This year Tammi and I 'may' be taking the Great Smoky Mt. Railroad trip on Saturday. It leaves out of Bryson City at 9 am. Crown or Coach Class. Open Air may be on the colder side in Oct? 4.5 hour trip with lunch available. 44 miles

For those that don't go along on drives and prefer something else to do, you are welcome to join us. Below is a link for those interested. Post if you are interested and I will get more info.

Check here: http://www.gsmr.com/train-excursion/...a#.VZ7w5_lVhBc

James

 

I am interested in the train ride with lunch
If we have enough route leaders for the runs that day I would sure like to go along for a train ride.

 

well on the good side is that can park two in one parking spot , LOL

 

Roberta & I have taken these train rides on weekend stays in Bryson City. Note that there are 2 routes, so you have some choices. Lunch train rides are very similar to the one taken in Eureka Springs. Food might be somewhat more upscale & pricier. As stated, much longer rides with stops on far end that allow passengers to exit and stretch their legs in a somewhat tourist spot.

You will probably have to tolerate some commercial sales via a person that will take your photograph on train and try to sell you the picture. We bought one as it shows us on the train.

Enjoy,

 

Robert Wolff of the GenCoupes has updated on Hellbender (he was up there yesterday):

UPDATE: US 28, aka Hellbender, has been castrated! The NC dot has changed the speed limits, and you are not going to like them. From Fontana village to the bridge, 35 mph, from the bridge to the power house across the lake, 40mph, and may want to sit down for this. From the power house to Deals Gap, 30 mph!!! This smells of revenue enhancement to me, and it is very well posted, this is an indication that environment will follow.

 

Eureka Springs is looking better and better all the time.

 

To be quite honest, I enjoyed Eureka Springs much more than Fontana.
If it just wasn't so durn far !

 

Cindy and I would be happy to go back to Eureka Springs again (in spite of how far away it is for us . . . 1400 miles each way). We just barely got to explore a few of the great roads around there. But next time we'd need to have the Chamber of Commerce guarantee us some good weather during our visit!

 

100% AGREE WITH THE TWO PREVIOUS POSTS.
But the locals told me that the weather we experienced was not at all typical.

Overall, it looks like a nice climate other than in June/July/August and it CAN be cold in Dec/Jan/Feb.

For example:
In October, if we go then, average high is 72, average low is 51. If it sounds like I am selling something, I think I am.

740 miles one way from here - too far for me, but once I got there I was sure happy I was there.
I want to go back. And if "we" do, I will.

 

Well I've seen where the Full Throttle Saloon in Sturgis has "rain insurance".. maybe Eureka can take out a policy for us for partial refunds.. LOL

 

I vote "Tail of the Hog" for 2016 instead of "Tail of the Dragon"

 

Well it's been said before - after you've done the Dragon, you come back for the friends you've made. At least Eureka will still give you plenty to see and do along with those friends for several years I do believe.


Sherri asks that any coming from Dragon Country.. bring her dark chocolate truffles please! LOL.. none to be found while at Eureka..

 

Like any of us was doing posted speed limit anyway , LOL !

 

I stopped running the Dragon hard two years ago. Now the hellbender is gone. DAYUM!


At least the friends are still there.

 

Why do you consider it "gone"? I'm not there to run the straight bits "hard" anyway, we all know the car can go fast in a straight line, it's the corners that make it fun so even if the speed is 30 those corners can be pushed a little bit more and still keep it sane in the straights.

 

I think the basic issue is that quite a few car clubs/groups (including us) and especially the motorocycles (mostly the "crotch rockets") have been getting a little too "thrill-seeking" on several stretches of road in & around The Dragon. The Dragon has always been a posted 35 MPH US Federal Highway and that doesn't stop folks from driving it aggresively. Nowhere really for County Sheriff or Highway Patrol to setup a radar trap.

With new posted speed limits on several other roadways, getting caught driving aggressively in & around the Fontana area could be costly. And there are places on these roadways where a speed trap could be setup

 

Based on recent commentary in this thread, looks like we could be persuaded to do a Spring event (full week) in Eureka Springs and a Fall event (weekend) at Fontana. There is no doubt that there are many more venues for extra curricular activites in Eureka Springs, which makes the full week a better match. Fontana still is really all about the Dragon and we only need a weekend for that.

Food for Thought

 

A spring event at Eureka Springs may be a good idea. The dragon is getting too busy and Carlisle is getting too expensive. But I would like to see more rides that are 50 - 100 miles from base. If you drive 2 days to get there you don't want to drive 6 or 8 hours everyday to see the events. There has to be plenty of things to see closer for first timers.

 

D on't assume too much, wherever you go ,whatever you do, still taking a chance by rolling over the speed limit don't think for one minute that other states won't hammer for same reason,Fontana Lodge has been good to Crossfire group ,we have got away with a lot over the years , there still stretches of roads you can run hard ,

 

I'm not really surprised to see a tight speed limit on Hellbender. In the last few years during our events several people have lost there cars on that road and a few could've lost their life. I know several Gen Coupes and 2 GTR's rolled their car. I remember rolling up on a bike wreck last spring. Hellbender is a fun road and you can easily touch triple digit speeds on sections of it and then need to slow all the way down to 30 to make the next bend.

This place is all about checking your ego at the door.