Haha! Np, Also offering test drives if you're interested

 

Oh BTW, is anyone bringing yuengling beer?

 

I'll bring a prize for you, I always have trinkets from MINI events, I'll go dig one out of the box. You can't miss me, tall, bald/hat, loud mouth, adolescent behavior...ask anybody. ;-)

 

Getting Ready to leave

 

You people have a blast! I toyed with the idea of coming up for the midnight run but still haven't gotten my new tires and can't head up to the dragon without a spare.

 

and washes!!

 

Don't be wasting that precious water to wash your MINI. There is a severe drought going on for those folks down there. Wash it when you come home.

 

Heading back to der Fatherland in a couple hours y'all. What a great weekend!

It was great to see two of my favorite clubs start what I hope is a cool tradition...thanks again for inviting everyone in for the BBQ dinner...good eats and great memories. I think I may have found a property on lake Santeelah too (retirement is 3-5 years away! ) so mebbe we'll all have a central gathering place in a couple years!

Twister: I'll look forward to your PM or e-mail re: the clock.

Jack/et. Al.: It was wonderful meeting you for the first time...hope to see y'all again next year. If the wx's nice I think a "Haloweenie" should be a new tradition for us all--not as crowded and far, far fewer enforcers of that random road tax patrolling the dragon too!

I'll post again when I get home in a day or so!

 

w00t! had a blast.Got home about 30 min ago, made great time there and back (Not 1 LEO sighting either way). Was great meeting everyone and puting a name/face to a forum handle. Looking forward to May now!

 

Hey everyone. I had a blast in the one day I got to be there. Jason, great job on everything. Xiek, nice meeting you. Mayby I will have to come up and see all you Canooks and see how the motoring is in Canada. I just got home, today, after leaving Fontana, early Sat morning. Got a call as soon as I got to 40 saying get to the unit now. 2 days without sleep, but, got in 3 hours last night. For all those that didnt get to go, you missed a great time. Mayby we can have a get together in Brevard, NC. I will have photos up soon, hopefully. And last but not least. Is there gonna be a special photo album for the MINIs Slay the Sleeping Dragon?
V/R
a very tired SSG Phillip Batson

 

A great big thanks to Jason, Paul, Mark and everyone who helped in putting this fantastic event together!!!! Had a blast and enjoyed meeting everyone! The drive's were..... !!!! Heck, I even learned a new way to say "Aluminum"... Hope everbody get's home safe and sound...

 

Thanks to all, had a blast with old friends and new from all over the continent! No more BBQ for a while, and ordering a pizza tonight for sure.

The Dragon, and 28/Hellbender on the way there from Fontana, and the lodge itself were all better than I had imagined, and the weather! Superb!

Octane, testosterone, caffeine and adrenaline are a potent mixture and may have sent MidnightDave and Austin Powers over the top at times and if we offended anybody, we apologize--except for that frat boy who didn't like his girlfriend's zealous reaction to Austin's MOJO and Isaac's Miata. ;-)

Now time for pics! I didn't take many, relying on better cameras/shutterbugs for the "good" shots--this will give you a flavor till they arrive...

Fontana Dam Photoshoot







Paul's Fun Run







Deals Gap

 

I had a great time. Enjoyed meeting everyone. Thanks to N2MINI for putting on my decals.

 

1QUIKMINI you ROCK! Thanks for gathering us all together for such a wonderful event. The family and I had a great time.

To everyone else:
It was great to meet everyone and have a great time! The caravan up was awesome! The photoshoot was a blast! So many MINIs!

Mark Vogler AKA TWISTER

 

Xiek, Enjoyed meeting you. You livened up the weekend. Hope you guy's and Girls have a safe trip back to Canada. Come back agian next year.

 

 

Dude, + (Insert BIG number here)

I was a bit nervous going into this since it seemed like it was going to be 99% N.C. folks.. and then us I just have to say that y'all definitely make us feel at home and we had a great time

See y'all in May... and of course next Nov. for MSSD2

 

How were the LEO's?

 

Thanks for a great weekend, everyone! Wonderful people, perfect weather, and miles of wide-open twisty roads made it a very memorable experience!

Xiek, thanks for leading the charge over the Dragon for the Midnight Run and for the glow sticks. I hope my crosseyed headlights didn't cause any permanent retinal damage!

QueenB, thanks as always for showing us the roads less travelled! The 1st semi-annual BBC (Brewery, Bakery, & Cafe) trip was a smashing success! I think we should dedicate all future runs to the memory of Squiggy, the ex-squirrel. He lost his head, but won our hearts

We enjoyed meeting everyone at the brewswap, even those that probably can't remember meeting us

And a special thanks to the wonderful person that saw Blooper shivering out in the cold last night and gave him a dragon to keep him warm!!!

Terry & Cherie

 

LEO's where pretty much not around- I didn't hear of any from our group making a "donation".

Great trip-great planning. The weather was incredible and even the leaves delayed their color change for us! This was my first Dragon-perhaps doing it for the first time at midnight wasn't the best idea but anyway I still had a blast.

OH..I got my first DING-it's cold out this moring at the lodge. Ding it's 33 out (that's 0(ish) to you XIEK)- scared the crap out me at first~!

 

What LEO's

 

What LEOs? I didn't see one all weekend! We ran the Dragon and area three times, and never saw ONE! It was like the whole weekend was a blessing from above. The weather and Fall foliage, AMAZING! It was so incredible running the Dragon with the leaves dancing off the road from the MINI in front of you, and see them in the rear view. The colors were incredible. The temps were perfect! The Saturday drive Paul put on was AWESOME! Hanging out at the Dam Saturday with everyone was great, and to see all the MINIs there at one place! The atmosphere, just like family. It's weird to think we live in different states and even countries! Like I've said, it would have been fun if it was just my wife and I, but to be able to join with so many great people, PRICELESS! And the fact that there were so many people driving the Dragon for the first time, and NO ONE (from our group) drove outside of their abilities, and there were no incidences whatsoever, made it a complete success as far as I am concerned. From the beginning of what I said I wanted it to be, to being at the Brew Swap last night and seeing it as I envisioned, I couldn't be happier! Thanks for joining in the fun, and I hope you all had as good a time as April and I did!
Some of my favorite memories? Midnight Dave as Austin Powers at the Brew Swap, later crashing the frat/sorority party and almost getting beat up.
Watching everyone playing disc golf for the first time.
The barbecue dinner with the Miata guys joining us, and building a new comraderie with those guys.
And last, but not least, MAPLE COOKIES FROM CANADA!!!! A shout out to our Canuck friends for bringing a whole slew of people down to add the red and white color! Xiek, you truly are one of a kind, and we love ya for it! Thanks for the dragon gift, too! I'll surely bring it with me in May and November!
We'll see you at MSSD2008!
Need I say more?

 

As Wild&Crazy said "What LEOs?"

We saw ONE deputy all the way down at the Tabcat Bridge lot on late Friday afternoon. On Saturday, I led a 140ish mile drive down the Dragon, across 360 to the Skyway, back to Robbinsville, back up 129 and 28 to Fontana, and saw exactly ZERO LEOs... which was a GOOD thing for me, being the lead dog of a very uppity dog team...

 

You got that right! Try being the guy behind the very uppity dog team leader! Talk about pushing me to new limits! And I loved every minute of it! (Except being behind the stupid burgandy Nissan....

 

Again, as many have said, a HUGE Blimey-sized shout-out to Jason / 1QukMINI for making this happen - he gave me WAYYY more credit than I deserved - this thing was ALL him (or at least 92% him) and I think it was FABULOUS. Thanks to the folks who joined me on my run on Saturday - see that thread for my "lessons learned" - I'm new at this and will do a few things differently next time. But, other than a severe shortage of potty and photo breaks, I think it was a great success.

It was GREAT meeting so many of you. Lots of new friends. Can't wait to motor and visit with you some more.

It was especially awesome spending lotsa time with my now-good buddies MINI_Bee and Xiek. You guys rock.

Great spending more time with all my THMMC brothers and sisters, too. As always, it was a BLAST. (How could it not be with MidnightDave around?)

Thanks to my bunkmate and newly-realized fraternity brother MDK for putting up with me and my sounds and smells...

Thanks to Rebecca for MAPLE SYRUP - I thought I knew what that was before, but I had NO IDEA...

Thanks to Dave for helping salvage our disc golf round. Thanks to Rich for spelunking for my disc...

I made it about 90 minutes down the road with MDK this morning. Then we stopped for gas... and Blimey started pulling back toward the mountains... I ended up taking the LONNNNGGGG way home (added about 3 hours) and drove back across the parkway at Devil's Courthouse, took lots of pics, drove Bat Cave / Old Fort Road, and finally got my fill of twisties - at least for THIS weekend...

Glad I got to take some pics today - so busy driving and socializing I took very few on Friday and Saturday. Here's what the foliage was like on my drive across Devil's Courthouse - awesome.





I'm REALLY tired. But it's a "good" kinda tired.

Only 6 more months to May! But, alas, it won't be NEARLY as good as Jason's little grassroots weekend. Oh, well. Only 12 more months to MSSD 2008! Yay!