Vacation

4 Hours & 41 Minutes

Sunrise Over Hartsfield

We watched the sun come up while waiting to board our 8:20 AM flight and when we arrived at our destination 4 hours and 41 minutes later it was not even 10:00AM. That’s how long you have to sit in an airline seat to get from Atlanta to San Diego. We checked in, unpacked our suitcase and walked across the street to get our second lunch of the day. From there we walked a couple blocks south to visit the U.S.S. Midway.

It has been 40 years since I was last aboard and when I walked into the entrance area that led to the hanger deck I noticed it still smelled the same. We didn’t bother with the self guided tour and just wandered around on the tour route.

The only place that was really familiar was the mess deck, but that was mostly because the places that were open to the public were the surface Navy areas where I didn’t spend a lot of time in. Our berthing area was never always in the same spot each time aboard because our little detachment was only part of the Air Wing some of the time. I would have liked to think I could have found our little Maintenance Shack because it was in the same spot all the time, but I’m not so sure. But it didn’t matter as most of the aviation areas were not open to the public anyway.

We did take the guided tour of the island to to get to see the Bridge, the Chart House and PriFly (the airport tower.) Very interesting. The only time I was ever in the island while on board was to pass through on the way up to Vulture’s Row or the Crow’s Nest to take pictures of flight ops. Last stop was the Gift Shop on the fantail where I bought a hat and some postcards.

Happy Curmudgeon Day

For the past however long1 we have worked at the Valve Store ™ we have had 9 holidays off. They were New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, the Friday after, Christmas Eve & Christmas Day.

Depending on what day Christmas & it’s Eve fell on it was mostly always turned into a 4 day weekend with the exceptions being if Christmas fell on a Wednesday or Thursday. A large group of employees would combine this with the New Year’s Day holiday and most of their 2 or 3 weeks of vacation disappear from the middle of December and not return until January 2nd.

I say we had 9 holidays, because the company decided that starting this year they were replacing Christmas Eve with a Floating Holiday of the employee’s choosing. This floater had to be scheduled like a vacation day by filling out a vacation request, but noting that it was your Floating Holiday. But it would have to used like a holiday in that you couldn’t take it in 2 half days and it was not allowed to be carried over.

Around lunch time yesterday Donna decided that maybe it would be nice to turn this into a 4 day work week by taking today off. We decided instead of wasting a vacation day we would go ahead and burn that floater. So I hearkened back to my bicycle club newsletter days and went looking for a esoteric holiday to celebrate. Found several and opted for Curmudgeon Day. So I put on the vacation request handed in to our supervisors, January 29th, Curmudgeon Day (in honor of William Claude Dukenfield’s birthday.)

When my acting supervisor asked me who William Claude Dunkenfield was I told him it was W.C. Fields. Ever the smart-ass he said, “Oh, I know him, he makes the cookies.” Not to be out smart-assed, I replied, “No, that’s his wife.”

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 136

1. cough, cough twenty-seven years, cough, cough

Grand Loop

Road Trip 2015

While trying to describe the loop driven on our vacation to a co-worker, even I got confused, so I made up this rough estimate of the way we drove. The little red star is Aiken. We left heading northeast and proceeded in a counter-clockwise direction, driving through parts of 21 states and Washington D.C.. We had tossed around the idea of doing it clockwise, but this way had the big advantage of hitting D.C. early on Labor Day Monday instead of mid day during the work week.

On Tuesday night’s MLB.tv broadcast of the FRS game, to go along with the odd “highlights”, we were treated to an actual commercial for some brand of baseball cleats. Interestingly, this stuff only came through when watching on the Roku, on the PC in between innings there was just the usual silence. Then Wednesday night it was back to silence on the Roku. My guess is that they are testing the feasibility to start showing actual commercials. Doesn’t matter to me, next year I’m going back to just the radio broadcasts.

158,000 Logging Trucks

Finally Got One

We have now taken photos in 15 different Washington Counties, but if you think about it, with a lot of planning and careful staging, don’t you think you could take 15 different photos around the same county? I’ve always had that thought. So for the last several weeks I hoped to have found a Washington County sign that included the state we were in.

Well, today it happened, and it didn’t matter because in Louisiana the counties are called parishes and as far as I know that is the only state that does that. Not only that we are not even going to use the photo either as we found a better photo op just a few miles further down the road.

On our 400 miles drive today through Mississippi, Louisiana & Alabama we passed or were passed by about 158,000 empty or full logging trucks. Somewhere between Georgetown and Monticello, Mississippi the Emperor passed through the 158,000 mile mark.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 84

Motoring Challenge Points 5, Approx Miles Driven 400
Totals So Far: 140 points & 7120 miles

Teddy Bear Town

City - Onward, MS

I admit that the above photo has been manipulated. Donna took my picture with my head through one hole and then took another when I stuck head through the other hole. I then merged the two. If you look closely you’ll notice that the Challenge Poster is upside down on the left and right side up on the right.

We got 6 Challenges today, but only 3 went for points. Three went for replacements including the one above of Onward, MS. Just by happenstance did we manage to stop at the Onward Store that is pretty much in the middle of nowhere and it wasn’t until we read the literature on the outside by the door that we decided to toss poor little Oliver, Georgia to the side. The reason we call stuffed toy bears Teddy Bears happened right near here in 1902 – The Story of the Teddy Bear.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 82

Motoring Challenge Points 3, Approx Miles Driven 315
Totals So Far: 135 points & 6720 miles

Population Less Than 100 Again

Destination - Population Less Than 100

Our first try for this “Destination” was of the sign for a place called Doodlum in Virginia that had a population of 34. The sign looked very professionally done, but it was most definitely not state issued and Doodlum wasn’t on the state map.

The second, attempt just the other day, was a sign for the town of Goodnight in Missouri that had a population of 18. The sign looked state issued, but the town itself wasn’t listed on the state’s official transportation map.

Morrison Bluff, Arkansas has the real deal state issued sign and was on the map too.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 80

Motoring Challenge Points 7, Approx Miles Driven 388
Totals So Far: 132 points & 6405 miles

Off Day

Clinton Museum, Fayetteville, AR

We got a little lost in Fayetteville looking for a way out of town after the Courthouse photo and stumbled on this unassuming house. It wasn’t open yet, so we couldn’t go in to drop off the Trump for America bumper stickers.

We did the loop to Eureka Springs in the morning and in the afternoon we washed some clothes and then visited the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. I didn’t get most of the modern stuff, but I did enjoy the visit. Afterwards we walked a bit of the attached trail system.

Tomorrow it is back on the road.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 78

Motoring Challenge Points 2, Approx Miles Driven 135
Totals So Far: 125 points & 6015 miles