My second Dragon was a blast and thank you to all of the people who took the time to make the plans for this wonderful weekend! I enjoyed meeting the group again and getting to know some of you better and meeting some of “the regulars” for the first time. And.. It was great to meet all if the first timers! I can say that now since this was my second TOD.

I always enjoy seeing the cars assembled in one area for a group picture. I see the pics from years past and I can almost feel the anticipation for the weekend the group must have been feeling. I think part of the fun of the weekend for a newbie IS seeing all the Crossfires together like that. It was an amazing site to see and the time taken to assemble the cars is well worth it. Thank you to all of you who directed, pointed, gave clearance gestures to get us all in and out on time. I am drawn to the group shot posts of past years and welcome the opportunity to be in a picture that will be posted for years to come.

What are the odds of this happening? After the groupshot we pulled away to line up with the leader of the run we chose to go on. There was the usual mini-drivers meeting, the meeting to say hello and all get on the same channel on the radios kinda stuff meeting. Well, I chose to run with Pizzaguy, AKA Mark and after he gave us the rundown for the day he started scanning the drivers, counted cars and scanned drivers again it quickly became apparent EVERYONE in the group was new to the Dragon except Mark and myself. ALL NEWBIES! What are the odds? I immediately got promoted to senior TOD participant and was assigned the duties of taking up the rear making sure we were all together. We had 8 cars with 13 people with only two people having been to the TOD before.

Thank you Mark for leading and for the great tips on how to drive a “more spirited” tourist run through the Dragon. All drivers said they wanted to make it a spicy run through, so Mark did. We had 8 cars in unison that made the entire Dragon at speed because the timing of the 3 cars we came upon were timed right at pull outs and they quickly moved over for us. It was sooo seemless I had to ask Mark if we came up on anyone because from the back of the pack it just felt like we were on it the whole time. What a great way to end the day! (I am sorry I missed out on the "Sunset Cruise"! Not the boatride, the run. Sounds like it was awesome.)

I REALLY enjoyed hearing what the first timers had to say about the roads, the fun they were having, their cars, how they found the Crossfire and how they found out about TOD. I hope everyone had a safe trip home.

I am glad I stumbled upon Franc and Mark talking routes, roads and stuff Saturday night. Sundays run was awesome!