Miatatude

About three weeks ago we had traveled to Columbia to take a picture of the front entrance to the Riverbanks Zoo. It was crowded that there was a line of cars just to get into the parking lot. We took one photo of a nearby banner, but decided later that it just wouldn’t do. I remember from our last visit, several years back, that the entrance had a big ol’ colorful sign and an animal themed mural at the entrance.

We drove via the Interstate on the way back from Statesville yesterday and would pass right near Columbia. Figuring we might be early enough to get that elusive zoo picture we drove over. It was 10:30 and I guess the zoo opened at 11:00 AM because it was already getting busy on the entrance road. There was no line of cars so we took a left, much to the chagrin of the guy with the wands who was pointing right, and pulled to the curb at the main entrance.

It was under renovation. There was no mural and the big sign was not nearly as impressive as I remembered. We took the photo anyway and I think it will just have to do.

Photo Rally Update: We came in 4th place, a long way out of first.
RidgeRunner Tours 2014 Photo Rally
Targa Class Results:
1st….Steve Wilson & Sloane Wilson 106 pts
2nd…Rob Bolling & Amber Bolling 96 pts
3rd…Stephanie Sturm & Teresa DeSantis 94 pts
4th…Brian Bogardus & Donna Bogardus 83 pts
5th…Dwayne Gentry & Lydia Johnson 79 pts

Of South Carolina’s 46 counties, it turns out that there none beginning with 6 of the letters of the alphabet. Q, X and Z are to be expected, T & V a little unexpected, but I was surprised that none began with the letter I. But actually I is relatively scarce as the first letter of a county. Of the 3,143 counties (or its equivalent) in the United States there are only 30 that begin that way. Georgia only has one, Irwin, and it is 200 miles away from Aiken. North Carolina only has one, Iredell, and it too is around 200 miles away. But as luck would have it, this weekend’s Foothills Photo Rally 4 that we participated in started in Statesville, NC which just so happens to be in……Iredell County.

As for the rally, we had a blast. We drove over 100 miles of back country roads trying to spot various things we were given photos of, stopping at 4 different checkpoints that involved games of chance or skill, spending nearly six hours doing it. Only once we had to backtrack because of a missed turn and that was the drivers fault as when my navigator said three tenths of a mile until the next turn I heard 3 miles.

I don’t know where exactly we finished in our 20 group class, but I know it wasn’t 1st, 2nd, or smack in the middle. The first place team in each class, of which there were two, each received a Mason jar filled with White Lightning. The second place teams got a Mason jar of local honey. The teams that finished in the statistical middle of each class’s scores got a certificate that will only be slightly embarrassing to have hanging on the wall in their Trophy Room at home. After the awards were handed out we could have gone up and checked our actual place in our class, but opted not to, so we could believe that we finished in third place only one point back of second and two points out of first.