Motoring Challenge

On our way down to Hilton Head on Friday we made an effort to find a sign for Almeda which was shown on the official South Carolina transportation map. It shows at the point where SC-68 starts going east and US-278 veers south, but when we stayed on 278 there was nothing. On the way back we made sure to come west on SC-68 to meet up with US-278 just in case we missed something, but we hadn’t. No sign. Which was not surprising because there really wasn’t anything that resembled a structure. Probably was something here a long time ago and the map makers just keep putting it on the map without checking.

On our way down to Hilton Head on Friday we drove slowly through Allendale looking for a nice sign to get for our “A” city. Nothing really popped out at us. The farmer’s market sign was close, but it was mostly obscured by bushes and there didn’t look like any place to park. There were plenty of Allendale County buildings that caught our eye, but counties were done, we needed the city. On the way back I asked Donna to ask the GPS to lead us to the Allendale City Hall, but it didn’t have that particular POI. So I said just select the city option and let’s see where it takes us. The GPS lead us down a road we hadn’t been on, but when it said arrived there was nothing there, literally. It was an empty lot. I made a left to make another to get back on our route home when we found a trailer with a wood sign out front that read Allendale Police Department. There weren’t any LEO vehicles around so I’m hoping it was the old police station because it really did look deserted. We took a couple photos anyway.

On the way back after we had past through Allendale, Donna, looking at the SC map, said, “Hey there is a small dot labeled Appleton just 5 miles ahead.” We had traveled this route a bunch of times before and I didn’t remember any Appleton, so I said, “I bet there is no sign, it is going to be another Almeda.” I was wrong. I was wrong.

We missed this morning’s Cars & Coffee in Augusta, it was just too comfortable in our warm bed, but we found the Aiken Horsepower Association December Cruise-In a bit over a mile from home for Car Show #10 of 10 possible in this year’s Motoring Challenge. A far sight better than the 2 we claimed last year.

There are 10 points left out for us to get and we have 25 days to finish them up. Two cities A & K we’ll grab on our way to Hilton Head in two weeks where we also planning on getting 2 points for the Atlantic Ocean while we’re there. Four points are right here in Aiken and the last two are in Charleston.

This Ghost Town was literally a ghost town, as it was closed for the season. Right across the street was the town of Maggie Valley’s sign, so we got all three of our points for today within 100 yards. And actually it could have been zero feet because now that I look at the Maggie Valley sign, in the background is a billboard for Ghost Town. The ghost town destination has an asterisk next to it meaning you need to include a sign…

This weekend was supposed to be the MMC’s Deals Gap Weekend that Donna & I head up, but for the last week and a half the predicted weather for today and tomorrow has been awful, so earlier this week we cancelled the trip. This allowed everyone to cancel their reservation at the Microtel in Robbinsville without penalty.

All except us. I had forgotten, to get a cheaper rate, I booked our room as pay ahead and non-refundable. We were all prepared to chalk it up as a loss, but on Thursday decided, “What the heck. “How bad can it be?” The answer…so far, so good. We got up to Robbinsville with more than half the time spent with the top down.

Tomorrow it is still supposed to be a nasty rainy day up here and I hope it is so bad that we have to spend the day in the hotel room, otherwise I’m going to feel bad about calling off the trip.

We took a picture of the Robbinsville sign for the R City in last year’s Motoring Challenge too, but ended up using Rome, MS instead, so we stopped on the way into town today and took another to use this year.