TOD survival thread...
 

To start off... WHAT A FREAKIN' AMAZING TRIP!!! My better half and I can't thank the participants enough for an absolutely wonderful time! :dance:

NickCats, it was great to caravan with you and Mrs. NickCats as it made the 11-12 hour drive each way extremely pleasant and enjoyable! Time sure does fly when you are having fun. :)
Randall (aka The Mayor), it was great to meet you and I'm placing the blame on you for the $$$ I'm probably going to end up spending after seeing all the great mods to you car!
Bmussatti, I'm looking forward to seeing you at some autocrosses this summer as you were tearing the TOD up!
dmcutter, mantis and Mrs. mantis, derb and Mrs. derb, it was a pleasure meeting you and hope to see you next year! Mrs. mantis and Mrs. derb get extra kudos for being troopers when I'm pretty sure if I rode as a passenger I would be kissing the ground at the end immediately following me losing my lunch.
Tom (if you ever read this board), thank you for putting us in check before we went out as what made this weekend more enjoyable was everyone had a good head on their shoulders and kept it safe. Also, thank you putting up with us as we gave you a hard time about your wicked fast MR2. :D

Trip summary for Sammy...

-approximately 1800 miles for the trip with 300-400 of it being on location at the Dragon and the Skway (car now has the 20,600 miles)
-6 runs of the Dragon
-3 runs of the Cherahola (sp?) Skyway
-2 different breakfast places that left a little to be desired
-1 great BBQ place!
-1 good Chinese buffet
-1 very good Mexican place
-a bunch of pictures and a couple videos that filled an entire memory card
-$100 worth of tires left at the Dragon and the Skway
-$50 worth of brakes left as well ;)
-$90 worth of souvenoirs
-1 book authored by The Mayor himself
-2 people, father and son who crashed their motorcycles on Sunday, our prayers are with them and their family
-and finally... A LIFETIME OF MEMORIES! :cheers:

I almost forgot...

-2 rolls of Rolaids
-4 Pepto tablets ;)

And thank you bmussatti for letting us use some of your cleaning products. :D

Here's another good shot of us driving on day one, the ultimate test of wet tire grip!

Randall,

I just went through 75 pages of photos on Killboy.com and not one picture of you guys! Maybe when he posts Sunday's pictures?

Killboy.com takes about a week to post pix. When they're up, I'll post an address link. I'll have to buy a shot of me for sure. Bought a hat too!

What a simply amazing place. The two day drive each way was EASILY worth it.

I really wanted to come, but had to stay in the DC area on standby for an assignment that never materialized...story of my life.

I would like to plan another trip for the forum members in September or first weekend of October of 2008... that'll give everyone a LOT of time to make plans and clear their schedules.

Great shot!

I echo Patrick. Excellent trip and company!

Took me 2 washes and 4 hours to clean my car...and the hotel cost me more than I thought... I heard my wife say it was $50 a night; she corrected me at $150 and the guys at the table enjoyed that. But when we checked out, it was really $180 a night. Going to put some more marbles at the top of the stairs this evening!

Nice...

BTW...besides the rain (I must of missed the writeup) how were the roads?
Were there a lot of other cars/clubs/bikes competing for the same roadway?

:cheers:

Randall-

+1 for the fall trip. Definitely want in on that one.

Would love to see that place with fall foliage. It will probably be crowded with "leaf peepers", but still worth the view.

Jeff :)

Had an awesome time, wish I could have stayed til the weather got good on Sunday...but at least I got to check out PSM on the wet roads. Here's a shot of my TOD souvenirs...hope it doesn't look too "riceriffic".

^
i would say that looks a little on the ricy side, but when put into context where you were and the experience/memories, i would probably rock it too hehe, nice touch and placement as well, i like it

and all you bastards, i was stuck in chicago, but did end up going to 1st pca autocross, so there lol

glad you all had fun, and finally nice to see Bills car dirty :p

dmcutter, I purchased a similar set of decals for my windscreen. I think they are a nice subtle touch as a reminder of the weekend.

On another note I had no idea how much I would laugh this weekend. There were so many one liners that had me rolling! :D

Grizzly, you can see me coming through the Dragon on Killboy's photos for Friday, May 4th.


http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/ThumbPage.aspx?e=2878528&g=00&s=2650

I hope he braved the rain Saturday morning and got some of us then. How much faster was it Sunday when it dried up?

Cutter, I think we were on the Tail too early for Killboy on Saturday. I checked all of the pics...and I don't see us. :(

Sunday was mucho fast. :D Amazing what our cars can do. Sammy and NickCats were great "teachers" and line setters for us.

Bill, that is so cool! Unlike most of the shots, I can actually see you in the car with that look of total concentration. Sweet.

DM, I looked through the whole 75 pages of Saturday, May 5th and didn't see you guys. He was out there in the rain because he got pictures of seven million Minis in the down-pour.

Hey Sammy and NickCats, tell the Forum how my Porsche Sport Exhaust sounded on the TOD and Skyway! :)

For future reference, my sister was at Fontana Village (just down 28 from the Crossroads of Time) the week before for a dog show, and they have their liquor license, so I don't guess the whole place is dry. I think the Minis were based out of Fontana. Next time we should stay there, although I did like the Two Wheel Inn.

Daddy likes!!! The exhaust had a great sound to it... definitely not ricey! Randall's exhaust sounded fantastic as well! :D

dmcutter, the speeds definitely stepped up a notch or two (more like a different scale) with the dry roads. :)