[DeTomaso] 2012 Summer Summit Recap 1

Tue Jun 12 11:56:57 EDT 2012

Michael did a great job putting together the 2012 Sumer Summit. We all had a
great time. Wish it could have lasted longer, like any good trip.
Sunday was a soaker. Bill &Marilyn Lewis, Tom & Dena Shinrock, & Dave &
Diane McManus drove to the Biltmore Estate. Even in the drizzle it was
beautiful. We left the Biltmore around 4:00 pm & headed home. Arrived in
Indy around 11:30pm. Stopped for a quick dinner & three fuel stops. Fuel
mileage out to NC & back, not the mountain driving, ranged from 18.2 to 20.4
mpg. I think I was driving slower on that 20.4 mpg tank or a more consistent
speed. Without cruise, I found my speed (well after Tom told me) fluctuating
a bunch. Prior to this trip, the longest seat time was about 1 hr. 45 min. 7
hours was a lot different, all enjoyable.
IndyDave

-----Original Message-----
From: michael at michaelshortt.com [mailto:michaelsavga at gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 11:59 AM
To: DeTomaso Forum
Subject: [DeTomaso] 2012 Summer Summit Recap 1

The 2012 Summer Summit came to a successful end yesterday.

Unfortunately, the herd thinned a bit due to 2 attendees with personal or
familial medical issues ( both with Red Panteras, let that be a warning).

On hand was Michael & Joni Shortt with #1660 (Yellow), Rob & Kathy Dumoulin
#1488 ( Black Cherry),
Dave & Diane McManus #4604 (Yellow) plus Bill & Marilyn Lewis Grand Sport
C-6 Conv (Yellow), Tom
& Dena Shinrock, 86 Porsche 944T ( Silver ) and Larry Homolak & Shelia,
Honda Civic, (White).

We stayed at Fontana Village Resort at the foot of the Fontana Dam, it was
the original work camp for the WPA workers who built the dam as a part of
the TVA effort preceding and during WW2.  The accommodations were nice and
the staff generally friendly.

Thursday evening Joni and I met Bill & Marilyn for dinner at the
Mountainview Restaurant inside the Lodge, the next morning, we headed off to
breakfast in Bryson City to the Everett Street Diner, then on to to
Cherokee, NC to tour the Cherokee Museum and later that afternoon, the
Cherokee Indian village.
Bill does a mean war dance and I have it on video! After a brief stop at the
T-Shirt, Fudge and T-Shirt strip of stores, we headed back to the Lodge.
The weather and clear and sunny, if not a tad hot, we drove Joni's MB 350
SLK so as to match Bill's Corvette soft top and went styling with the tops
down all day, it was great fun.

We headed back to the lodge and met everyone else, then had dinner at the
Fontana Grill, also on the property.
The next morning, we changed the schedule due to the reduced number of
participants ( we were scheduled to have a private breakfast in
Robbinsville, but I cancelled it because we originally forecast 25 guests,
then it was 16 and finally 12, not enough to warrnt the 2 hour drive or to
put the restaurant staff to a special effort and expense ). After a quick
buffet breakfast at the Lodge, we headed off to US 129, the "Tail of the
Dragon", after a couple of fun ( accident and citation free ) runs, although
it was close, I was saved by a slow motorcycle who held us up, one turn
before the next turn hiding an marked State Highway Patrol SUV who was lying
in wait, ready to pounce.

 I did get an opportunity to take Tom Shinrock for a ride up the Dragon, it
was fun until we ran upon a flock of clueless mini vans who's sole mission
in life seemed to be ruining other people fun and seeing how slow you could
go while maintaining forward movement. Finally, we headed on to Pigeon
Forge, TN via a long winding drive to Floyd Garrett's Muscle Car Museum.
Inside were over 90 classic cars, some of my personal favorite where the
Gran Torino King Cobra ( 1 of 3 ), a perfect Sunbean Tiger Mk 1, with a rich
SCCA racing history ( including being National Champion ), a Calypso Orange
Boss 429 and a Competition Orange Camaro ZL1 ( 1 of 69 ).
Pigeon Ford is a sprawling tourist mecca (trap) and traffic is miserable, I
couldn't wait to get out of there, neither could my car, it was hotter
sitting in traffic than being thrashed on the dragon.

On the way back, there was some excitement in that Rob, Bill and Dave were
witness to a car accident, a man in what appeared to be in later 70's
dropped a wheel off a newly paved section of asphalt with a 7" shoulder drop
and like most people, braked with one set of tires on gravel and the other
set on pavement, then hit a wooded railing and rode that straight into a
rock bridge, the entire right side of the car was sheered off.  Joni and I
and Tom and Dena pulled up right after it happened, Rob was first on scene
and checked on the folks, then Joni gave them a nurse's quick check up and I
called 911 since Verizon was the only signal that worked ( barely ) and
directed traffic ( Tourist can be real jerks BTW ).
 Rob has photos, perhaps he will share.  After the US Park Rangers arrived,
we took off andf continued on our journey to dinner at Naber's Drive Inn.
It is one of those iconic drive in places with a corrugated metal cover with
menus and curb service and an eat inside area, the whole place perched on a
river bank with flowing water passing behind it.  We ate ( pickle flavored
milkshake, deep fried Indian corn on the cob and Hot Fudge Sundaes with TWO
brownies ) and we took a nice leisurely drive back to the Lodge.
If I had one complaint it was the outrageous prices of the food, 1.55 hot
dogs, 1.95 cheeseburgers and 3.00 double fudge sundaes. ;-)

The next morning brought rain ( LOTS of Rain ) and we decided to call an
early end to the fun and had breakfast at the lodge.
Bill Lewis was awarded the "long Distance Award for driving all the way from
Hockley, Texas, his award was a Detomaso Grill Emblem on a business card
stand custom made and donated by by Gary Walker, gow2 at rc-tech.net.  Get
yours TODAY.
I bought one, put my original grill emblem on his supplied stand and now
have his emblem installed on the grill of my car, it is BELLA!!!!

The long drive home was wet and somewhat eventful with an road raging
aggressive driver and a last minute part failure 2 miles from home ( stories
to come later ), made it home safely after an 8 hour tense day of driving
mostly all downhill, in monsoon like rain storm.

It was another Summer Summit, next year will be the 3rd one and we hope to
see more of you participate, the location is subject to change.

Our Photos will be posted in the next few days.

Meanwhile, commercial photographers work several stations on the Dragon and
have our photos posted, check the times between 10 a.m. and noon.

http://www.killboy.com/

http://www.dragonslayerphotos.com/

http://www.moonshinephoto.com/

http://www.zeefoto.com/

http://us129photos.com/

Michael Shortt

-- 

Michael L. Shortt
Savannah, Georgia
www.michaelshortt.com
michael at michaelshortt.com
912-232-9390

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