Road Trip
Swing Bridge
Started the morning with a trip to Wrens, GA with the MMC for breakfast at Peggy’s. We had two different women help serve us our food, I don’t know if either was the restaurant’s namesake, but neither looked anything like Capital One’s customer service rep. After eats everyone went home.
We just took the loooooong way, 286 miles. First, we continued south on US 1 all the way to Santa Claus, GA to check on our cache (it was fine.) Then we worked our way back northeast on rural back roads carefully avoiding Statesboro (Alabama was playing Georgia Southern.) We crossed back into SC on US 301 and stopped at a new green way trail that was created out of old 301. There were six caches along the one mile “road” (we could only find 4 of them.) The trail ends partway across the Savannah River where the retired swing bridge used to meet the road.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1094
Keeping The Sibling Peace
This morning the three cars of the MMC went their separate ways and probably at separate times. Kurt & Karen were headed back via Helen, GA, John & Jackie were planning on lunch in Spartanburg and we were just headed home. We arrived there 6 hours later after a gas stop, 4 driver changes and lunch. Total mileage for the trip, eight hundred fifty four and seven tenths. Took three tankfuls of gas for around $90 total and averaged a touch over 33 MPG, which is pretty darn good for the kind of driving the mountain roads bring out in a sports car.
Ever since the Purple Whale got a dragon sticker after his trip through Deals Gap, the Emperor has been whining about getting his own. He already has a diamond shaped one on the inside of the trunk lid and he has been driven through the gap about 2 dozen times to the Whale’s once, but his jealous carping was just too much. So to keep the sniping between the two cars at a minimum, one gold dragon sticker now resides on the Emperor’s butt trunk lid where the little geocaching one once did. Of course I had to wash off all the road crud (and bear fur) before applying said sticker.
Miata Top Tran?si?tions since 10/24/08: 1089
Gorging on a Buffet of Twisty Roads & Seafood
I had picked out a neat looking drive for us to do today called the Cherohala Skyway – Joe Brown Loop, from a page off of the Tail Of the Dragon website. But it was so foggy this morning that we opted to do the loop backwards, hoping the fog would clear up later because the first section was straighter, flatter and views less scenic, the middle section wound through rural woods and the final section was the Skyway with lots of scenic pullouts.
The plan worked nearly flawlessly, except for the confusion caused by trying to read the descriptions in reverse order. First, we had a touch of trouble finding our rural road out of Murphy, NC, but that worked out well for a needed potty break. And then we couldn’t find the dining place in historic downtown Telico Plains, TN, but that worked out fine because we stumbled on a BBQ place that everyone thoroughly enjoyed. But the sun did come out after lunch, allowing top down motoring for two thirds of the group as we drove the Cherohala.
After we completed our 166 mile loop, Kurt and I topped up our tanks at the Shell station in Robbinsville and there was talk of heading back to our hotel, but John and Jackie still hadn’t transited the famous “Deals Gap,” so we headed north on US129 to make the trip. On the way west we made it about 8 of the 11 miles at speed until we caught up to some traffic and had to creep to the dam overlook. The trip back wasn’t half as nice as it seemed like only a couple minutes along we ran into a pair of cruiser bikes who refused to exceed the ridiculous posted 30 MPH speed limit and wouldn’t pull over to let us break the law. It got so slow that I actually had to get into 1st gear going around some of the switchbacks. The plate on the bike was from Ontario, thereby shooting major holes in the whole Canadians Are So Polite theorem.
After our Gap Run we all headed over to Fontana Village for dinner as tonight they were having a sea food buffet that included crab legs. I have to say we were all impressed with the food and atmosphere of the Village. Our somewhat negative memories and attitudes towards this place came from perhaps a decade or so in the past, but someone has been investing some money here and from what we could see, spent it well. Donna and I are even thinking that when we come up this way next time we’ll try renting one of their cabins.
Miata Top Tran?si?tions since 10/24/08: 1087
Bumper Bear
It is about 12 miles from the town of Robbinsville on US129 to where Deals Gap and its 318 turns begin. Up until then it is mostly smooth, mostly flat and mostly straight (well, straight enough that a Miata can run the distance at 55 MPH easy, but in other vehicles your speed may vary.) About 3 miles from the start of the curvy stuff we were barreling along, me & Donna in front and Kurt and Karen not far behind when out pops a small bear cub from the left side of the road.
I take my foot off the gas and tap the brake to slow down. He is probably just going to cross over, but he hears us coming and starts running, not continuing across mind you, but in the same direction of travel as us. I’ve slowed down now to around 30 and both Donna and my head are swiveling looking for the momma bear, because this guy looks huggable sized, maybe 30 – 40 pounds and might not be alone. We don’t see anything but the cub running in the left lane. Just about the time I think he is headed back to the left, he takes a hard right and disappears in front of the car.
I’m going about 20 miles an hour at this point and I’m waiting to feel us run over it, but all we hear is a bump sound and the next thing we see is the small bear sliding down the pavement in the left lane. He skids about 10 feet down the road to a stop in the middle of the left lane. I come to a stop about 10 yards ahead of him. I check my mirror, it looks like Kurt and Karen have stopped pretty much right beside him, and the bear shakes his head a couple times and walks off back to the side of the road from which he came.
Kurt tells us later that as he got to the guardrail and went to duck under, the poor thing bumped his head. He was probably still a little stunned. As were the four of us.
We then drove down the road about a mile and pulled over to look at the nose of the Emperor. Amazingly enough the only sign anything had happened was that that side of the bumper was wet from where I probably knocked the water out of his fur (it had been lightly raining in the area today.)
Coincidentally, about maybe five or ten minutes before this happened, Donna had remarked to me that she was going to be keeping an eye out for bears and deer and such because we are pretty much in the middle of the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest nowhere near any civilization…
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1085
7,000 Widgets
Went to SOUTH-TEC 2011 Expo, AKA the Charlotte Tool Show, today with some co-workers. We were there to place eyeballs on a new fancy-schmancy CNC machine we bought and won’t take delivery of for another 16 weeks. And of course, wander every aisle and marvel at all the widgets on display, while managing to score free pens, cheap bags and multi-colored lanyards to give away to the unlucky souls back home who didn’t get to go. We might have even picked up some useful information.
When I first heard we going it was in the company’s Ford 9-passenger van. Ick, who wants to spend 3 hours each way in that thing. When it was confirmed that it was just 4 total going, I offered to drive the group in the Purple Whale. Even with it raining for almost all of the trip, I definitely enjoyed driving in my own car than riding in that van for 340 miles.
Somewhere just south of the South Carolina state line on the way home the Sonata hit the 7,000 mile mark.
Back in the Mountains
After a weekend off, we are back in the mountains again, this time the Georgia & North Carolina ones. We drove up to Hendersonville to see my sister and her husband at the SMH. For the first time in a long time we didn’t eat lunch at West One, but instead ate at Hannah Flanagan’s, where everybody’s Irish. While we are on this trip we are also doing wee bit of geocaching. Nabbed a couple of state parks, a couple of counties and a DeLorme page.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1069