GREAT ROADS

Not much to do today so I took a nice 150 mile loop around western N.C. including the dragon .Them back roads around Carlisle were nice Bill but I think Iam spoiled . Every body needs to experience these roads this fall.

I'll second that, Pete. Those roads are incredible. The Dragon is just one among many. I guess it has a better PR person ;-)

We need to start pushing this event these roads here are a natural for a speedster and spyder no reason not to get like 75 cars it is within a days drive to like 65% of the US Population You can be here in a day from NY or from Miami Or Texas Etc .

The Dragon is fun but not as challenging as its reputation. We have more interesting roads in Colorado. The Dragon is curvy but little up and down to it. There are better roads around Lake Lure, NC. Ask Aaron White for a map!

Happy Trails,
Dusty and LMS

The roads Aaron know are just the ones I was thinking of. Truly amazing!

Yeah, and we can offer much of the same throughout the Green and White Mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire (with both the up and down and left and right!)

Put all of these great rides together in some sort of database for everyone to use and we can begin to organize some regional events. r


Rather than drive a day to get there, just bop on over, meet a bunch of folks and have a fun day together with your cars. I'll see what I can come up with for New England in the next few days (I already have a few routes from years past) and post it. I should have different routes for Vermont, New Hampshire and Mass/Conn/RI so we can go different places throughout the Summer (and satisfy different people/places).

How about the rest of you folks? What can YOU come up with?

gn
Self-proclaimed Northeast Tourmeister

At Carlisle, I spoke with last years Pumpkin run participants and they want to do it again,
The 2nd Annual Fall Pumpkin Run here in PA. will take place in October! ~Alan

I have been cruising all weekend here in NY. I don't have my speedster anymore, but I have an 88 911 targa, which has been sputtering & running rough, but all of a sudden just started running great! I figured I'd celebrate by cruising some twisty backroads!

Gordon, if you get anything going for the NE then count us in!!! Give us a heads up anytime. We had the car out for a quick afternoon drive the other day, and once again, had the kids on bikes yelling out to us that our car was "REALLY COOL". Even a soccer Mom in an SUV gave us a thumbs up! I can only imagine (& look forward to!) the fun of a cruise!

Pete, I'm long overdue in telling you that your car is probably my favorite on this entire site, and I wish I could have seen it this year at Carlisle. Really. That thing's my idea of perfect. Will you be making the trip again next year? I really would like to see it in person.
I'd slap my mother for a ride in that car.

Bring yours to the mountains .Yes Ill be in Carlisle next year if they will let me !

If they will let me???????

In the words of my 4-yr-old grandson....."Are you kidding me?

See you at Carlisle 2010!!!!!!!

gn

Maybe Ill cut the roof of so it will look like a speedster

If you go near that car with a roto-zip I'll have to body slam you - even if you are a lot bigger than me ;-)

Right now if I could have a second toy, I'd be looking for an Envemo coupe all because of your car.

Cory,
Did you get a look at my new car? (it is Theron's fault ... he started it !!) Wow, I love my Speedster but this Lotus is the best handling car I have EVER gotten into. We just came back from a full day of twistys in the mountains and I still cannot believe how it handles. When you get back just grab BERT by the ear and come on out here. I will let you drive to see for yourself.

Happy Trails,
Dusty and LMS

Whoa Dusty, What are you doing with my car? You were to have been buying one of the 1984/89 911 caerras that I sent links!!! I had a sports machine at one time long, long ago with Lotus on the rear. I feel that the Lotus suspensions are top of the line. Every week end from Lexington KY to Lexington, SC! Newport, TN to Asheville,NC in 45 minutes. I quit my job over that...going into a horse shoe at over 124 MPH nice long drift...then I asked myself: "What the H--L am I doing?"

Dusty is right about the "Tail". I find that is is no challenge for me. Lane and Tom can attest to that little blur. Driving with very little elevation change is boring! However, the Cherahala Parkway at speed is more fun. Nice long drifts which scares H out of the bike riders!

How about a Competition Road Rally??? Anyone interested? Google the Carolina Trophy. They seem to have a lot of SNOBBISH FUN.and give away a lot of silver. The entrance fee this year is:::: right at $5000! WE can do it cheaper and have more fun! Beer and Single Hieland Malt for trophies!

My speech for tonight...Rained all day!

I'm declaring dibs on being in Dusty's will!
Gorgeous!
How did that get by me?

Pete -- you bet we will! Too bad about this being in Africa thing.
Teresa might be able to make the Dragon this fall, though.
I'd still slap my mother. ...

Enough of great roads! You guys are killing me. I can drive around town where the speed limit is 30-45 KPH (19-28 MPH) or I can go on the "highway" which is monstly gravel, straight and boring. Ice roads are closed to I can't even go on there.

Dude. Really?
YOU've at least got a car to go stare at.
;)

You're right, likely beats the camels you get to look at Cory....

I dunno.. I hear he really likes seeing their toes.

I had another thought on regional weekend rides; You can't just go out for a ride. Well, you CAN, but it's much better to have a destination, preferably with something regional to eat when you get there.

Beaufort has it's World Famous Frogmore Stew (actually from St. Helena Island - Frogmore is a small village out there on the Island) and some unbelievable shrimp gumbo, Massachusetts' "North Shore" has all of those yummy fried clam places, Vermont has a bunch of places selling sourdough donuts, not to mention Maple-Sugar everything under the Sun, Maine has, of course, LOBSTAHS (but their blueberry pies are right up there on the "to-die-for" list), Rhode Island has it's own "Shaw Dinners" (spelt 'shore' dinner; fried fish, scallops, clams, quahogs a little cole slaw and fries - YUM!) and connectiut has, well.....Johnny Cakes, along with Mystic Pizza and that great Pizza place in New Haven.

And I'm only scratching the surface, here!! ALL of you folks have GREAT local or regional eateries that haven't yet been screwed up by franchizing or nationalizing and making them bland. Even Lane has "The Wreck of the Richard and Charlene" in his very own Mt. Pleasant!! (and they serve Pusser's Rum, still distilled per the Royal Navy's recipe!)

How about we start getting a list of one-off, regional eateries compiled (which have GREAT food - nothing less!) and use THAT as the basis for some weekend Speedstah/Spydah get-togethers??????

Alas, "Rainbow Bend Cafe" and their fabulous pop-overs are history, but I'm sure we can come up with some remaining doozies and then craft a cruise around them somehow.

How about it everyone?

I'll start: The Salem Cross Inn in West Brookfield, Mass. The Vanilla Bean Cafe in Pomfret, CT. Woodman's Fried Clams or the Clam Box in Ipswich, MA. The Clam Shack (Skips?) on rt 6 on Cape Cod, halfway between the Orleans Rotary and the Truro line. Flo's Clam Shack in Portsmouth, RI. Ming's in Wellesly, MA. The cafe at Tower Hill Botanical Gardens, Boylston, MA. The Fort (Truly great German food) in Springfield, MA.

And for Lane, "Harold's Country Club" in Yemassee, SC; Best Steak you'll have anywhere....no kidding. Plus, it's a 1940'style gas station to boot.

I'll be putting together some local cruises in New England around some of those mentioned above and see if I can get some interest. I may also recruit a friend and tour meister of the new England 356 club to help out (he's got some fabulous day-cruises under his belt).

How about the rest of you? Let's get some cruisin going here!!

gn

Gordon has the right idea there is a bunch of us that will get together on a sat or a sun we will mmet at a Mcdonalds for coffee early like 6.30 am we will do this rain or shine we dont care we even have a polar run in the midle of december some of these guys have no tops on there cars they are die hard real gearheads. All cool cars are welcome.Most are british. We have ablast doing this just cruising not for exitement .

Now for you guys that want excitement .Put some safetygear in your car and pay entry fees .Public roads is no place for exitement it kills !!! I have had friends die from this crap !Track time is cheaper trust me . Public roads are great for cruising not for excitement

Yet another reason I want to move to the mountains.

Well, the road to the Yellowknife River is not real, real bad and there IS a picnic area there, boat launch and fishing from the bridge. There's almost always someone I know there roasting beaver tail, which is suppsoedly a delicacy amoung the Dene people, so I could go there on the weekend and crash a picnic...

Or, I could drive to Old Town and eat at the Wildcat...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wildcat_Cafe

or, at Bullocks...
http://www.bluepeak.net/pictures/canada/yukon/bullocks-yellowknife.jpg.html (some nice pics of Yellowknife and the NWT)

...but roads into and around the Old Town are 30 kph max so where's the fun in that?

Those are some awsome pictures Brian. So now my curiosity is really piqued: Just what the hell happens to the houseboats when the water freezes?

The houseboats just freeze into the ice and sit there. There's quite a few of them now. They started up about 25 years ago or so in protest to ever increasing city property taxes and a huge hike in actual lot prices. In one year a lot that cost $10K went to more than $30K (early 1980's dollars).

Instead of using boats to get to the houseboats they drive over the ice. You can still drive on the ice now, if you could get from the shore to the ice because its starting to melt at the shoreline. I was out kite skiing on the ice last night, covered 17 miles with a top speed of close to 30 MPH. That's more than I would put on the speedy for a drive around town and thats more than the legal speed limit anywhere in town. Go figure? Sunday covered just over 50 miles, was a great day! Hauled out a BBQ, lawn chairs, coolers full of cold ones...about 12 of us all on the ice kiting, eating homemade buffalo burgers and swilling beer. I guess that's much like your speedy get togethers down south?

Except for the whole "ice" thing.

I thought you were going to be moving out of there. What's up with that?

Lane, have you noticed that there's some kind of global financial fiasco at the moment? I wonder if its a good time to leave a good paying job where I get 8 weeks of paid leave a year, have very little responsibility and am only busy a couple of times a year?

Having said that I just got back from spending a week at our house in Niagara-on-the-lake and I'm thinking maybe there is no such thing as a good time to do this? Maybe I should just do it, period. Heck, I actually enjoyed cutting the lawn there. Sit on the mower and swill beer while cutting the lawn. Can't do that here.

Yeah, I keep forgetting about that "fiasco" thing ;-)

I was somehow under the impression that it was more of a transfer than an "I just want outa here" sort of move. Not sure where I got that impression. Pam and I would like to move as well, but are hesitant for the same reason. We're in a nice enough place (Charleston, SC - some think it's heaven), but reeeeeeally want to live in the mountains.

We've had this conversation before, haven't we? Damn I hate this gettin' old thing!

Ridgewood BBQ in Bluff City, TN
Shately Springs, near West Jefferson, NC
Steamers, on Lady's Island (only a three wood from Gordon)
Picnics, Asheville, NC
The Wreck, Charleston, SC
Mustards Grill, Yountville, CA
Go Fish, St Helena, CA
Wills Fargo, Carmel Vally, CA
and my top of the heap: Little Napoli, on Dolres, Carmel, CA
and Bern's Steak House, Tampa.......best steak on the planet earth

You can add Seewee Restaurant, Awendaw, SC.

The roads here are difficlt to photgraph unless you're in the air flying over a bare spot in the foliage.But here's a shot of the windy roads available here. If you look closely , you see the ribbon cut into the cliff.

www.cgibackgrounds.com supplies images of roads, buildings, construction sites, etc for automotive advertising.
I have 1100 images on the site, including about 60 of the Hana highway.

Drove the Hana highway FOR THE FIRST TIME at night after 10 hours of flying. Would not recommend this to anyone. My wife got sick.

Tom, I have done the Hana twice on different trips, in a vanilla rental car. I almost got sick to. In a Speedy with the top down it might be a different story though.

Dave

How could anyone get sick on these roads? Urp!

Actually, the very best way to see Hana Highway is from the back of an open pickup truck with lots of cushions and a very full cooler.Can't drive fast ( 20mph max.in the jungle sections), besides you'll miss a lot of scenery if you try.

Some folks look at the map and figure " Hell, how long does it take to drive 52 miles?" They find out the hard way and may not enjoy what the drive is all about.

Dan,
It is one of the most beautiful settings in the world IMO. The seven pools at the end of the road are not to be missed. Oh to have a sports car in Maui.