Miatatude

I Return To The Scene Of The Goose

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Now, just where did I park my airplane?

So, I drove back to McMinnville today, this time I ponied up a Andrew Jackson and went inside. Wow, this place is amazing if you are anyway interested in aviation. I mean, the Spruce Goose may bring them in, but there are a ton of interesting things to see and do besides that one oversized aircraft. There are two buildings jammed with airplanes, rockets and memorabilia. There are planes from the early 1900’s up to the Vietnam era stuff in the one with the Goose in it and the second is all space race stuff and modern warplanes. In total I spent almost 2-1/2 hours there and I can see a return visit in a few months.

The only thing I had a complaint about is that somehow the Spruce Goose seemed diminished by the shear amount of small (and they all weren’t all that small) aircraft crowded around it. I understand that they probably couldn’t build a third giant building just for the Goose alone and they have an awesome collection and want to display as much as possible, but, I don’t know, maybe it is just me.

I took a couple dozen pictures and here are a sample:

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.

Miata Gender and Names

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A week and a half ago I mentioned that I gave the both boys a bath, meaning both Miatas.

The ’01 has been christened Bucky (or Buc-ee after the Texas sized gas stations) and that is obviously a male name, at least to me. The Winter Soldier, Steve Rodgers best friend from childhood is called Bucky. Or Bucky Dent of the NY Yankees and for Red Sox fans everywhere they include his middle name F’in’.

The ’24 has yet to be named? It started gray but turned blue. How about Luminol because that is white-ish in color but when it comes in contact with blood it turns blue. That one won’t work. Marge, the Simpson’s mom has gray hair that has tuned blue? Nope, that’s a female name. Gender swap Bucky to female? When I searched for ‘can bucky be a female name’ I was told that there is a recent trend of that happening and it could be short for Buckley or such.

GT, because that is it trim level in the Miata hierarchy. Little Boy Blue, of “Come blow your horn, The sheep’s in the meadow, The cow’s in the corn.” of nursery rhyme fame. Old Gary Mare, doesn’t fit at all. Maybe just Old Gray could work?

But, for now, it’s just Blue Miata.

Club Badge

Back in October 2024 when I was adding a bunch of mods to the new blue Miata I was visiting the the local dealer’s parts department quite often, the same guy was always behind the counter. We got to talking as car guys do (he has a tastefully modded Mazda 3 hatch) and on my 3rd or 4th visit HE came back with the part I ordered and another item he thought I might find a use for, an official Mazda Miata Club badge. His manager had asked him to throw it out because it had been sitting around so long and there is really no demand for it anymore because it was on only certain Miatas in a 3 year span a decade ago.

The third generation Miata ran from 2006 to 2015 and in 2013 they replaced the Touring trim with a Club trim that was more sportier than the Sport trim (really the base car) and harder core than the Grand Touring trim level. The Club got a limited slip differential, some different shocks and a nifty badge that went on the driver’s side front fender. This badge was my gift from Mr. Parts Guy.

I wasn’t sure what I was going to do it at the time. When the fourth generation car came out in 2016 the trim levels were again called Sport, Club and Grand Touring. The Club trim was the still the “sportiest” version of the Miata, but they weren’t putting the Club Badge on them anymore. This meant that I didn’t want to put the badge on the new car because it was the Grand Touring trim and that seemed a little like sacrilege to do so.

Fast forward to January and I was now the proud owner of second generation car and that version of Miata didn’t ever have any trim called Club, I felt that is the car I could put the badge on. After all I’ve added new shocks, springs and a freer flowing exhaust to make it more Club like. I put the badge on the left front fender like it would have been on those 2013-2015 cars. In Mazda parts bag along with the badge there was a template on where to put it on the car. Of course the different generations made the template not exactly right, but I fudged it and I think it looks good where I stuck it.

Those early cars only had the one badge, but I thought if I could find another one I’d have badges on both sides. eBay to the rescue, I found one for sale and bought it, it came today. Bucky is now ambidextrously badged.

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.

Bucky Earns His Name

A lot of folks name their cars, a lot of folks name their Miatas, I don’t always, but this time I will. For most of this purchase process on buying the 2001 LS off of Bring-A-Trailer I just referred to it as Miata #6 as in it was the sixth Miata I have owned.

But after 2 separate, very entertaining, visits to the phenomenal outsized “gas station thing” called Buc-ees on Sally and my road trip she came to calling the car Bucky. I was just using it in conversations with her, until Sunday when I took a trip to take post offices pictures.

I noticed that for the first 20 or so minutes it was hard to smoothly engage the clutch in first gear and occasionally second as well. No matter how I tried to start from a standstill the car would buck like a scared foal. Then, a memory floated up in my consciousness, I’ve been here before, the Emperor suffered from the same malady. I wrote about it back in 2004 if you are interested.

Technical Service Bulletin 05-001/03 covers what needs to be done which is basically put a new clutch disc in. I’ll be adding another couple hundred grand the Bucky’s budget spreadsheet. Mazda replaced the disc in the 2003 for nothing and according to that service bulletin they would do it on this car too, I’m still under the 12,000 mile warranty cap, but I missed the time limit by 21 years.

I’m Member Number 476

There probably aren’t 476 current members, this is probably all time and the club has been around since October 14, 1990. I think the leader of the run I did when I joined the club said there are still over 200 folks on the roll.

That badge says 2024 Blue for my car, but there is an addition Miata in the family that there have only been brief glances of so far, that changes tomorrow. I drive down to FTW Tuning in a rental car and return home to Fairview in a black 2001 Miata LS.

Now I’m going to be going back to having one car too many for the parking I have. From last September until just last month I had two cars and one parking spot. The Miata got the primo spot in the driveway under the awning while the Mini was outside up in a spot near the Community Center. After the Vertical Platform lift was removed both cars fit in the driveway under the awning, but now I will have two Miatas and the Mini will be back up by the Community Center. The rule here is that if you own a car, you must have a spot to park it. They kind of let me break that rule for a while because of my predicament, i.e. wife dying, but this time they might not be so lenient.