Third Annual SOC Weekend in the Smokies !

Best forecast for now is very cool (lows in upper 30's & highs in the 50's), with a slight chance of rain Friday & Saturday. I spent the last two days shooting on the Blue Ridge parkway & environs. High altitude (Cherahola) color is already past peak, but everywhere else should be excellent.

Don't think tops will be down till Sunday.

see you soon !!

Bags are packed , wines loaded. See you at the Tally Ho

Tom Raymond said: "Don't think tops will be down till Sunday."

BUT I DON'T HAVE A TOP!!! If I drive the Hoopty, I'm going to F-R-E-E-Z-E!

Take the Golf! Be Safe.

B.E.R.T. - Spare yourself the misery and take the Golf! You can still have fun and throw the Golf around those corners (with the windows UP and heater ON)! With the Golf, you can leave whenever you want on your trip!!

...I'm just saying...

Bert I agree, ours has a couple of ghost issues and I do not have time to find them. We have loaded the Mustang and are on our way in a few min. Speedies are supposed to be fun not miserable come have fun but don't be that uncomfortable. This is from the couple who rode motorcycles thru 15" of snow in a blizzard on the 8th of August last year. Believe me when I say unless you have somteone to heat you back up in the motel later there is no fun in freezing in an open vehicle, no fun drowning in one either....

Did I mention we are from Mississippi and see snow once every 4 or 5 years 1 maybe 2"

See you soon
Richard and Becky

We're outta here about 10:00 am.....Stop at the local glacier to ice down the cargo, then on to Townsend.....I'll probably cross Pete's path as I live very close to Road Atlanta.....Bert, bring the Golf....

Teresa, you're welcome to be my right-seater. As Wild Bill said, take the Golf and be safe.

First today Crazy Pete bows out and then I get an email from Marty saying they won't make it either. ARGH!!

No more cancellations, ok folks? The weather is improving and I think it'll be a great time.

Lane -- Sorry, buddy. I'm canceling. Hopefully I'm the last!

A very good friend of ours had surgery last week, and she is having some complications. I stayed with her last night, and took her to the doctor's today. She has another appointment tomorrow that I'm taking her to.

I'd given up on driving the Hoopty last night, but thought I'd still make the trek in the Golf ... but with our friend in need of some support, I'm going to stay around town.

I also would rather spend the money on doing more work on the car, instead of two nights in a hotel ...

I'm really sorry. I was TOTALLY looking forward to it! I saw the Mid-Atlantic crew last week, and I was going to catch the South-East crew this weekend....

Sounds like this run needs to be a little earlier, say September, just like the Pumpkin run. Maybe we just got a real crap year of weather, and next year will be great. I drove my Spyder yesterday, today it was snowing. At least it stopped now, at 6:30 p.m.

Best of weather to you guys, looks like my weekend is going to be wet.

Danny's right, I'm going to move to Pumpkin Run to mid September so that we can enjoy top down driving ~
...Have a great time this weekend, and be safe! ~Alan

This year has been kind of an anomaly, weather wise. I hope we do better next year and I hope those I still have marked down can make it. I think we will still have a blast.

Marty was sooo pumped to do the Dragon run.....

neither wind, nor rain or dark of night.................

Ah well....

I expect good weather today and most of tomorrow. We may see up to an inch of snow Saturday night, which I'm kinda looking forward to. We don't get snow in Charleston, and I miss it once in a while. Could make for some interesting photo ops on Sunday. It's supposed to be back up to 70 and sunny by the time I head home on Tuesday. To think - it was 90 and humid a week ago in Charleston.

Geez! I hope the Dragon didn't eat 'em all up!
How go'ed it fellas! Pics?

~WB

Dismal weather until today - then it was just chilly. We did the Dragon in both directions yesterday rather than doing the Cheroholla Skyway because the Skyway was getting snow up at higher elevations. Up to 3 inches predicted, and probably at least that fell. I didn't see any except on distant mountain tops today. Pretty, and I would have liked a photo-op with snow on Speedsters, but the driving would have been dangerous. :-<

Today's brunch at SAS was very nice. Pics to follow from others (and me, when I get home). The cruise afterward was canceled because most folks were just tired of the weather and ready to head home. At 3:30 this afternoon it was a toasty 43 in Asheville - less at higher elevations.

Due to the questionable weather, a sense of fatigue with the Dragon, and an unpleasant run-in with a really obnoxious biker, we will likely look for different roads in the TN/NC mountains next year. There are other roads that are every bit as fun - if not moreso - and you don't have the idiots using them due to all of the hype. We will also probably move it a few weeks earlier in the calendar to try to ensure good weather.

Regardless of all that, it was a good time. :-) Refreshing adult beverages, tasty victuals, and pleasant comradery were enjoyed by all. Some of the driving was quite fun despite conditions. We found a new road heading back to Townsend yesterday that had a couple of turns that were real pucker inducers. First gear was recommended, but the need wasn't clear until you were already committed. WOOHOO!!

Oh yeah - I got to drive Tom's bright yellow Carrera 4s (aka "Big Bird"). Yeehah! Time to buy the lottery ticket. :-D

Ditto to all of Lane's remarks. We had a strong crew of enthusiasts, but the weather would not cooperate. Some(due to lack of heat & defrosting) chose not to drive, but the comaradery was excellent, and the beer was cold.

More on the obnoxious biker on the dragon after I pursue this matter a bit further.

It was a great time good folks fantastic roads even with the weather good food cold brewskies even some left over 2 buck chuck.

I am working on some others but this one is for Lane. This is what the Mississippi folks went thru on the way home.

Yikes!

You guys are a strange breed, to be sure

Beware there be Dragons

Note our fearless leader...

Toyota's RULE????

Holy carp, Richard! I see you did the Cherohola on the way home. Sweet picture! Would made an even more spectacular pic with some Speedies in the foreground.

Hey Vince, it's gonna be sunny and in the 70's just in time for my drive home. Oh joy.

Yea Lane made for a longer ride home but well worth it only about 15 miles above 4000 feet like this but stunning with the colors etc.

We will do it again, already got the tow bar figured out. and going to check work for Carlisle..

The boss says we should go

And if the Boss ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!

Was the Prius included to cut down on the carbon footprint?

It was there to offset the fact that I was running Webers.

Looks like a cold, but GREAT time! I'm sure I would have regretted driving the Hoopty!!!!!!

Let's here more about the biker!

And where are all the pics??!?!

Yeah, the Hoopty would NOT have been a good time. Pics from me (didn't take many) coming when I get home.

Yer hubby has details about the biker. Kinda soured us on the Dragon a bit.

We hope everyone made it home safely....Our trip back started out with a "CRUNCH!" when I poked a hole in the Spyder by backing into the corner of a 10 inch high rock wall.....( golf ball size hole, spider webbed out to softball size.) The drive itself wasn't too bad. We ran into snow and Idiots in the mountains for about 60 mi then everything smoothed out....Now I have another project for this winter...TOM, LANE.....MARILYN says thanks for the good times....Margaret does too.

What a great time in spite of the weather, which wasn't really all that bad.

Thanks to Tom and John for setting up the hotel and restaurants---all top notch++. I wouldn't mind moving this event up by 3 weeks for next year and gladly trade some leaf color for another 10 degrees of warmth.

Congrats to Nolin for his "longest drive" award--yep--Nolan and Jan drove their SAS Speedster all the way from Ft Lauderdale to the Smokies!

Thanks to Leon and Margaret for the cold libations--perfect.

Good for Richard and Becky driving from Hattiesburg, MS in a Mustang as their Speedie is having work done---they still did the trip and made lots of new friends. They also received a longest drive award.

We envied Lane's almost airtight car thanks to his plexi windows--I hope to have a set of them by Carlisle or Morrow bay.

The day at Specialty Auto Sports was spectacular and exceeded my expectations---what an impressive shop that can fabricate anything. Beautiful cars all over the place in various ststes of completion. The bbq was sensational--Steve and his wife were gracious hosts and wonderful people. One highlight was the entertainment---Russ' 10 minute oil change out in the street in front of SAS. True redneck maintenance! John--this event was a super addition to the event.

Alice and I dropped our car off at Jake Raby's Monday morning and got a great tour of his facility--impressive off-the chart. We flew out of Atlanta to home after a great time at The Dragon.

We missed Theresa & Rich, Marty & Sandy, Clint & Betn Owings and Bob Young and hope to see you at the Dragon run next year.

--Jack

A few shots from our rain-soaked Dragon run weekend.

A few more.

In all seriousness, if I were to have been there, (and now more sorry than ever I wasn't) the former "New Jersey" in me would have reared it's way ugly head... dragging the bike over the edge and be on my merry way ~

Yeah, the episode soured us for a few hours, but we eventually got over it. Glad Tom is following through. He's planning to contact the American Motorcyclist Association as well. Karma will catch up to this guy at some point. Something tells me he's cheated on all his wives as well as his taxes, and his kids all hate him.

The rest of the weekend was great fun, even though the weather did dampen things a bit. I'll post a few pics shortly.

Tom, et al:

There will NEVER be a shortage of idiot drivers/bikers on the road pulling those kind of idiotic stunts. Best course of action (in this ever dangerous world we live in - don't ask me how I know) is report to the authorities and let the Karma thing play out. I'm guessing the authorities will just blow it off as another incident on the Dragon (as they probably deal with those kind of TOD shenanigans on a daily basis).

The best revenge is LIVING WELL; driving Speedsters, spending quality time with good friends, and enjoying life! Just imagine that knuckle-dragging cretin was probably on the way to his single-wide to bang his gap-toothed cousin and drink cheap beer paid for with his welfare check.

Peace - Out!

Photos of our tour of the dragon are now up at www.killboy.com. Click on 10/17/09, and you will find us on pages 28 & 30.

Jim,
I think our biker in question would be best served at the Brokeback moto hotel by Bubba & his gorilla brothers. Hopefully, right now, he is still being told to "squeal like a pig" !

Another way to look at it is that eventually all bikers "go down", so they will get theirs at some point....
I suggest next year, the last speedster in the group carry some roofing nails...they work great....

I say: "Hip-hip hooray!!" for the Dragon Killers. Steadfast, and enduring. Bad weather only begets better weather sooner or later. You toughed it out, and all here know that the ride would have been more funner w/ fair skies and a warm breeze. But the warmth of the folks more than made up for the lack in environment, I am sure of that. Sorry I could not make this trek, but had an opportunity to visit my grandkids in New Mexico -- where the weather was so superb I cannot begin to describe -- so I went for that. Also, given the forcast, I bet I would have bailed even if the trip had been planned. So now it's Carlisle -- not yet appearing over the horizon, but on our calendars even so.