[DeTomaso] 2012 Summer Summit Recap 1

Tue Jun 12 12:13:31 EDT 2012

I agree, well said!
Have a safe trip home. It was a blast.
IndyDave

-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Lewis [mailto:lotus0005 at hotmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 7:06 PM
To: A-Billy Irving Light'n Lewis
Cc: michael at michaelshortt.com; DeTomaso Forum
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] 2012 Summer Summit Recap 1

I'm not home yet, but want to add:  this is a great rally/event/vacation!  I
was pleasantly surprised to discover that this is not to compete with the
official POCA Rally!  It was a great fun time with great Pantera folks. If
possible, you should put it on next year's events on your calendar.  Great
rides!  Great scenery!    ----Bill Lewis

Sent from my iPad

On Jun 11, 2012, at 1:36 PM, "Larry - Ohio Time Corp"
<larry at ohiotimecorp.com> wrote:

> The Summer Summit 2012 was a blast!
> 
> Michael did a great job planning the event, thanks.
> 
> You can never have a bad time when you're with you Pantera brothers 
> and sisters, Lov you guys. The look on Bill Lewis' face when he 
> realized which "Larry" he was talking to was priceless.
> 
> Sheila and I got down to the Smokies early and spent time camping and 
> hiking in the mountains. If you think there not mountains try hiking 5 
> miles up one, there mountains! Saw 4 black bears, lots of wild 
> turkeys, (some on the
> road) but not a single "still"! 
> 
> Put on 600 miles driving in the mountain back roads. Somewhat 
> uneventful till I was stopped at a large roadblock. The police were 
> spending 5 to 10 minutes with each car. When it was my turn to pull up 
> I informed the State Trooper that I had a conceal carry license and 
> was armed. He stooped down and looked me in the eye, then said "that's 
> great, we need more people like you carrin". He thanked me and waved 
> me right past the road block....gota love the south!
> 
> Took over 800 photos so give me some time...
> 
> If you did not come this year you missed it, so start planning for 
> next year!
> 
> 
> Larry (black bear) - Cleveland
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com 
> [mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com] On Behalf Of 
> michael at michaelshortt.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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