Saturday, August 11, 2007

Dragon Tales: Day 3: I Find Water

Today was the real Solstice/ Sky road rally and it was alot of fun. We met in the Fontana Resort parking lot this morning and formed up into a flotilla of 60 cars. At 10:30 we took off on a 130 mile adventure through the back roads and high roads of the mountains.

It was a blast driving with so many other people in similar cars. I'm not a Solstice owner of course, but they are a sweeeet little car and their owners seem to be crazy about them ... reminded me of a JEEP owner we know.

The Sky is just the Saturn version of the Solstice by the way.

The organizer dude gave Dave and I those dangling name tags that you hang around your neck. Everybody was wearing theirs ... I only wore mine when it got me free food, I can't stand anything hanging around my neck. Dave's name tag said "Driver" and mine said "Passenger", but after he commented that the car handled better with a passenger in the passenger seat, I took my pen, scratched out "passenger" and wrote in "BALLAST".























"Wacky Convoy"



Like I said, they love their cars, but can you blame them? They handle great and are pretty peppy. The mileage is great too, Dave was getting 3o miles per gallon and we were doing fun mountain driving.

Picture a 130 mile roller coaster. It was that fun. To see our route, go to Dave's site, Thunderdave.blogspot.com. He's going to post the map after I finish using his computer.


















Water!!

After the rally was over around 4:00pm, we left the pack and went back along parts of the route to check out some of the scenic beauty that we couldn't stop for during the wagon train of 60 sporty cars.

I was thrilled to find water even if it wasn't salty.
















"Zoom!"



The picture above is just a sample of the Skyway vistas we were immersed in for most of the rally. The highest elevation for the rally was about 5400 feet, which is just about 5390 feet above Pure Florida's sandy soil. The skyway was way funner than the tail of the dragon section because you could get some decent speed along the more open curvy roadways. Ol'Dave was grinning for the complete 130 miles as he put his car through it's paces.

I got to take in the scenery ... most of which he missed as he had to concentrate on the road. I swung the camera around a lot and we loaded up with pics.















"Why yes, I am cool. Why do you ask?"


Here's Dave bonding with his car at the first organized rest stop that the group took. When the rest of the cars caught up with us, the entire scenic parking area was filled with Solstices and Skys.



Did I mention the weather was perfect? A little warm for the nonFloridians in the group, but very nice.
















Die Kudzu Die!

It wasn't all fun and games of course ...

I was briefly engulfed by the dreaded Kudzu vine, but managed to show it who was boss.

Tomorrow: Home via back roads until we are south of Macon, Georgia and then we'll fly back on I-75.

Back to work Monday for FC.


12 comments:

jojo said...

LOL... such boys! as you say, "way funner". Coming from a teacher that's funny...

Go figure, only you could find Kudzu in Ohio... the vine that ate the South, is eating everything?

Your buddy reminds me of many relatives i left behind, in Cleveland. What else is there to do up North in the Winter but drink beer!

sounds like such a fun trip, though. and you are driving back to florida?

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the ride. Looks like you two had a blast.

robin andrea said...

The hills do look pretty in the summer sun. Glad you found some water to play in. Looks like quite a pretty river.

Anonymous said...

If that is the waterfall I remember, it was beautiful. Of course I could have found it interesting because my butt was so sore that I was dreading getting back on the motorcycle for the return trip! The skywas is such a great drive. Wouldn' it be intersting to research all the skyway drives, bridges or parkways and take the time to see them all?Glad you had a great time.

Deb said...

Sounds like a blast. Except, your "Dragon Tales" title theme is starting to grate on me. That PBS kids show has the most annoying theme song! We're almost past that age now.
Sigh. Sniff.

kathy a. said...

hope you had a safe and easy trip back home. what an adventure!

R.Powers said...

Jojo,
"way funner" ... it was late and I had an after dinner Corona. Oops!

RCW,
It was good!

Robin,
We had a blast and I DO need that water.

Cathy S,
I agree wholeheartedly. That would be a blast.

Deb,
The tale of the dragon is done.
whew!

Kathy A,
Thanks! It was a good ride.

Doug Taron said...

Somebgody's having way too much fun here. Thanks for sharing your adventure with us.

Sharon said...

"Ballast"! LOL
Seriously, that would be an awesome thing to do. What could be better than driving for fun, with mountain views? OH...I know, if it was in the FALL!!!! :) And the theme from Dragon Tales is stuck in my head, too. (Not unusual though, since RJ still watches it!)

Anonymous said...

One of your photos had TailOfTheDragon.com in the background. Did you experience any of the law enforcement harassment it documents? I don't think I want to go there!

Anonymous said...

So...waterfall,driving for fun,hills,skyway, etc..That was such a fun trip!
Nice photos!

R.Powers said...

Doug,
Yeah, but I had to go to work today!

Sharon,
Yes! Fall would be the very best time for this drive.

Charless,
As an ex-federal LE agent, I may have a different view, but all I saw was lots of cops, not "harrassment".
Of course we weren't speeding or driving wrecklessly ...