East coast meet?

[denniswagnerusa]

I would probably not drive from Florida either and would instead rent one of those trailers from UHaul to tow it up with my Tundra.

[denniswagnerusa]

My wife and I flew to Knoxville two weeks ago to check out a potential meet in Townsend. We stayed at my friend's hotel and explored the area. My friend has a Miata and it turns out their club has had several meets at his hotel. A large lawn is available in front for parking the cars and restaurants and other hotels are next door. He has 12 rooms and three cabins available. It is a 50s era hotel that has been recently remodeled. We found the cabin to be quite large and comfortable.

The hotel is on the edge of the Smokies park and under ten miles from Cade's Cove. It is about 30 miles from the start of the Tail of the Dragon. We drove the dragon and were surprised how it has such a draw for the area. Photographers were located at several curves taking photos to be bought on the internet. Motorcycles and exotic cars were everywhere. The end of the dragon at Deal's Gap has shops and food and memorabilia. It seems a perfect place for a drive in a Datsun roadster. Bring dramamine for your passenger.

We also checked out a car show in Pigeon Forge, supposedly the biggest in the US. It took us 2 hrs to go from Gatlinburg to Pigeon Forge because the traffic was so bad. May want to avoid that.

The weather was perfect for roadstering so maybe September would be a good time to have this meet. Any ideas?

[Linda]

Sounds awesome to me though I am on the West Coast. The area is beautiful.
Roadsters from the midwest and South could use a meet.
Watkins Glen meet just finished so not sure if that would conflict.
A lot of nice meets like the Shedd BBQ and the Riverside Bbq started small then grew. Those events are set by the hosts and then whoever shows up, all the better.
Sounds like you.would have a great time either way
Linda

[fj20spl311]

I think its OK to give your friends Hotel a Plug.....curious minds........LOL

[sleepyzzz]

I haven't been on as much as I used to, but still interested in coming to the meet. If you set a date for next year, that would give everyone time to set aside vacation days to make the meet. I still think Labor Day or Memorial Weekend being three days would be better, but you are putting it together and what ever you work out is fine by me.

My first cousin is the director of the Pigeon Forge Tourist Center, and if you like, I could contact him to see if there would be any deals to be had from hotels, restaurants, and such for bringing a group into the area.

I have camped in Townsend, and it is just as you say, close enough to everything, and not near as bad on traffic. Tail of the Dragon is awesome, but the national attention has ruined it imo, with too many cars and bikes running it, and the highway patrol really watching it.

Which is why i still like our Ozark mountain roads. Not much traffic and very little law enforcement. Maybe we can bring everyone this way after Tennessee.

[dbrick]

If you do the meet on Labor Day weekend, Watkin's Glen is the following Friday, so anyone who travels a distance, Like Sleepyzzz could conceivably hit both events with time for a nice trip in between and only use a week of vacation.
I'll offer a free dinner at our show and a beer at Two Goats for anyone driving up from this one!

[denniswagnerusa]

I've had a major setback to my engine swap project, having shredded a main bearing and damaged the crank on my recently installed SR engine. It is being rebuilt but it will put me behind on the restoration of my roadster and the car may not be ready for a summer meet. So I am putting that plan on hold for now and I hope someone picks up on it. If not maybe next summer.

[notoptoy]

Bummer on the catastrophe, we can wait, maybe something smaller scale can be worked out.