Miata Mileage

69,000 Yellow Leaves

The below is a shameful massaging of an email I sent to a friend last night, about our weekend trip to the world famous Tail of the Dragon and its 318 turns in 11 miles.

We had 5 Miatas from the Masters Miata Club scheduled for the weekend trip. One of our Miata club members is also a member of a local Corvette Club and he invited some of his fellow ‘Vette guys to join. We had two who wanted to come, but neither was going to drive their Corvette. One was going to drive a Miata and the other was going to drive a Porsche. At the last minute, the Miata driver backed out, leaving just the mystery Porsche driver to meet us in Elberton, GA on Friday. Trust me, it was fairly easy to spot his Lava Orange 911 GT3 RS in the McDonald’s lot. 🙂

Our Porsche guest was a great sport about just loafing around with us slow poke Miatas and rode mid pack on the trip up. He had been as far up into North Carolina as Highlands, but had never driven into these western parts, so he was just happy to be with us and soak up our knowledge of the area.

After driving the 200 miles to get Robbinsville, no one wanted to drive the 50 extra miles total to do a Dragon run, except for our Porsche driver and me. So instead of the two of us driving, I asked if I could ride along with him. “Sure,” he said. While the cost of the Porsche was roughly equivalent to the cost of all of our 5 Miatas put together, he promptly justified the high cost of the car to me by demonstrating how it would feel to do the trip in a low flying Blue Angels jet.

And let me tell you, this car gets some respect on the road. On the way up to the start of the Gap going up US129, we came across a tight 3 pack of cars, traveling 60 MPH or so, going the same way. The stock looking Civic SI in the back surrendered first, approximately 1/4 mile after we came right up on his rear. The middle car, an older model GTR, withstood about two miles of him having this orange beast filling his mirror before he hit his flashers and slowed on a short stretch of straight. The lead car, a late model Mustang that looked a bit modified, hung on leading for about the next three miles (he was doing pretty good), but after we past a small tangle of cars turning into the Tapoco Lodge he finally gave in on the first wide spot after the sharp uphill turn past the dam. He quickly disappeared in our mirror.

For a minute I was afraid this trip would make the same drive in a Miata feel pedestrian, but on Saturday morning on our early morning trip through the gap and back, it actually was the opposite, the Miata felt almost more fun, for a lot less work, so I probably won’t be cashing in my 401k to buy my own GT3 RS.

Somewhere around the lovely town of Cross Anchor, SC on the way home today the CTBNL reached the 69,000 mile mark.

68,000 Sharp Edges

It is time, well actually past time, to replace our backyard garden shed. I have spray painted the doors with rustoleum a couple times and we have garden decorations on the side to disguise its decrepit appearance. It was here when we moved in 30 years ago, so it is at least that old and although I doubt the shed is as old as the house (63) it has got to be close. The previous owner left us a folder of stuff about the appliances, etc and in it was the brochure for the shed. It is a 10′ x 9′ Sears Lawn Building Model No. 696.60157 and the line drawing on the front cover is right out of the Mad Men era, very mid-century.

We ordered our Arrow 10′ x 8′ replacement from Home Depot. Went with the Ship-to-Store option because that was free instead of the $55 to have it dropped at the end of our driveway. I always say, “A Miata is as good as a pick-up truck on a sunny day.”, but in this case it just wouldn’t do the trick. The box it came in was 3′ x 7′ x 0.5′ and weighed 150 pounds. This time we needed an actual truck (thanks Doug.) Donna and I started to assemble it this afternoon and managed to get some of the bones together in the 2 hours we worked at it until I cut my finger on one of the 68,000 sharp edges and decided it was time to call it a day.

Somewhere around St Matthews, South Carolina on the way home from beautiful Rockingham, North Carolina the CTBNL passed the 68,000 mile mark.

Putting 67,000 Items in Moving Boxes

When we left Robbinsville this morning, instead of heading due south, we headed the other way towards the Gap. When we got to the Gap start point, instead of running through it, we just hung a hard left and turned onto NC28 south to enjoy that very windy road. For the first couple of miles it is as twisty as the Gap, but then the curves straighten out slightly to create a very entertaining drive along the north shore of the Cheoah Lake. NC28 to east on US74, a brief stint on the Blue Ridge Parkway, US276 and then US64 into Hendersonville.

We are headed home tomorrow after an overnight stop here first. My sister and her husband are moving from the Stricker Mountain Home to the new Stricker Golf Course Home a few miles away and we are going to help them get close to finished with the packing up. They close on the new house Wednesday and the quicker they can get moved into the new, the quicker they can get the old staged and for sale.

We were up a couple of weeks ago and spent two days with them packing most of the things from the kitchen, the craft room and the garage along with wrapping in plastic their seemingly 100s of framed prints. Today we helped them finish those rooms up and all that is left is really their clothes and their DVDs.

Somewhere along NC28 last night, between Deals Gap and Fontana Village, the CTBNL ran through the 67,000 mile mark.

66,000 Roller Skate Bearings

Near Mile Marker 7 on I-20 West heading towards Augusta, Georgia, the CTBNL crossed over the sixty-six thousand mile plateau. We were headed over to the Red Wing Rollerway to try one more time for the elusive Roller Derby Rink photo in the Moss Motoring Challenge. The Augusta Soul City Sirens were going to be holding a try out/boot camp session on both Monday and Tuesday nights. Just like in January, we were foiled again by the lack of any outdoor signage. What is the definition of insanity?

Because it is so hot in the middle of the day we have just been picking away slowly at the motoring challenges. Since we have last spoke on the matter, a month and a half ago, we have captured a marginal Carpentry Shop, a questionable Horse Drawn Carriage, our last Historic Landmark, a Share The Road sign, Lightning, a Mail Carrier, a Scene You Can Smell, the I go Here All The Time, the Disc Golf Course with Players and then a better Disk Golf Course with Players for a total of 17 points.

65,000 Something or Other Things

One of the challenges for this year’s Moss Motoring Challenge was “Monster Truck.” We had a bead on a place in Chesterfield, SC that is called Monster Truck Ranch that gives rides in one. I have the address saved, figuring we would drive up and see if they’d let us take a photo, but we have never made the effort to take the 2-1/2 hour one-way drive up.

Last Friday Donna found an event that included Monster Trucks at a drag strip outside Orangeburg (about 50 miles away) that was for Friday and Saturday. We decided to go on Friday early and hopefully beat the crowds. We packed a lunch and figured we pay the $25 entry fee and see if we could get close to a Big ‘Ol Scary Truck and maybe watch some dragsters. Online it said it started at 9:30 and we timed our arrival perfectly. Except the gates weren’t open! All that was in line was one car, a motor home and the port-a-potty suction truck. There seemed to be no activity at all and after a few minutes we just turned around and came home.

On the way back on the outskirts of the thriving metropolis of Kitching Mill, SC the CTBNL blinked by 65,000 miles on the odometer.

On Saturday afternoon we were bored, so we took another drive to Orangeburg. Turns out there was another option to possibly get a picture of a Monster Truck in the very same town. This was a make-up event from a rained out May Spring National Monster Truck Showdown and was at the Orangeburg County Fairgrounds.

On our way to that show we passed right by the drag strip where the other event was, so we popped in to see if we could see anything from outside. Bingo, the results are above.

Even though we now had a picture for the challenge we opted to drive the extra 10 miles over to the fairgrounds. First we cheated a bit and followed a road that took us around the back of the fairgrounds to see if we could get a better “over the fence” picture than the one we already had. No dice there, so we drove around to main entrance to see we could get a decent view that way. Nope again. So we came on back to Aiken.

6 hours + 250 miles = 3 points.

47,203.98 Foot-Pounds

We started the day listening to Ray Charles “play” the piano and ended with watching fireworks. In between we found a one lane bridge on a dirt road, found the Blue Angels flying indoors and took in a Double A baseball game.

The CTBNL ticked over 64,000 miles just north of Newton, Georgia (47,203.98 ft-lb converts into 64,000 Newton-Meters.)

63,000 Missing Free Electrons

I guess the CTBNL was jealous of the Ladybug because she went for a trip across the country while he was left behind all alone in a dark garage for a month, so it ate all the free electrons in its battery. Last Friday morning I went to pop open the trunk for something and it didn’t open, at first I thought it might be the fob, but when I opened the car door to pull the lever to open the trunk the “dome” light didn’t come on.

I hooked up our cheap-o battery charger and let it run until that night. The dome light still didn’t come on and it is an LED, so you know the battery was really dead. Turns out the charger is more of a maintainer for car batteries, so it is something I should have hooked up before we left for a month. Saturday morning we went down the street to an Advance Auto and bought a new battery.

The starting of this post has been sitting in the drafts folder since April 25th, which is longer than the CTBNL sat unattended in the garage and is when it crossed the 63,000 mile milestone.