depot parking lot on a Saturday morning you would know just how out of place our little roadsters were. Our destination today was a small specialty coffee roaster in the wilds of Clark County. Pull Caffé’s address is listed as in the town of Yacolt, but I didn’t see anything resembling a town. On a side note, Yacolt is derived from the Klickitat word “Yahkohtl,” meaning “haunted place” or “place of (evil) spirits”, so good thing it was daytime.

Pull Caffé’s opening time on Saturday is noon, but we had arranged to arrive at 11 so we could get the nickel tour before the hoi polloi. Very interesting place, they started out as a woodfired coffee roaster but branch into making woodfired pizza and in a brick oven and then added baking sourdough bread in there too. The coffee roaster they use is literally the oldest one on the planet. When the owner found the German made roaster for sale in Bulgaria he was told it was used in the 30’s. When he got it installed he discovered it might have been used then, but it was built in the 1800s!

Another reason to be there early was because the first Saturday of the month is the only time they sell the bread and it draws a crowd from around the area. I snagged a loaf and I’ve got two thirds of it in the freezer because it is going to take a while for me to devour something the size of my head.

After leaving the coffee and pizza and bread makers behind we headed back south for lunch at the Prairie Tavern with a stop at the scenic Lucia Falls for a leg stretch.

Morning Walk

This morning’s sunrise appeared like normal, but after breakfast and I stepped outside to go for a walk, the unusual higher temps turned that into a lot of low level fog. By the time I finished my 2 mile trek around Salish Ponds the fog was gone. And the sun sort of came out, there was scattered blue to be seen. After making a coffee I hopped into a Miata and went for a short drive east of here where the roads have more curves.

After lunch I went back out and gave both the boys a bath, even though the rains returns tomorrow and will probably reverse the cleanliness in short order.

The Fifth Car

It is Sunday and its sunny, what should I do? You know full well what I did, don’t you? That’s right, I took some Oregon Post Office pictures. Today Bucky became the fifth car to have its picture taken with a Post Office in the background and the third different Miata. The first 31 photos were with the CTBNL and the next 11 were with the Ladybug, our previous red Mini Cooper. The CTBNL had 3 more photos with Post Offices before turning over the duties to our second Mini known simply as Mini Two for the next 15 post office photos. The fourth car to join the Post Office Picture Team was the brand new 2024 Aero Gray Miata GT which appeared in the next 15 pictures.

On the way back after a trip to visit family in Granite Falls using Mini Two, I snagged 4 quick post offices before the New Miata took back over for the next 14. The same car also did the next 48 in a row, but it was no longer gray, but a bright blue. There was one photo outlier of Mini Two followed by 7 with the New (blue) Miata. While getting some service done on the Mini Two last week it had its photo taken with 2 nearby Post Offices and quite likely its last ones.

Today the fifth car, New Old Miata, AKA Bucky, joined the ranks of Oregon Post Office posers:

And actually, I considered taking a photo of the second of the above Post Offices Friday morning with a Silver Nissan Sentra I had rented to drive down to Eugene to pick up the fifth car, but opted not.

Just When I Thought That I Was Out, They Pull Me Back In… Once Again

This is the third time I have used this title, or a variation of it, the first time was in January 2006 and the second time was in January 2016. Both of those posts pertained to Gillian Anderson, this does not. Come back next January for the next Gillian Anderson installment, I’m sure she’ll be starring in something or other then.

This is about Miata Clubs. Back in October of last year I looked up the local Miata Club and either they had nothing going on or I just got a weird feeling, so I forgot about them. Well, last night I thought I’d see if they an event or something coming up in the near future. They did, the near future was a mere 12 hours away, there was a drive and eat thing for tomorrow morning, AKA today.

My people. This club is probably about 7 or 8 times the size of the Masters Miata Club, this day’s group was small for them but would be a big turn out back there in the CSRA. There were a total of ten cars and about 15 people. There were 5 NDs, 3 NCs, 1 Fiata and one non Miata. I even spotted a lot of similarities between the two clubs, there is one guy who pops the hood as soon as he parks (Jim Creer), there was another who drove to the event on the chilly misty morning with the top down (Rudy Wilmoth) and another who showed up in their Corvette (Tom Varallo.)

It was a fun day, but I don’t know how many events I’ll do with them…

In reference to my remark yesterday about having to join Facebook to get any club information, I was wrong, there have a website with their own URL…

Jaunty Angle

I’ve tried a couple of times to get that front license place to be parallel to the road surface, but something keeps shifting it. Not sure if it is the post into the tow hook threads or the screw that holds the plate support to the post. I’ve tightened both separately and together, but invariably it ends up non-parallel.

My need of order is screaming at me, “Get that thing right!” while the newly created laidback vibe is saying, “Chill dude, it’s fine.” Or perhaps it’ll be some enterprising young rookie on the traffic beat telling me, “According to Motor Vehicle Code 237.4, sub section ii, the license plate must be set at exactly 0° or 90° to the angle of front wheel camber.”