At MOTD 2006, Barry (Snooter) and I lead 2 group drives that were very popular and were well received. Feedback from MOTD 2007 said that participants wanted more of these types of events and Barry has done a great job at soliciting voluenteers to lead a wide variety of group day-drives and activitites.

To give you something to look forward to and to help you choose drives that will meet your needs, I've put together a quick list of the scheduled drives at MOTD 2008. The list breaks the drives down by day and "drive style", so you can get the experience that you (and your passengers) are looking for.

There are car limits on these drives, so please go and sign up now! (https://www.northamericanmotoring.com/motd-events) If your plans change and you can't come to the drive, please come back to the event planner page and remove yourself from the drive so someone else can have your place.

A definition of "drive styles" (that will vary due to weather & other conditions):

1. Family-oriented: We will be heading down twisty roads, but it will be at a pace that is both legal and comfortable for passengers
2. Brisk: The pace will be picked up a bit. Speeds will be legal but more sporting than a 'family-oriented' drive. Expect to feel some G-forces in the turns.
3. Spirited: The pace will be legal, but will be quicker than the other 2 styles. These roads are not our own race course and we will give them (and others around them) the respect that they deserve. We will, however, get our full measure of enjoyment from them.

Drive sign-up plans will be announced in the weeks to come. If you have any questions, please feel free to post here or contact a drive leader directly.

See you at Fontana!


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Thursday, May 1, 2008

Family Fun Drive to Gatlinburg by Paul Penny (BlimeyCabrio)

• Est. Time: 9am to 5:30pm
• Details here: http://www.minisonthedragon.info/gatlinburg.html
• Drive style: A family-oriented cruise with 4-5 hours for fun in Gatiliburg

Joyce Kilmer Forrest Drive/Hike by David Lopez (cabriopilot)

• Est. Time: 9am to 1:30pm
• Details here: http://www.minisonthedragon.info/JoyceKilmer.html
• Drive style: 40 minute family-oriented drive each way with a casually paced 2 mile hike (2 hours) on a well-established hiking trail.

Downtown Highlands and Lunch by Aaron Granger (agranger)

• Est. Time: 10am to 4pm
• Details here: http://www.minisonthedragon.info/highlandtrip.html
• Drive style: Brisk drive (90 minutes each way) with 2 hours in Highlands for lunch, shopping, antiques. Run by 1, maybe 2 waterfalls on way home via Wayah Road.

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Friday, May 2, 2008

Historic Dillsboro & Lunch at the Jarrett House by Barry (snooter)

• Est. Time: 10am to 3pm
• Details here: http://www.minisonthedragon.info/Dillsborotrip.html
• Drive style: 1 hour (each way) family-oriented / brisk drive with a group lunch planned and time on your own to shop and wander Dillsboro.

Heinzelmannchen Brewery Run by Bruce and Sue (Professor Zoom)

• Est. Time: 9am to 2:30pm
• Details here: http://www.minisonthedragon.info/brewerydrive.html
• Drive style: Brisk / Spirited drive with brewery tour (birch & root beers available, too) and group lunch

The Devil's Triangle by Dustin (AutoXCooper)

• Est. Time: 10am to 4pm
• Details here: http://www.minisonthedragon.info/Devilstriangle.html
• Drive style: Spirited drive w/ group lunch at Sonic

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Saturday, May 3, 2008

Sunrise Drive through the Smoky Mountains by Aaron Granger (agranger)

• Est. Time: 6:30am to 10-10:30am
• Details here: http://www.minisonthedragon.info/sunrisedrive.html
• Drive style: Spirited drive - on the Dragon at Dawn - fog very possible - may not be the best ride for passengers who are prone to motion sickness - Stop for gas and snacks 1 hour in + 2 stops for scenery, but this is primarily a driving event.
• If we can keep to the schedule, we should be back in time for you to make the panoramic photo event.

Tuckaleechee Caverns & lunch by Carol Ann and David (lilruffcat & welshdragon)

• Est. Time: 9am to 3pm
• Details here: http://www.minisonthedragon.info/tuckaleechee.html
• Drive Style: Family-oriented / Brisk drive (1:30 each way) with tour of Caverns (1:20 tour)

 

FYI. As many of you may notice, most of these drives have a limit number of MINIs on them. This was done to be able to keep the caravans manageable, not to exclude anyone.

We've tried to include as many details so that if anyone misses out on the "organized" run, they can have a go at it themselves or with a group of friends. Plus, we're alway open to someone offering to host a second run of any the drive

 

Doh! My sunrise drive is on Saturday... not Friday as was first listed! It has been corrected.

 

agranger, the sunrise drive sounds awesome. I love being out early in the morning. However, I have to be back in Indianapolis by Saturday night. Here's my question- I would love to do the sunrise drive, but I would need to peel off before the end, probably around where you exit GSMNP and the group heads west toward Bryson City and Fontana. Is that considered improper MOTD etiquette, or am I ok to join the drive if I depart the group route a little early?

Let me know, I would really like to do this.

 

Wow, Thursday has 2 interesting drives. I have been wanting to see the waterfalls for 2 years now, and I have already been to Gatlinburg / Pigeon Forge.

 

Dave,

I've got no problems with your peeling away from the group. When we depart from a scenic overlook in tbe park, we will put you at the end of the line so the caravan doesn't follow you home...


Coop310,

If you decide that you wanna find the waterfalls on your own, I'd be happy to show you where they are on a map (the Highlands Chamber of Commerce was nice enough to send me a map of the town with the waterfalls marked for me).

 

FYI.......after Mark opens the Main Registration he will open up a second phase of registration for the Day Drives.

 

Yeah, I'd like to see the waterfalls too, but I'm not sure I want to participate in the organized event. We'd like a day to relax and not drive as much on Thursday after all the driving on Wed to get there.

 

To find the falls yourself, follow the route I setup for the Highlands drive PDF (follow the link above). The two falls are about 1 to 1.5 miles outside of Highlands, NW of the town on 64 (the road that leads you into and out of the city on my route). On your way out of Highlands (driving NW), Bridal Veil Falls will be on your right (the drive-under falls). Dry Falls (you can walk under without getting wet, supposedly) will be 0.5 mile ahead on your left.

Here is a yahoo map link where Point B is right between the 2 falls and point A is downtown Highlands, NC.

PS: All of this information is from the interweb or maps sent to me by the Highlands Chamber of Commerce and marked by hand by their director. I have not driven these roads or found the falls myself yet. I'll be doing that on Wednesday night (unfortunately, probably during the welcome dinner), just to make sure that everything is OK for the caravan.

http://maps.yahoo.com/#mvt=m&lat=35....8%2C-83.240673

 

Perfect, thank you very much for the info. Looking forward to finding the falls.

 

Bump: For those of you who are anxious to see the event planner...

 

I don't mean to be stupid, so please don't flame me. . . but I'm confused. MOTD NAM homepage says event planner is not working yet, but it opens when I click the link. But I don't see how to sign up for drives.

I just want to be sure I can register for some of the drives that are limited to a certain number of cars.

 

Mark is working on the car sign up forms and should have them up very soon.

 

oooo i need to get in on a few of these

 

We definitely want to go on a couple of these!

 

Please note that as of last weekend, 3/9, Dry Falls is closed. It appears that they are doing major work on the parking area/walkway. The signs did not say when it would re-open but from the looks of it Dry Falls may still be closed that weekend.

 

Thanks! I'll be pre-driving the route and checking out the falls the night before... just to be sure!

 

The event planner is now open!!! https://www.northamericanmotoring.com/motd-events

These drives have car limits on them, so please sign up soon. If your plans change, please come back to the event planner and remove yourself from the drive so that someone else can have your spot.

 

some total noob questions here....does sign-up for these drives end on 4/7? Are any exceptions made at the time of the drive if the car limit has been met or people did not previously sign-up?

I've read the drive descriptions but I'm still unsure how many of the drives will involve actually driving on 'the dragon' (pls excuse my naivety!). Are there any official runs/drives that focus just on cruising the dragon (I don't see any specifically on the planner)?

lastly, I know cell phone reception is shoddy, how about for GPS/Navs?

 

Ambrosia,

GPS / NAV reception is good. That all runs on satellites and you should have pretty good reception anywhere in the continental USA. The heavy tree cover may cause some disruption, but it will still be fairly early spring... you should be fine.

The Midnight on the Dragon (not organized as a day drive) focuses on driving the Dragon (at midnight on Saturday evening / Sunday morning). Several of the day drives go along the Dragon as part of the route, but none 'focus' on runs back and forth along the road... it's usually just a lucky happenstance that you need to get somewhere and the Dragon is between the start and end point.

Click on the links in the first post of this thread to get more info on where you might be going.

This is the route map for my sunrise drive in the Smokys to help you get oriented to the geography of the area.



Fontana Village is at box #1. The Dragon is the first 13-some miles between between Box #3 (Deal's Gap) and #4, once you cross over the TN state line.

If you were to head south from box #3 for about 15 miles, you would be in Robbinsville, the nearest large town (gas, groceries, restaurants & cell phone service). If you head east from Fontana (box #1), and go towards #14, you will be driving the "Hellbender", an up and coming drivers road with much greater elevation changes than the Dragon. The route that my Highlands tour will use to return to Fontana will cross Wayah road, another up and coming twisty driver's road.

If a drive fills up, you MIGHT be able to talk the drive leader into taking one more, but that's up to them. The car limit is put in place to keep the caravan of cars from getting so long that it's difficult to keep everyone together and on the right path. You wouldn't think that it is that much of a challenge until you try to be MINI #1 in a string of 30... I've been caught in some sticky situations (search "mud smoky mountain scenic" for photos from MOTD 2006 ) while pulled over waiting for the end of the caravan to catch up.

 

The Gatlinburg drive, my Sunrise Smoky Mountain drive, the Devil's Triangle run and the Tuckaleechee Caverns trip all will go at least one way down the Dragon. The Highlands trip will pass through Deal's gap (1 mile from east end of the Dragon) if you want a run down and back that afternoon.

There are some plans to do another Dragon parade (all cars line up at the base of Fontana Dam and cruise to and down the Dragon), but that is still in the planning stage. Details, if they can be worked out, will be announced later. It generally happens on the morning of the first full day at MOTD, meaning Thursday morning this time... but even that hasn't been decided yet.

 

By the looks of things I don't think any of the drives will be booked to the maximum limit of 30 cars.
So I would contact the drive leader as soon as you know so that you can be added to the list.
I personally will be sending out a PM to those listed on the Joyce Kilmer Drive at the close of registration with additional contact info.
i.e., Cellphone contact number (which probably won't work) and an FSR channel number.

 

Hey! My sunrise drive is up to 24 cars so far! I'm quite surprised that an early morning event has drawn such a following, but it just might fill up! The brewery drive is doing very well, too. I wouldn't be surprised if it filled up before the event starts.


I've gotta say, though, that when I did that Smoky Mountain drive at dawn in 2006, pre-driving the route for the 90+ cars (3 groups) that were to take it the next day, it was one of the best driving experiences of my life. Driving the Dragon in the fog when the sun was rising was beautiful. When I hit Little River road on the north side of the Smokys, I had the place to myself. I was blasting along with the sunroof open, the windows down, the heat on 'HI' and the seat heaters cranking away... my teeth were still chattering, but the best way I can describe it was a simple joy of being alive and in the moment. Whenever I have a bad day at the office, I can still (2 years later) close my eyes and be there in an instant.

 

I know exactly what you mean. Reminds me of the couple of drives I've been able to take through the Alps. Something about mountains in the morning just makes for great driving! This will be exhilarating, I can't wait. . . And thanks for the reminder about cool weather, to bring the leather coat and gloves. I don't care what the temp is, this is definitely a top down drive.

 

Honestly, I'm stunned, but the sunrise drive is officially full! I might be persuaded to open up for a few more cars, so just send me a PM and say 'hi'. I'm willing to bet that a few folks will bail when they get up that early and decide that a few more hours of sleep after the brewswap the previous evening is more important to them. :D