Hi Folks! I thought this might be a nice thread for anyone to use on the forum for their own vacation plans. So, here goes for ours.

My wife and I are taking the Crossfire across the country, and we were just wondering if you could help us plan the sightseeing on our trip. If there was one thing you'd like us to experience in the following areas, we'd sure appreciate your suggestions. We'll be staying at these locations:

Dubuque Iowa
Taylorville Illinois
Louisville Kentucky
Asheville North Carolina
Nashville Tennesee
Indianapolis Indiana
Madison Wisconsin

Also, is the Tail of the Dragon anywhere near any of these places?

Thanks in advance to all!

 

Winston,

If you travel to Indianapolis, feel free to let me know when and you, your, wife, and Molly and I can meet up for a beer and show you part of the city.

Downtown is always fun with Lucas Oil Stadium and a few highly regarded art museums. I live North of downtown in an area known as Broad Ripple, it is considered an artsy town with lots of small boutiques and fun restaurants and brew pubs.

If you want to know where the Dragon is, type Fontana Dam (or US129) into a google map and you will see.

Have an excellent trip, sounds fun to me. And if you are looking for a nice place to stay, we JUST opened the largest hotel in the city, a beautiful blue building known as the JW Mariott....

 

In Nashville it's worth seeing the Ryhman (Grand Ole Opry) and The Country Music Hall of fame. Even if you're not a country music fan I'm sure you'll enjoy "The Hall". Check out Mainstreet (Broadway) as well. Let me know when you're in and I'll be happy to show y'all around.

 

Asheville is 2 hours from the Dragon. If one was coming from Tennessee, they could get there by passing through the Dragon.

Minneapolis to Dubuque via the Great River Road would be nice.

We are taking 2 weeks to run from Chicago through Richmond, the Outer Banks then back through Asheville to the Dragon in time for the Fall meet.

Have a good trip.

 

Down town Ashville also has some awesome outside cafe's with live entertainment a must if your in town . Great town ,,,,Enjoy your journey where ever you go.....

 

Asheville also has the Biltmore House and estates. It is a beautiful american estate and well worth an afternoon tour with a winery and good food. Don't miss the Dragon on your way in from TN. Sounds like great fun.

 

Check out the Bourbon Trail when in Louisville.

 

Indianapolis is one of my favourite places. I characterize it as being a city trying very hard to become a small town! Make sure to check out the Claddagh Pub downtown on Meridian. Great food there. Also, the Slippery Noodle is very good.

The city is one of the friendliest places in North America. Too bad that F1 and Ecclestone opted to leave Indianapolis. It was a great venue for the race and accessible to and by just about everyone! The problem seems to have been all about the money. The circus makes so much money that they really didn't care about the fans anymore. Also, too bad that after having spent $85 million to upgrade the track - Indy lost the race. None of the reasons on either side would pass a smell test.

Regardless, the monument circle on a warm day in downtown Indianapolis is well worth the drive to get there! Sign me up! Check the chamber of commerce website to find out what events/shows may be on.

 

John,

You seem to know the city well and can see right through Bernie's BS. I was lucky enough to see a few F1s here and I can say you are definitely correct about the venue, although I am sure the track (complex) they are building in Texas will be world class, it will never have the pedigree and history that IMS has.

If you are ever in town, let us know, I'll buy you a beer....

John

 

Thanks for that offer! My guess is that you'll have to pay up on that!

I'm looking forward to the return of F1 to the US but I am dreadfully afraid that Austin will also present attendees with a texas sized prince tag. When I went to Indy for the F1 (numerous times), you could get the entire weekend done from Toronto for WAY less than $1000 per couple. That included: fuel, renting a car for the 20 hrs of "beater" type driving, 3 days of parking at IMS,mid-level tickets in the apex of turn 1 for both practice days and the race, set-up day on Thursday, 2 box lunches (beer, chicken, apples and sandwich), Thurs, Fri, Sat & Sun hotel in downtown Indy and all of your entertainment, food and dancing. A downtown rooftop dinner at night with the wife would be an additional $100 with wine.

In Montreal, you could barely get tickets and travel for $1000 per couple. And even then, you'd be treated like so many cattle. Whereas at IMS, you'd be encouraged to go anywhere you wanted to go as long as you did not interfere with anyone else's sightline.

It was an era that has been lost and unless there is a miracle, I cannot see how Austin will ever come close to approaching the "warmth and appea;" of what the locals call "India no Place".

 

Thanks for all the info! It looks like we can take the Tail of the Dragon on our way from Asheville to Nashville. My wife and I are country music fans, so we will visit the Opry. We're also interested in a lyric from one of our favorite country songs. It's by Lacy J. Dalton. The song's title is 16th avenue. If you've never heard it, you can on iTunes. It's a great song about the Nashville music experience. Anyway, we'll be looking for 16th avenue when we visit Nashville. Thanks to all you folks for the help, and when we get closer to our trip, we'll see about getting together for a beer! (I'm always up for a beer!)

 

My wife and I just got back from our vacation. Thanks to all with their suggestions. We put about 3200 miles on our base black coupe and averaged around 28 to 31 miles per gallon. We paid not more than $3.99 per gallon for premium fuel. We were able to see the Grand Ole Opry, 16th avenue, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, The Biltmore Estate, Grandfather Mountain and so much more. Best drives included the Blue Ridge Parkway, Hwy 80 by Lake Tahoma in North Carolina, and of course, the Tail of the Dragon! Just fantastic! We stayed at great Bed and Breakfasts along the way most notably The Inn on Mill Creek in Old Fort North Carolina - highly recommended! Thanks again!