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"THE" Official 2010 Fall Dragon Run...Oct 7th thru 10th!

Klasse Act

I pee with gloves on!
Joined
May 28, 2000
Messages
5,115
Location
Palatine IL, USA
The votes have been cast and once again, the 2nd week of October has won out for our official weekend to run the Dragon! Thanks again to all who voted and chimed in, its much appreciated. This thread will have all the info about the cabins, updates on the cars, general info about the run itself and just about anything else pertaining to the 2010 Fall Dragon Run.

Our choice of cabins is where we've stayed all but one year, right here www.caneycreekvillage.com and your going to want to ask for Dixie, she's taken great care of our group every year and I can't even think about another place to go but here. This location is perfect as its only about 3 miles from the start of the Cherohola Skyway, close to the downtown area and has a nice little "warm up" road to get there, perfect:cool: Pricing of the cabins is very good, infact, we get a discount too. When calling, ask for Dixie and tell her your with the group with "Roger from Deeetroit", even though I'm in Chicago now. The prices range from $20 a night for basically a bed, a bit more for a bathroom and then there's the ones with everything and one even has a jacuzzi. The one we stayed in last year had 2 beds and everything you would need and want and was $70.00 a night, no taxes and split 3 way was only $70 per person for the 3 days, you can't beat that AND you get a free breakfast at our official breakfast restaraunt in downtown Tellico. Everyone knows how good that food is too!

For those noobs going, please read as much of this thread as possible to get a feel for what we do here. We are, by no means a bunch of "fun governors" but we also run at a good, safe pace, others because of their cars and abilities can run a bit of a better pace while others hang back, no problems as there's NO pressure to keep up, you run at your own, safe pace and pick it up when and if the time comes. This road is NO joke I must say. The Skyway is a 57 mile, winding road to get to the Dragon. It has large, sweeping turns, some don't seem to end and those are the ones you've gotta watch out for, when you think its ending, its not, so be careful out there. The elevation goes to a mile high at one point and then you head back down the hill, some areas have signs posted for a 9% grade! Your brakes and tires are your best friend out there, speed and power arent', so your going to want to make sure those two areas are in the best of condition! There are many places along the way to stop and take pics of the scenery, or to get yourself together after a few turns, it happens for noobs sometime, trust me, I was there back in 2003 when I first went there.

Once we've completed the Cherahola Skyway we begin the Dragon itself. At first its no big deal, just a winding country road with a nice view of the river that runs along side of it for some time further down the road, but once we get to the "Fugative Dam" and hit that right, uphill turn, its about to get very interesting and fun! A stop at the famous Deals Gap motorcycle resort is usually in order next, but sometimes we just skip it, we'll play it by ear for sure but once we pass Deals Gap....ITS GAME TIME:cool: The road commands your FULL ATTENTION AT ALL TIMES, trust me and if you take your eyes off the road for a second, you've messed up. Its hard to describe the road, really, but the best way is this, an 11 mile rollercoster ride, but your the one in control. I HIGHLY SUGGEST THAT YOUR FIRST TIME OUT THERE YOU CONSIDER IT A PARADE LAP! Doing this is not only safe but a good way for you to see what your up against, its like no other road you've been on, including tracks. Each turn out there is banked, so that helps you out for the most part, but as soon as your out of one turn, there's another one ready to bite and then another and another! A total of 318 turns is what is said to be out there and I must say I will no doubt them one bit. This is the most fun you can have behind the wheel of car, but remember, THIS IS A PUBLIC ROAD, so keep yourself and your car in check at all times. We've never had an incident out there other than someone acting like a fool and he was spoken to very firmly and hasn't come back to run with us either. Most people probably drive their cars anywhere from 5/10th's to 8/10th's out there, anything more than that is crazy, unless there's nooone on the road and in the 8 years of me running out there, I have yet to see that.

NIGHT RUNS....something we tried to do 2 years ago, but we had a dead something in the road and Trey, one of our Dragon vets hit it and we had to turn around and have him limp back to camp. I for one have never driven the Dragon at night but have been on the Skyway numerous times, brights are the order of the day. Just adjust your rearview mirror and your fine. One thing to remember out there is this, no street lights, no houses, no nothing, so its VERY dark out there. Hopefully, we get to run the Dragon at night time this year (on my knees praying:help:)

So, that's a quick overview of the run and if you've got any questions, feel free to post them here or PM directly (noobs) and we'll answer the questions asap. Remember, everything goes here, friendly banter, updates on your car, pics from previous runs to keep us motivated through the summer and early Fall, announcements, etc. Last year this thread got about 100 pages, so you noobs will have alot to read if you catch this late. In closing our run is alot of fun, with cars from all manufactures, the drivers from all back grounds and skill level but we all come together to SLAY THE DRAGON:laugh:
 
What we haven't had with us out there yet

What we haven't had with us out there yet

I was just thinking about this, what we havent' had with us out there yet, here's what I've come up with so far:

1. motorcycle
2. pick-up truck
3. 6 figure car
4. a car with a V10 or V12
5. a French car
6. a Canadian enthusist
7. an Italian car
8. twin turbo'd car
9. a "classic" car
10. a van (there out there)
11. a right-hand drive car
12. in-line 6 engine'd car
13. noone from west of the Mississippi
14. a celebrity:cool:
 
Trey went down it in his pick-up with me and 2 others from NECO. it actually handled it very well.

If, and thats unfortunately a very big if, i can make it i will have the VR4 which is twin turboed, AWD, and all wheel steering.
 
I've been over both the Dragon and Cherolaha on my various m-cycles many times.
FUN each and every time but once. [ouch!]
 
Ofcoarse we hope you can swing it Dan, your one of the vets and we'd love to check out the new ride, it covers 2 "never befores" for our group, one being AWS and I didn't even think of that because its so damn rare!

I think this is a fun little thing to get us in the mood for the Dragon and another thing that would be cool is one of those annoying horns their using int the World Cup right now! Can you imagine that sounds in echoing in the valley, it kinda sounds like those air horns you hear in the WRC.
 
I was just thinking about this, what we havent' had with us out there yet, here's what I've come up with so far:

1. motorcycle
2. pick-up truck
3. 6 figure car
4. a car with a V10 or V12
5. a French car
6. a Canadian enthusist
7. an Italian car
8. twin turbo'd car
9. a "classic" car
10. a van (there out there)
11. a right-hand drive car
12. in-line 6 engine'd car
13. noone from west of the Mississippi
14. a celebrity:cool:

I dont know if you know who I am, Im a local celebrity. Im kind of a big deal and Im definitely not a Canada enthusiast EH. Or did you mean someone from Canada that likes cars? A French car??? Is there such a thing?
 
I think we'd all like to drive that, especially on the Dragon.

Oh yeah, BTW, I plan on calling Dixie today to reserve my cabin too. I plan on getting the one with 2 beds like I did last year, but we're bringing an inflateable bed too to make things more comfortable. This cost us $70.00 each for 3 days, can't beat that:shrug:

So may I suggest that you reserve your cabins now and remember to tell Dixie that your with the group with "Roger from Deeeetroit":cool:
 
I went to a Dragon Run in 2006 and there was a motorcycle with the group. Scratch that one off the list.

Canadian enthusiast... I'm from northern Maine. The border disputes would have put my home town in Canadian territory from time to time, and the language of the land was french. Does that count??
 
My buddy Joe, who has that Mirage he's converting to the Evo 4, will be right-hand-drive, twin turbo'd, and inline 6. Hopefully he won't flake out :D
 
I went to a Dragon Run in 2006 and there was a motorcycle with the group. Scratch that one off the list.

Canadian enthusiast... I'm from northern Maine. The border disputes would have put my home town in Canadian territory from time to time, and the language of the land was french. Does that count??

Well I mean in our grouping.

Ken, your buddies car sounds nutz!!!
 
In the event someone can't get a cabin

In the event someone can't get a cabin

I see we're up to 6 cars and I know people will be sharing a cabin, but in the event someone doesn't get a cabin, there are the cabins that sit along the Tellico River, we pass them on the way to get breakfast, so there's no worries. Even if we had to split the group up into 2, we could still have everyone at our cabins until it was time to get some sleep (whatever that time is:crazy:)

I just wanted to add this little bit of info and I'm sure, in a binch, someone could bust out there sleeping bag and pillow and crash on someones couch, if you've got one or the floor.
 
Last year, Joe stayed at a cabin near town where we got breakfast. Maybe the same cabins you're talking about. He said he loved them. I'll find out what they were.
 
Yeah, that's right, not sure exactly where he stayed, but I know there's one all by itself on the right side of the road when we're just heading out on the Cherahola, its got a kinda of steep incline to get up there but I remember checking that one out a couple years ago when my buddy John and his g/f stayed there, its pretty nice and a bit bigger.

Either way, we'd get everyone taken care of no matter what, I promise and we'll cross that bridge if and when we need to;)
 
You know I am there. Hopefully with my real car and not a courtesy car again. Ha! I am looking forward to this. Roger, we are roomies again right?
 
You know I am there. Hopefully with my real car and not a courtesy car again. Ha! I am looking forward to this. Roger, we are roomies again right?

Yeah, more than likely you, me and my step Dad, he had a great time out there last year and I'm pretty sure he wants to go again, so we'll have atleast 3 and that ended up costing us only $70.00 per person for the weekend, a great deal on a great cabin. You noobs, this is the way to make the trip a bit cheaper, leaving you more money for gas, trinkets and food, something to think about and this was for the cabin with 2 beds. Ken stayed in one last year that had bunk beds, bathroom and no shower and was probably half that, so if you two people split that.....real affordable. I mean, there's no shower, but you could use someone's shower, its no biggie!

Tire/wheel update....I'll know in the next few days if I'll be able to swing both the springs and tires/wheels or just tires. My choices are the matte gray Konig Forwards, 16 x 7 with the orange stripe or the Konig Zero-In's. If anyone is interested, check these wheels out and let me know what you think, you opinions are valued but remember the cars theme and color.
 
Zero ins look much better to me. Also check out Konig Feathers. Cheap and light as hell. Plus it's cheap without being a Rota.
 
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