Home from the Dragon..

MUShadd · #1 04-27-2008, 11:06 PM

so I was a few days early..lol. A family friend owns a lakehouse near Pigeon Forge. I was asked about 1pm Friday if i wanted to go down there for the weekend. 4hours later, I was in the MINI and on my way. Spent all day saturday shopping and hanging out in Gatlinburg. I woke up Sunday to a lot of rain...not really wanting to go home. I decided to make the trip down to the Dragon to see what all the fuss was about, and if I was lucky, see a couple fellow MINIs....maybe some earlybirds for MOTD.

For those of you who have not traveled that stretch of road before, it is an absolute must. I had a blast, and it was just me and the GF. I wish I could have done this trip this coming weekend so it would have been with all the other MINIs, but I'm still pretty excited about the whole thing. I tried to find a shirt, but no luck.

I'm hoping I can find a couple online after the event is over. Are any of you taking part in MOTD? Id love to, but seeing as i just got back from going down there, its not too feasible for me. If anyone is going, care to pick me up a few shirts?

and to the handful of MINIs I saw down there...hope you guys have fun!

MiniEsq · #2 04-28-2008, 08:49 AM

I'm not able to go - not a good time to take the time off work - but my boyfriend is going down to the Dragon with the Audis for Quattro de Mayo at the same time. He promised me lots of Mini pictures.

terryg · #3 04-28-2008, 08:55 AM

We met up with the Audi guys at the overlook last year during Midnight on the Dragon. Great gang with some real sleepers

MiniEsq · #4 04-28-2008, 09:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by terryg

We met up with the Audi guys at the overlook last year during Midnight on the Dragon. Great gang with some real sleepers

If one of them had a red RS4 with West Virginia plates, he's a good guy.

That's my boyfriend....he'll be there again this year and he really loves my Mini so I'm sure he'd be happy to say "hi" and probably will want to check out some of the Minis.

MiniEsq · #5 04-29-2008, 09:29 AM

SnYpR --

You should check out killboy.com and zeefoto.com--they're photographers who take pictures of cars on the Dragon. Killboy has stuff up from Sunday, and got 2-3 shots of you. Zee Foto is still sorting Sunday's stuff apparently. Here's Killboy's page -- you're the last picture but there are more on the next page:

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/thum...%3d02%26s%3d50

Your Mini looks great on the Dragon!

MUShadd · #6 05-01-2008, 03:39 PM

I already bought TWO lol. But thank you. I saw kill boy when i was on the Dragon, was totally unaware of his setup, but decided to check it out after I saw an Evo parked where they were taking pictures..it had his website plastered on the side. I was excited to see what kind of operation he ran. At first i thought they were just nice people who wanted my picture haha. there was a MINI parked with them, so i figured it was just an early MOTD crew.

I havent heard of zeefoto...i dont remember seeing anyone else, doesn't mean they werent there. The dragon seemed pretty empty, which was great for me.

MiniEsq · #7 05-01-2008, 08:11 PM

Sounds like you had a great time. I'm glad you got the pics! My boyfriend left for the Audi event this morning....I told him to keep an eye out for Minis on the Dragon tshirts but he said that he didn't see any last year. He's going to look for us, though.

MiniEsq · #8 05-05-2008, 03:06 PM

My boyfriend wasn't able to find any Minis on the Dragon tshirts while he was there but he tells me that he did get some footage of some Minis. He'll be home in a few days - I'll post links to anything good.

MiniEsq · #9 05-07-2008, 09:34 PM

Ok....so this is the only picture my boyfriend was able to get....

Here is the edited video of his trip on the Dragon, though, and he passes some Minis....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlnPTr83d74

And, here is the highlights from Killboy (the photographer on the Dragon) that he put on the blog - there are some great Mini picks....and, if I may brag for a moment, that "sexy" red Audi RS4 is my boyfriend's car.
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]http://killboy.blogspot.com/

That's all I have from the Dragon. Looks like we missed a good time....of course, I'm not so sure that I'm ready to drive the Dragon yet!
[/FONT]

MUShadd · #10 05-08-2008, 11:51 AM

thats a lot of traffic, i guess i was blessed in that respect. I passed maybe 5 cars total going in each direction when i went. basically had it to myself. (it had just rained when i ran, the road was almost completely dry though)

MiniEsq · #11 05-08-2008, 02:42 PM

I guess there was a good amount of traffic....and he went around 7 or 8am! All the Minis were there....and all the Audis....and another couple of events....plus any other normal Dragon traffic. I think if I work up to doing it, I'd rather do it some weekend when there was less traffic!

MUShadd · #12 05-08-2008, 07:56 PM

its not that bad really, you can go at your own pace. the speed limit is 30, so you can really take your time and enjoy the ride. I am by no means an expert driver. I'm probably no better than average...and i survived! BTW my Killboy.com photos arrived today, i bought a smaller approx 8x10.. and a really big one i believe it was a 16x24 or something liek that...looks great on my wall!!

MiniEsq · #13 05-08-2008, 09:19 PM

I'm glad the pics look good!

But maybe it's just the good-looking car making the pics look good too.

bucky082642 · #14 05-09-2008, 08:37 PM

We did the Dragon after the Mini Meet East last year. I was very nervous at the beginning but soon settled into the rythm of the drive. Nobody really drives it too fast. If a cycle starts crowding you, you can pull off at one of the many stopping places and let them pass. After a rest and lunch at the Fontana Lodge I was really ready to drive it back, and my wife was less apprehensive. We bought a couple of the KILLBOYS pictures. She was waving at the cameras through the sunroof. I guess she was enjoying it nearly as much as I was.