From Delphi's "New Triumph Bonneville Forum", (NTBF), which just happens to hold their annual rally at Deals Gap the same weekend the Minis are there (and which is why I own a new Mini )

One of the members (Tom), who lives in Maryville, just over the mountain from the Dragon, attended a Kiwanis meeting last week. Here's a verbatim quote from his posting in the NTBF.

>"The Blount County Sheriff spoke at our Kiwanis meeting today. He had a Q&A session afterwards, and I asked if the increased enforcement on the Dragon would continue into next year. He said the grant to pay for the additional enforcement starting late this past summer was $65,000. Evidently it has been determined to have been a success, because it has been increased to $125,000 for next year! Looks like it's here to stay...."<

After four good years the NTBF guys decided to move their rally HQ to Maggie Valley. Those who want to run the Dragon can do it from there. Otherwise, most of their riding will be done IN NC. Ben, one of the owners of the Deals Gap resort, said it's NOT the Blount County (TN) or Graham County (NC) Sheriff departments that are the culprits behind the "over-policing". It's the TN HP. Ya gotta feel for Ben and crew.., you know this will impact their bottom line.

On your toes if you're heading to the Rally in May.

 

It sucks! I just moved to Knoxville in Oct. hoping to be able to go have fun on the Dragon. Oh well, there are tons of other great roads though!

 

A very sad thing, indeed. It's one thing to patrol the area for safety reasons, but (from what I understand) what they have been doing seems particularly egregious. Given all the negative publicity, you would think they would have reconsidered their approach, not redoubled it. I guess TN isn't getting nearly as much economic benefit from the "tourism" as NC so they are resorting to this for their slice of the tourists' dollar, otherwise this would certainly seem to be a penny-wise, dollar-foolish decision.

Considering the cyclical nature of anything, I expect that the tourism will now begin a decline over the next few years. It will hit some abysmal low that will force some of the business to close. Once the area becomes a "has been" (5, 10 years?) it will begin to slowly build back up again - to the point that it provokes the local law enforcement to act harshly
........rinse, repeat..............

 

That is because there really is nothing to do on that side of the Dragon, most of places to spend your tourist dollars are on the NC side.

 

That's what happens when enforcement over a road is driven by grant money. TN HP is gonna have to justify a $125,000 grant if they want to keep it for the following year (just like they had to justify the $65k this year) -- do you think they can do that by handing out a couple of tickets to those who really need to be reeled in? Nope, you need more than that to make $2,500/weekend look good on paper.

 

While that may be true, does the question need to be asked what the purpose of the HP really is? Do they exist to consume grant money, or do they exist to enforce traffic regulations (which are supposedly in existence for the safety of the population)? And who keeps them accountable?

This is the stuff that gets irritating all the way up and down the list of our public services/governmental agencies. The populous doesn't bother to get involved even when things are out of whack because it all seems out of their control. Of course, throwing your hands up essentially ends the ability to have any control.

...ah, but enough of this. I'm not getting any deeper into it due to NAM Guideline #10.

On a tangentially related note (about control and money), here is a video I found quite interesting (although admittedly long): http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...74362583451279

 

The purpose of any agency or company is to survive and/or make profit where applicable. I don't think any of us would have issues with the HP pulling people over for speeding, reckless driving or other ridiculous behavior. It's the hunt that they are on to find any reason to pull people over and ticket them.

 

We can have fun with this. We can all drive flawlessly within the law, and have it on video for evidence. We can take pics of the TN HP crossing center line and post it on the ap news wire with the caption "Redneck cops are hypocrits". We can do burn outs on the NC side of the state line and stick our tounges out at the TN HP. We can do TN HP caracatures and put them in our windows. We can offer them sandwiches and then jerk them away and scream "NOT". We can get a guy with diplomatic immunity from Russia to take a MINI through at crazy speed and when he gets pulled he can step out of the car and laugh as he says (russian accent) "diplomatic immunity, ha ha ha". We can convert a MINI into a micro jet and when the cops chase us we can take off and fly away. We can all wear hockey masks so the cops are afraid to pull us. We can put signs on our cars insulting Davey Crockett and insinuate that all TN HP are inbred. BUT my plan is to drive NC roads enjoy Fontana, hike, maybe kayak, and just have a great time with great people that I only see once a year.

OOTO60

 

That is a wonderful idea if you want to get a serious pistol whipping.

 

I don't know of the word "hunt" applies to the Dragon though... Anyone who's been there knows that even if they limited their enforcement to egregious displays of show-off operating (knee dragging on bikes, driving so fast that proper lane control is not possible in cars), they'd basically only have to wait about 2 minutes to find someone to pull over.

In other words, it's not hunting when the deer walks right up to you and dies at your feet, is it?

Honestly, as much fun as I had on the Dragon last year, there are plenty of other roads in that area that are nearly as twisty and can actually be driven with more enjoyment, and that's where I plan to go next time I'm there. It's just too frustrating on the Dragon half the time - not because of the HP, but because of all the clueless "I never pull over for faster traffic", road-hogging Harley's and slow-moving trucks.

But, I'll do at least one run in my classic, and maybe an early-morning run, and I know I'll have fun on the Midnight run - that should be plenty of DragonRIDING (Slaying that road simply isn't possible) for me.

 

posted in wrong thread.

 

I am having a bit of difficulty understanding just why this small piece of road is such a concern. It's been my understanding that the stretch in question is not as deadly as I am sure more heavily used highways are. Even by proportion it seems a bit much for law enforcement to take such an interest.
I mean, if the proportion of traffic to injury is as small as I seem to believe, then WHO is complaining?

 

How much of the dragon is on the TN side? Is there a point to turn around just on the NC side? Just curious.

 

I have a feeling the idea is that folks from out of state aren't likely to come back to show up for the court date so they'll just pay the fine and be done with it. See the dollar signs in the state's eyes?

 

~9 miles are in TN

 

Well there goes THAT idea. Yeesh.

 

Most of it is in Tenn.. and there is no good place to turn around...

 

I have been there two times in the last 4 months and have yet to see any real problem at the Dragon.
It may be that I was there during the week instead of the weekend, but I never even saw one trooper.

Even if it was wall to wall troopers, there's not much they can do if I'm not breaking any laws.

I'll be going again in about a week and this time I'll try and go on the weekend to see if there is anything more annoying than the Trucks and Harleys.
I don't really understand why trucks aren't automatically issued a ticket when found on this road.
After all there's no way for them to stay in their lane while driving the Dragon.

As stated earlier in this thread, there are way too many great roads up there for me to worry about just one (129).
My route from home to the Dragon is filled with twisties and mountain roads that make the dragon pale in comparison.

MOTD is a must do event, even if no driving was involved I would go for the shear number of fellow MINI enthusiasts that show up and the camaraderie.

 

Yep... if you don't like the Dragon due to draconian TN law inforcement, turn right out of Fontana to the Hellbender instead of turning left and driving to the Dragon. NC 28 is an incredible road and it runs all the way down to GA with beautiful twisties! Follow the link to my drive to Highlands for a great twisty route to follow with full maps, etc.

http://www.minisonthedragon.info/highlandtrip.html

 

Well at least the video kepted you within NAM guideline # 1 since there is a MINI in the video at 13:56 .

 

Maybe we could offer them a donut as a peace offering

 

I elect YumYumDriver to be the official donut giving representative of MOTD 2008!

Or maybe we should take up a collection at the brewswap... everyone in the door gives a bottle to the TN Troopers! :D

 

I'm SURE they would appreciate that! Especially if we ZOOM it up to them while they are waiting to ticket us!

 

I have been working on this.....



Now if I can just figure out how to reduce the drag coefficient and get it to light up

 

So when they all take pursuit after you and finally pitt you and realize you don't have any donuts, what do you suppose will happen, hmm?