Let's also use the Miata incident as a reminder of response times out in the country. We were in the group of 4 MINI's that helped move the tree off the road. We had gone to sit on the side of the road to film the Midnight on the Dragon run. I think it was a good 1.5 hours from the time we left the accident scene until the police and ambulance showed up. And with the distances they have to travel, that's just how it is.

We never heard what the actual decision was on the Midnight run. Did the group get to the wreck and turn around or did they not leave in the first place? Just curious. We saw the Atlanta MINI's do their run and at ~1am we decided that the larger group wasn't coming so we went back.

 

Here's a pic of the Miata wrapped around the tree. Not a pretty sight.


As for the Midnight Run, we adjusted the event on the fly and it was a great success this year. We waited at the gravel lot until the ambulance passed with the Miata driver onboard before heading back. Just gave us more time to enjoy the stars with good friends!

 

No, we didn't turn around from the accident (would have been hard to do with so many cars and so little space to do it!). We all filed slowly past the accident, and continued all the way to Tabcat Bridge. Then we ended up deciding to wait until the accident was clear... which meant waiting for the police and ambulance to go up the dragon... and come back.

We only waited for the ambulance to return though. On the way back, the police were still at the scene, blocking one of the two lanes, and directing traffic though.

Since we didn't leave Tabcat Bridge until a few minutes before 1am, "Midnight on the Dragon" quickly became "1am on the Dragon"!

It was a long wait, but most of us had fun with it... and it was also quite eerie once we all turned our cars off, and relied on just the glow from the neon light-up stuff... and the occasional flashlight.

Funniest moment of the wait... two cars (well, a car and a minivan) came along towards the Dragon, crossed Tabcat Bridge, saw us all sitting there like some alien landing and IMMEDIATELY did a u-turn and went the other way! About 5 or 10 minutes later though somebody was setting off fireworks from the other side of the bridge, so perhaps they were just looking for a good place to do that, and we stole their intended spot. Anyway, good laughs.

 

Hmm, I guess it was just a much smaller group than we expected. We saw several MINI's but except for the Atlanta MINI's group, we never saw what we considered to be a large group. I guess they were just nice and spread out and we didn't miss the actual run as we were there watching for a while. We were the 4 MINI's on the right side of the road past the overlook on the way back to Fontana. The ambulalance driver and cops all slowed down and stared at us like we were insane, but they probably think that about most of the people on the road

At one point KillBoy rode by and stopped to talk for a while.

 

Here are the pictures I took just before the group corssed the Dragon. Glad it wasn't a MINI and that the occupants were ok, realitivly speaking.

 

Steve and Jerry helped you move the tree... Jerry. I still have the pine sap on my steering wheel to prove it .

Great time at the dragon! I already miss it. It was awesome making so many new friends. I enjoyed that part more than the actual driving part. Hope everyone made it home safely. I'm already counting down the days till next year (somewhat to my wife's dismay ).

-Jerry

 

That'll buff right out!

 

That was what I thought, but I didn't even know y'all went to move the tree until after we got to the gravel lot. I'll harass him for ya!

So who's planning on doing a fall run!

 

Got home last night at around 11pm from the dragon. Took me 14 hours to get back to NY cause of the traffic on 78 in PA UGH!! Thanks to Pete and Patrick for making the ride bearable. Thanks to all who made it happen, I chose the dragon trip instead of a track day and an autocross, and now I'm 150% positive I made the right decision. It was great to meet everybody and I had a blast!! Can't wait to do it again...

Aaron from Outmotoring: Do you have some of the VacuCam video you guys took, I'd love to see it, I know you guys were MOOOOVIN!

And Happy B-Day Patrick, 5/10!

Also, Anybody know who was taking pics from his Murano up on the dragon, he had a big tent sent up with his Co. name on it but I was too busy paying attention to the turns to remember what it was, he snapped a few of me and I was wondering if I could see them?

Thanks!!!

 

I know I saw KillBoy's tent set up at one point. I went to his website www.killboy.com and there is a link to sign up to get an email when our weekends pics are available if you're interested in seeing what he took. From looking around at his site, it looks like you can browse through the pics and order one of his products with the pics if you find some you like.

 

Killboy.com

The pics will be posted sometime this week.

Steve

 

I got back last night about 6PM. Oh the joys of our Commercial Airline system. I got on a plane that was delayed for mechanical problems, and missed my connecting flight by 2 minutes--the time it took to travel from gate A2 to A26---uhm a very long and crazy run with my baggage at Dallas Fortworth.

Next year I'm driving my REAL MINI.

Here's a pic of my Counterfeit! Can you spot it??

 

Thanks mielnicki vbmenu_register("postmenu_542956", true);
....!!!

 

Our small caravan of 3 made it back to Va Beach late Sunday afternoon.. no speeding tickets yeay!! It's weird re-adjusting to suburban/metropolitan traffic after the freedom of zooming around 28-129-143

already today some girl talking on her cell phone drove right thru a red light to cut me off going half the speed limit.. welcome back I guess...

hey a big thanks to all you guys who worked so hard to coordinate, logisticate, narrarate, and provide the food to ate -!! nearly everyone I met all weekend was really friendly

next year.. double again? 822 registrants -?? I've already reserved my cabin at Fontana....(I had really great neighbors you know who you are)

Bart

 

....yes, we were mooooovin a bit too fast out there and have some absolutely insane footage...we had about 15 different camera angles and about 90 minutes of tape and need to edit it down to 5 minutes of complete craziness....Sean is actually doing the video..we're thinking of selling them as DVD's if it turns out good enough...should be pretty cool!!!

After a 6 hours of running the turns we decided that we were getting too comfortable with the speed so we stopped driving.....that's probably the best decision we made all weekend!

best,

 

Hey it was great meeting you Aaron. Can't wait to see what you got.

Richard

 

Ms. Mouse and I got home to Florida a couple of hours ago after a side-trip to the Wheels of Time Museum in Maggie Valley.

Had a great time! Thanks to all for the hard work that it takes to put together an event, especially an event that ran as smoothly as this.

Can't wait to be back, we haven't had that much fun in years!

 

The whole Midnight run still confuses me, as I don't remember any cars heading down the dragon after Midnight. We passed a group when we were headed back up at the Overlook (we meant to pull off there to film, but there was no room), but that was at like 11:45. No big group of cars came down the dragon that I saw. Odd.

 

That's what I thought too. I am so confused

 

we had great time , great motoring and met new people .. PERFECT !!!!

The Mini Caravan of three made home safe and sound without tickets; it was so hard for Edge to stay away from the Police radar, but he did it. BRAVO !!!

The Chili Cook Off was fantastic... and DCMM brought home 4 winners !!! (I am so proud of my Club)

.... of course we already made reservations for next year.

MD STREGA2
DC STELLA

 

A group of maybe 30ish came by us at the overlook decked out with glow thingyes. Not sure of the time as different ones were trying to get a cell phone signal to call 911 for the Miata. Finally was able to. We could see the bonnet lights shining up from the group below. Looked cool from the overlook too.

We hung out there for quite a while playing with cameras and neon. We figured the road was closed with the emergency vehicles. Finally someone came from south end and we found out we could get back through.

 

did you vote for the chili or the person?

 

I had a GREAT time. Moom said she did too, even if I did not let her drive! I did not want her to over work her new knee .


Thank you all who helped organize this event! It was a blast and I will be trying to attent next year.

The best part was leading the parade! I do not know how I got that job, but I was very prowd to be the leader. (now all of you know who to blame for driving sooo slow).

See you all next year!:smile:
Sheri

 

great job sheri, with the parade and the cades cove drive!! thanks a bunch, jon and dee!

 

I am confused also.