**The Official 2004 East Coast Meet Thead**

Edit by cls12vg30: 7/26/2004
******The 2004 Club S12 East Coast Meet is ON!!!!*********
Where: Jonathan Creek Hideaway Campground (http://www.smokymountainsnc.com/jcreekhideaway.htm), Maggie Valley, North Carolina

When: Friday, August 27 - Sunday, August 29, 2004

What: We will be camping in the beautiful Smoky Mountain region of North Carolina. We'll be heading out to several nearby roads which rank among the best mountain roads in North America, including the Dragon's Tail at Deal's Gap, and the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Cost: To be determined, but overall CHEAP. Thus far we have two large campsites reserved, the price for each site is $25 per night for up to five people, an extra $2 per night for each person over five. If we can't fit everybody on those two sites we'll have to nab another. Assuming we have five people on each site, do the math, your accomodations will cost you five bucks a night. 8-) As for other costs, people may be asked to chip in for food, etc, at least one night we'll probably be cooking hot dogs over the fire, anyone that wants to bring food, beverages, etc. is welcome to. There are grocery stores and restaurants nearby where we are staying.
Also, we will probably be doing quite a bit of driving throughout the weekend, anyone coming from the northern states will probably be pleasantly surprised at the fuel costs in NC.

Tents are optional, those among us with adventurous souls and hatchback S12's are planning on flopping our back seats down and sleeping in our cars.

If you would like to attend, please PM or email cls12vg30. We've already got a pretty good crowd lined up, and between the S12 fellowship, the mountains, and the twisties, this weekend promises to be a blast.

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What happened to the east coast meet and greet? It kinda died an earlier death without even getting out of 1st gear.

Yeah seems everybody's been pretty busy lately, myself included. I know we were talking about a Southeast meet. I'd still be up for it, maybe in August or better yet September when we can be outside without melting. Although my brief stop at South of the Border on the way home from Florida this week brought back memories of the Southeast meet I tried to put together in 2002, which fizzled. I think we should see who would be interested and what their locations are to get an idea of a relatively central location for the meet.

well if it is around August, I will be in New York, or Michigan...for a little while, and I bet I could get down further south...it depends on the weekend that you guys choose though...8)

yeah i'll be in northeast ohio.. so if it anywhere relatively close I'm shure I would show...

NE ohio too..sweet..no guarentees on the s12 running anytime soon..

Lets not let this die...I will do mt best to make it...but I will DEFINATELY need help with any sort of directions...the US is not exactly a place I am too familiar with...8)

well what time frame are we talking about? my car should be driveable in 3-4 weeks (hopefully less). I live in jersey. I am a few hours from NY and a few hours from DC.

A meet would be great. EAST SIDE!!! :headbang:

Hmm...if we were going to do the whole East Coast DC would be pretty central....about a four hour drive for me so not bad.....it's a pretty cool setting of course, and I've been wanting to get up there and see a few things.....maybe we could make a weekend out of it.

3+ hours for me. Who else is coming. Alex, do you think you could get to DC? We'd let ya... just don't burn it down :p

i have the perfect place......the dragons tail in north carolina it is like 13 turns in a mile and really great i will give more info later when i get it. my dad goes up there with our local miata club and loves that place.

That could be good too. We should also try to have it in a place where as many people as possible could come too. either way so long as it's not over 6 or 7 hours away I'll be there

edit: BTW I'll definetly look forward to seeing that FJ ;-)

It's at deal's gap?

i'd definitely be up for something,.. hopefully my SE will finally be running again tomorrow! and incase we do chose some place like DC.. maybe the people who are coming from a lil further south and would be coming up i-85 or i-95 we could all meet here somewhere around raleigh and have like a convoy of S12's and just pick more up as we go along up the east coast :cheers:

I think what we should do is see who would want (or would be able) to go to where. I really like the idea of the dragon's tail although meeting in DC might allow more people to come.

In short we just need to get suggestions. Right now we have

1.unknown, NY
2. Washington DC
3. Robinsville, NC

If anyone has a suggestion on where to meet post it. After we find out where we're going we can find out who will come.

Hmm..the Tail of the Dragon, an interesting idea. That's in Deal's Gap, in Graham County, NC, extending across the Tennessee border just south of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It's a section of U.S. Route 129. And I believe the total is 318 curves in 11 miles. Very popular with motorcyclists too. The Cherohala Skyway is another great road in that area, and of course the southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway is nearby as well. I'm somewhat familiar with the region, mostly with the Waynesville/Maggie Valley area which is in Haywood County, immediately east of Graham County.
It's not the easiest place to get to, and we should bear in mind that the conditions of the cars of people who want to come may vary. I once made the mistake of driving through Cherokee Gap in that same area with a steering rack that wasn't 100%, and ended up blowing the rack. But that is a seriously beautiful area, the scenery of the Smoky Mountains is incredible. And there's an Indian casino on the Cherokee Reservation in that area, too.
If we're going to have people coming from as far as Ohio and Ontario we definitely need to plan on making this a weekend event, not a one-day thing. I'd be up for the Dragon's Tail or Washington, DC, either one.

Oh anyone wanting more details on the Dragon's Tail check this out:

http://www.tailofthedragon.com/

Yea i was scoping out the accomodations page from that web site becuase it'd be a 12 hour drive for me. I'd definately do it... this road intrigues me greatly. :twisted: Besides I need a road trip anyway, outside of school I have never been further than delaware so it would be a good experience.

My 200 will be ready... :evillaug: if we meet in september it may even have a new clutch in it :twisted:

So who wants to go where?

well all i know is that it will hopefully be towards the beginning of september at the latest b/c i will be moving to charlotte at the end of september and then will have basically no more free time..

yeah the gap is a definent place that i will go anyways.but that would be an awesome place to go.the blue ridge parkway is really nice to i went with my dad with the local miata club there to unfortunately we got stuck behind a damn harley through the tunnels and that sucked really bad. but one of the other miatas had a air horn so that was well annoying to but anyways dc uhhh i dont know it i would want to drive that far.

Sounds like Western North Carolina is getting a lot of support...if we did that we probably would want to wait at least until early September, the tourist crowds would be less and hotels would be cheaper. A lot of people from Florida vacation in that area in the summer.
And there is a lot to do besides drive the twisties, Asheville is a very cool city, and only about half an hour from the eastern boundary of Great Smoky Mountains Nat'l Park. Then there's Ghost Town in the Sky, a small amusement park on top of a mountain along Route 19 in Maggie Valley, you have to park at the bottom of the mountain and ride a cable car up to the park.
I think my vote has to go to Western NC.

well thankfully i have relatives in asheville so that is where i would stay. to cheap to pay for a hotel. but western north carolina is just a bitchin place to go and drive.

well that's....

4 for NC
0 for DC
0 for NY

Come on there has to be more people up for this. Post!!!

So is this going to be a whole weekend thing?

..need a date guys..the fall semester stars late august/early september...If the s12 is running by then (everyone cross yer fingers, toes, eyes, anything??) i will be there..

Also could go if it's in early to mid august, we could get a NE Ohio caravan going...

OK, how about the last weekend in August, that seems to work for most people, and it gives enough time to make our plans.

so like august 27th (friday), 28th (saturday) and 29th(sunday)?

somewhere around there is what we're shooting for now??

yea that could work

Yah late August is the best for me. Once September hits I am back to school, and Road trips are kinda out of the question. Late August I think should work for me. For me this is definately depending on a financial situation, but so far I am packing. As far as hotels go...I have a huge space in the back of my car, the seats fold down, and there are malls right...so thats covered. 8) I am probably looking at 14-16 hours drive to NC, so either DC, or NC is cool. But personally I would rather go to DC...8)

Well personally I'm looking at a 3.5 - 4 hour drive to either location, they're both about the same distance from me, just in different directions. The Smoky Mountain area has a ready supply of cheap motels, or if we're really adventureous, campgrounds. I'm pretty sure I could sleep in the back of my car with the seats down, so that could be fun, no tent needed. Anybody that brings a notchback, well you'd better bring a tent. :tongue:

Personally, I think we'd have a lot more fun in the mountains than in DC. I like DC, but what's the point of getting a bunch of car guys together in a place where it's almost impossible and always very frustrating to drive? And we're going to want to hang out and talk about cars, not look at monuments and walk through museums, y'know? Deal's Gap and that area would give us more automotive-type fun, we'd get to drive some twisties, hang out in the great outdoors in some of the most beautiful scenery in the country, it's be sweet, so long as the weather cooperated.

Well the only problem I have is the fact that I am not very familiar with the States. As long as the directions are good...yah baby!! Or I could hook up with a convoy of s12's from NY, and so on, and follow them down. 8)

OK if this thing is going to happen we need to nail it down. I'll volunteer to coordinate, I can put up relevent info on my website. So the two main things we need to firm up are location and date. So far the momentum seems to favor the Smoky Mountains area of North Carolina, which includes Robbinsville/Deal's Gap, home of the Dragon's Tail. The date of the last weekend in August (Friday the 27th through Sunday the 29th) has been thrown out. How does this work for everybody. Those dates are sneaking up on us quickly, so we need to get this nailed down. I looked on the main web site devoted to the Dragon's Tail (http://www.tailofthedragon.com/) and there were no other major events listed for that weekend, the closest events listed are a Southeast Lexus Enthusiasts meet the weekend before and a Honda S2000 meet Sept. 10-12.

As for accomodations, I think camping would be the most fun, and the most economical. We can even arrange for different people (probably those coming from shorter distances) to bring food that can be cooked over an open fire, such as hot dogs, as well as beverages. Or we can just get stuff there. The area is rustic but there are numerous towns with decent supermarkets. (There's even a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Sylva.)

Just for some round numbers, based on the people that have shown interest thus far:
For anyone coming from Ontario, this area is 11-12 hours from the Niagara/Fort Erie-area border crossings.
About 11-12 from New Jersey
Probably 9-10 hours from most places in Ohio.
8-10 hours from Maryland.
3.5 - 4.5 hours from the Raleigh/Durham Triangle area of North Carolina
2.5 - 3 hours from Greenville/Spartanburg, South Carolina
2-3.5 hours from Atlanta and northern Georgia.

Bear in mind, these times may be off, not everyone drives like me I guess, but the times I've driven from Buffalo, NY to Maggie Valley, NC (same area) it's taken me about 10 hours.

Everyone who is interested please email or PM me so we can get an accurate picture of the number of people we're talking about without clogging up this thread. The more the merrier!

my family lives like an hour away from the dragons tail. my cousin said they used to go there and pick bike parts out of trees and sell them/ fix bikes.

Yeah that website, www.tailofthedragon.com, is motorcycle-oriented and there's a few pics on there of bike crashes, they happen pretty regularly, riders overestimating their skill and experience.
I've also read stories from semi truck drivers who found themselves on that stretch of road by mistake.

yeah.. but its not just the bike riders that are over confident either.. check this:

http://www.tailofthedragon.com/slayers/2004/sub_wreck_0704.jpg

Yah that kinda looks like a WRX...It makes me cringe.

PM sent 8)

hopefully no S12's end up like that by the time this meets over. :|

PM sent

well since i live fairly close i have no problem bringing stuff to eat and drink. are we just gonna camp out though?

my dad has the s12, so im stuck like chuck driving the ranger

I was thinking getting a campsite or two would be pretty fun. Anybody that has a tent and wants to bring it certainly can, anyone that wants to can just sleep in their hatch (that's what I would probably do). And campsites up there are like 15-20 bucks per day, so split X number of ways it would cost us nearly nothing. Build a fire, cook some dogs, play some tunes, have some brews, what do y'all think?

sounds like a sweet idea to me.. i've never really gone camping either.. so this could be a good first experience

and on top of that.. the less money the better! ;)

OK, last weekend in August works for me, but I would have to be back in Cleveland mid day Sunday, because I have to be back in school on Monday. Lets nail down a definite date and place, and then get a list of people who want to go. If no one else is coming from Ohio or the Ohio area, I probably won't be going.

Well I've been looking at campgrounds in the area, and we have quite a few options. We can stay near Robinsville, right near the Dragon's Tail, the downside of that is that there isn't much else there. Or we can stay over near Silva or Waynesville, where there is a bit more civilization. If we did that, it would take us 45 min. or so to drive to the Dragon's Tail, but that drive would of course be an adventure in and of itself.

sweet, another ohio member..(havent seen ya round)

Well I say we should camp by civilization that way if we need to get something we can without killing ourselves. Alright then the Dragon's tail, 08/27-08/29 works for me :headbang:

Hopefully My car's fully operational by then...too much crap too little money and time.

OK, just remember that state campgrounds do not allow alcoholic beverages, and some private campgrounds might feel the same way. Also, see if they charge per site, per person or per vehicle. I go every October for a Volkswagen camping trip to Kelleys Island in Lake Erie, and when we camped at the state park, they charged by vehicle. We were only allowed two vehicles per campsite, so we had to rent more than we should have. It's easy to charge per vehicle when everybody drives the same kind.

I'll get some details on campgrounds around Sylva and Waynesville.

Sounds good...car now fixed ( stupid electrical :evil: ), so I am still planning to come...Keep us updated... 8)

i SHOULD be able to attend hey ohio guys, would ya all wanna get together and drive in a group?... i dont think we are all to far from each other...?? :D OMG I NEED SLEEP!!! :wall: lol

I have a question to pose to you guys. I am relatively familiar with the Waynesville/Maggie Valley area. Would you guys like to stay in that area, where we have an idea where to get food, drinks, know our way around somewhat, etc.? It's about a 45 minute (twisty fun) drive from there to the Dragon's tail, and right on the way is the southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Or would you rather stay closer to Dragon's Tail, which is further west closer to the TN line?

I say we should stay near the waynesville area. That way if any one wants to go get something they can without killing themselves or getting lost.

My dad might come with me too. If that's alright.

WOOHOO!!! This meet is OOOOONNN!!!

if i am not in orlando with my family me and my fj will be there oh yeah my dad too haha