390 people and 285 MINIs........ Come on 400! Sign up for drives on Feb 9th...............These fill up quick, sometimes in hours ( or minutes!), you need to be registered before you can sign up for a drive
Lots of people are not registering because they don’t want to do any slow drives or bad group Dinners.
Dave, I disagree with you. Yes, some of the drives I’ve done before and are not my cup of tea, but there are so many new one now, time to take another look at them and meet some new MOTD friends. (By the way, I better get registered! Lol)
We have a small group of people / cars and do “speed” runs with on many of the other great roads around the Dragon. Maybe 10 cars tops and we all pick a place to have lunch and take the longest way to get there and the long way back to Fontana. This way we can walk vendors row, see a few friends and wash our cars and get ready for a night of drinking by our fire pit and having a home made meal.
DON'T forget stopping by the Cigar Salon on Wed., after the Welcome Dinner. It's my last one and I'll have plenty of sticks to hand out!
Been a few years since I've been down there. Figure I'd not show up in my German car, but wait aren't those MINI's German? Back on topic sort of. When I've been down there I have always gone on drives with justa a couple of friends. Too many cars just sucks the fun out of it for me. When the official MINI drive turns right I turn left. There are so many enjoyable roads in the area. I know how to read a map so no need to be part of a long line of MINI's. Don't get me wrong I like people just fine, but then again only a couple at a time. Yes I know this is my problem so if I was to get in that conga line of MINI's I'd just ruin other peoples day with my bad attitude. So I'm thinking of others happiness when I take off the other way. Back on topic.... Smoke em if you got em.
I don't generally go on any group drives. My wife and I take off, get lost, and generally have a great time w/o having to worry about keeping up or slowing down. I mostly look for photographic opportunities, not necessarily car related. At night, I will go up to Fontana. During the late afternoon, I sit on the porch at my motel and watch a rolling car show of MINIs. We like waterfalls that you can see from the road. Once, The Tn. HP officer that stopped me for going a little fast (let me go) couldn't tell me how to get back to Robbinsville, Tn. ...and I didn't have my phone with me. I had no idea where I was...
No worries. I'm not a slow driver by any means, but I only go fast enough to make me smile these days. I tend to go slower on the straight bits & hammer the corners.
You need maps my friend. They are wonderful things. All my cars have maps of the area in them. For trips I'll put the appropriate DeLorme map book in the car for back road exploring.
Your probably right, but, remember, all who wander are not lost. So what if it took me 3 hrs to get back to my motel. And, honestly, by the time I got back to my motel...I really wish I had had a map. I was exhausted...
"all who wander are not lost" Those are true words! Being lost sure makes you feel good when you finally get your bearings.
I've got a Garmin & it is nice having the map roll out in front of you as you drive. Sort of like having a co-driver in the rally car call out turns. Not really, but it's nice. No way I'd ever get rid of my paper maps. I like them the same way I prefer paper books over e-books.