Mini Life

Lost and Found

These two items have been sitting on the side of the computer desk since sometime in early June awaiting my blogging about them. Well, 4 months is about right for them to have ripened…

We bought the Mini in October of 2017 and for the first 5 months it received almost a monthly bath. It could probably wait a bit longer in between washings except aerodynamics and the vertical rear end ensures a very dirty back surface in short order. When we returned from our month long road trip in May I decided to do a deeper cleaning than the usual exterior wash and vacuum the mats.

Lost – While cleaning the backs of the leatherette front seats I felt a square shaped bump in the map pocket of the drivers seat. Turned out it was the jewel case for the BeeGees One Night Only CD. The case was empty and there wasn’t any CD in the car’s player when we bought it, so I guess the previous owner popped the disc out and forgot the case was behind the seat.

Found – I had remembered to make sure the spare tire, which is mounted under the car had a full load of air before the trip, but had never really checked to see if the jack, etc. that was needed to changed out a flat tire was complete. So while vacuuming the “trunk” area I pulled up the flat carpeted fiberboard that covers the tire changing tools. There is a jack, a lug wrench, a wrench to remove the spare, a couple other things required for the job and a square pack of what looks like folded white vinyl. It was unopened, I really didn’t want to open it, so I tried to look it up on the web, but there wasn’t any number or anything. I looked up the German words on the package, teile is parts and München is Munich, so no help. My best guess is it a drop cloth for put down on the ground when changing a flat so you don’t get dirty.

Fun with Figures

Day 2 of Not Being on our 2018 Jumbo Road Trip.

We were gone for 31 days and of those, 20 were spent driving from one place to another. There was a day in west Texas visiting Donna’s brother, a couple days in Albuquerque, seven days in Lake Tahoe and another day in Louisiana visiting a friend. We filled up with gas 18 times and used a total of 190 gallons for the 7,291 mile trip for an average of 38.4 miles per gallon.

The Mini uses premium fuel and I never really shopped around so take these numbers for what they are worth. The cheapest gas (besides the original fill up at home) was in Pelham, AL at $2.95 a gallon. The next cheapest was in Albuquerque, NM at $2.96. The highest was in Reno, NV at $3.72 a gallon and the second highest was also in Nevada in West Wendover at $3.63. For the trip we averaged $3.21 a gallon and spent a grand total of $677.05 on fuel.

Like I did 9 years ago with a rental car when we went out west, I attached a static cling travel bug to the back of the Lady Bug for our drive to and from the west, And just like that one no one spotted it on the car and logged it. I dipped it in about half of the geocaches we did along the way to rack up some miles anyway. Because the mileage for travel bugs is tallied in a “as the crow flies” manner between caches it only totaled only 4,834 miles compared to the 7,291 the car itself traveled.

We geocached for 17 of the 31 days on the trip. We looked for 70 caches. We found 63 and DNF’d seven for a success rate of 90%. Our biggest day was finding 12 caches, missing 2, on a Tuesday in Albuquerque1 while walking along some trails near the Rio Grande River. We found the most, 23, in surprise, Texas the state we spent the most time in. We found the fewest in Louisiana, just one on the way back thru and by grabbing 15 caches in Nevada we added another state cached in to bring our total to 30.

Home Again Home Again Jiggity-Jig

Day 31 of our 2018 Jumbo Road Trip.

Montgomery, AL to Aiken, SC. This is all the stuff we carried with us on the trip.

  1. My clothes
  2. Donna’s clothes
  3. Our dress-up clothes for the wedding (dry cleaned and pressed on arrival)
  4. Donna’s hiking boots and casual shoes
  5. My hiking boots and sneakers
  6. Bathroom items (including our Water-Pik)
  7. Our favorite soft drinks and snacks
  8. Kitchen items (paper towels, plastic mugs, etc.)
  9. Three days worth of dirty clothes (which is why #1 & #2 aren’t bulging)
  10. Laptop bag
  11. Soft-sided cooler with ice packs for cooling the day’s drinks and snacks
  12. Geocaching knapsack
  13. Hiking sticks

The Mini’s back seats were folded down and the three black bags (1,2,3), the laptop bag (10) and the soft-sided cooler (11) were on top of them, the rest of the items were strategically crammed into the “trunk area” behind the seats and under the cover. About 90% of this stuff made the trip into the hotel room each night. We used a cart to haul it all up in the evening, then usually made two trips down each morning to load the car back up.

Penultimate Day Drive

Day 30 of our 2018 Jumbo Road Trip.

Hammond, LA to Montgomery, AL. No geocaching or sightseeing today because of the weather and probably none for tomorrow either as we will be anxious to just get back home.

When we got up in Hammond in the morning I checked the radar and I could see the rain bands still circling around the center of Alberto with the bottom of them around Montgomery. The sky was threatening all day, but it hardly sprinkled on the drive here and it is yet to rain, but from the looks of the sky as we walked back to the hotel after dinner it might pour at any minute.

It finally did rain and rain hard for about 2 hours just around sunset. Thunder and lightning included, but I think Alberto is too far north to mess with us anymore. If we run into any precipitation on the way home tomorrow it will be of the usual heat and humidity fueled summer afternoon variety.

Where The Locals Eat

Day 27 of our 2018 Jumbo Road Trip.

Minden, LA to Hammond, LA. Last night’s hotel clerk recommendation for a good breakfast where the locals eat was to drive just up the street a bit and go to Hamburger Happiness and Southern Maid Doughnuts. We were worried a bit as there was only one other vehicle in the lot when we pulled in.

The one guy sitting by himself didn’t seem too friendly, but the nice old lady at the counter where we placed and paid for our order was very pleasant. I think it was literally a mom and pop shop because I could see an old man through the saloon doors to the kitchen.

Soon the rest of the locals started arriving one by one and they greeted each other by name. The same lady brought our food to us pipping hot and it was delicious. The portions were correct and the price was right. We could hear the locals in background discussing the weather and the size of farm tractors. When we finished up and stepped outside I knew I needed to snap a picture. Take a guess, which one of these things is not like the other.

26,000 Potatoes

Day 26 of our 2018 Jumbo Road Trip.

Gainesville, TX to Minden, LA. We walked a half mile into downtown Gainesville for breakfast on the recommendation of the clerk who checked us in last night. We ate at a place called Fried Pie Co. & Restaurant. Because we were at a place with Fried Pies in their name, we both opted to try one for breakfast and both our reviews of this dish was, “Interesting, not bad, but I bet the fruit pies are better.”

For lunch we didn’t need a recommendation because we knew just where we were eating because we had eaten there 4 years ago. I had even planned our return route through the city of Paris, TX so we could get a hamburger and fries at Burgerland. The 65′ Eiffel Tower replica with a giant red cowboy hat on top was a bonus. The hamburgers are of course awesome, but the fries don’t really take second billing here, they are hand cut, salted just right and a single order consists of about 26,000 potatoes. Not only is the their food fantastic, it is easy on the wallet too. Two burgers, a small order of fries and a large drink came to $14.75.

We did manage to grab a couple of geocaches before lunch in Paris and had plans for more after, along a 10 mile long walking/biking path, cheekily called Trail de Paris, but one look at the sky and another at the weather radar made us just hop in the car and head east as fast as the speed limit would allow.

About ten miles from arriving at tonight’s hotel the Lady Bug ticked over 26,000 miles.

The above photo came from Burgerland’s Facebook page, the ones below are mine.

A Wife’s Revenge?

Day 25 of our 2018 Jumbo Road Trip.

Amarillo, TX to Gainesville, TX. Traveled through the Texas panhandle today with lots of long trains, powerlines stretching to the horizon and several wind farms. Five of six in geocaches today. The only one we missed was called A Wife’s Revenge in the town of Memphis, TX. Here is the description:

Ahhhh, a woman scorned is a scary thing....

Not far from this cache is a very unique memorial to a roaming husband. As the story goes, this sculpture was placed on the husband's grave by his widow. Supposedly, he liked to entertain (or be entertained) by various ladies. The sculpture is a naked lady hiding her face in shame. This was the story that was told to us. However, it looks like it might also be one of the people from Pompeii... You draw your own conclusions.

This is the second day in a row we have DNF’d a cemetery cache and after not finding this one, both Donna and I felt like recreating this pose…