Miata Mailing List: August 1998, Message #137

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On Sat, 1 Aug 1998 23:18:28 +0000, mhendrix3@juno.com (Mark T
Hendricks) wrote:

>I just want to thank all the organizers that worked so hard to make
>Deal's Gap such a huge success this year!

 It's not work...it's *FUN*!!!

 The real thanks still go to all of you wonderful Miata folks who
attended...you are the reason the "non-event" is so much fun.
Scott, Mike, Mark, myself and all the rest of the RAGS crew could
have worked twice as hard and still not pulled it off if were
dealing with less that the class-act folks who attended. Kudos to
all of you!

 Our sincere thanks also to all the Miata vendors who helped pack
the room Saturday night (man, was it HOT in there with all those
folks!) for the Goodie Giveaway. A lot of really nice folks got
some great things for their cars. Let's all support these folks
who help us all to have so much fun.

 I'm gonna just sit here and jot a few notes as they come to my
tired brain here... (more stuff to come, I'm sure)

>I drove up from Athens, Ga for the day, and it was definitely worth the
>trip!!
>Pulling into the Tapoco parking lot and seeing Miatae everywhere (I mean
>EVERYWHERE) was quite breathtaking.

 I think even neater is the fact that we didn't use all of the
available space...it will be possible to fit 200 Miatae in there
without door banging...there is still room to grow.

>What was even more breathtaking was the difficulty of some of the turns
>in the "Dragon." I certainly can see how people have lost their lives
>while trying to "slay" it.

 But can you ever get the grin off your face?

>Was it me or where there some completely suicidal motorcyclists out
>there? A guy on a Ninja ZX-6 passed me doing about 80 mph on one section.
>Also, did you guys see those bicyclers? What were they thinking? Deals
>Gap is a little dangerous for that sort of thing!

 Yes, and unfortunately there is nothing we can do about it but
our repeated warnings to be careful. As we were leaving this
afternoon, yet another squid on a bike crashed about 1/3 of the
way through the Gap. Riding (or driving) over your head is a
no-no anywhere, but on a highway where innocent folks are is a
bit crazy.

 However, the Miata Gods smiled on us, as we got 141 cars in
caravan through Saturday morning without a single incident...in
fact, I didn't even see one bike until I was coming out of the
Gap. And 141 Miatae is an awesome sight all in a line...I was
around # 53 or so in line, and I could look around the curve of
the lake to see the cars up front over a mile away...too cool.

>I was amazed how hospitable the Lancia/Fiat people were to us. A large
>majority waved or beeped as I drove by.

 Funny that a some of us in comparing notes Saturday night and
Sunday morning saw different....hardly no waves at all in the
Gap. (The rumor was that they couldn't wave...it took both hands
to drive a Fiat...one for the wheel and the other on the choke to
keep it running.) <g>

 I did have a very pleasant conversation with a bunch of them at
the dam overlook at the Gap Saturday afternoon, and did pick up a
few waves here and there. Nice folks nonetheless...they are just
as nuts about their pride and joys as we are.

> Their gathering site was, in my
>opinion, much nicer than the Tapoco lodge.
>The Tapoco Lodge had a parking lot about the size of a Mc Donald's, while
>the "Fiat Freakout" site was about as big as two baseball fields.

 All that costs money...something we don't want to charge. I had
also gotten a letter from one of last year's Gappers who stayed
at Fontana  and said they wanted something more than a non-air
conditioned hut. Dirk and the crew at Tapoco may have even more
in store for us next year.

>Aside from the sack lunches (which I didn't get because I didn't reserve
>one- although the kind people from Master's Miata shared their food with
>me) and fairly expensive dinner (which also required reservations and
>most of the meals were above $10) the Tapoco Lodge didn't offer much.

 Dirk and the group at Tapoco went out of their way to make
everyone welcome, and provided a *lot* of things for a lot of
folks that were far beyond the call of merely being an operator
of a hotel.

 The dinners were great and reasonably priced...good home cooked
style meals aren't cheap, and the Fiat folks were paying (on
average) about $5 more per person per meal for theirs at Fontana.
(This is from their own registration form - Sat. lunch was $15
and Sat. dinner was $20, and their box lunch for the autox
participants was $7 vs. $5 for ours.)

 If you didn't like the fixed "box lunch" or dinner menu for any
reason, all you had to do was ask the staff ahead of time and
they would prepare a meal for you that you could enjoy. (One of
the things we forgot in all the preparations was that we didn't
have a box lunch reservation ourselves...Julie asked Dirk if it
was too late only 2 hours before we left for the Gap...but Dirk
came through.)

 One thing Julie noted was that she has been fighting a nasty
cold and has run out of tissues. When she arrived, there were
none to be found at the lodge (at least sitting out). However,
since she was working our "registration" across from the Lodge's
registration counter, Dirk must have noticed. Sometime later that
evening tissue boxes appeared in several spots around the Lodge.
No one asked, Dirk just noticed and did what he thought would
make her feel better.

 Did you notice all the free soft drinks (and beer)? The lodge
paid for that, as well as the bluegrass band that performed
Saturday night, much to the delight of some of the Gappers. Dirk
was willing to provide shuttle bus service to different areas in
case we didn't want to caravan cars, as well as find a way to
fulfill any want we may have had, but most of that was stuff
we've decided we don't need.

 The Gap is (and always will be, if we can help it) a low or no
cost happening...you pay as you go for what you want to do. it's
intended to be a "laid-back" kind of thing where we will schedule
a few things to do and let everyone else fill in the blanks with
what they want to do. And it worked like a charm...after the
picnic, Miatae headed off in every direction imagineable...back
to the Gap for more corner carving fun, to Pigeon Forge for
shopping, to the Smokies, Cherokee, the Cherohala Skyway, or back
to the lodge for good old fashioned bench racing and bull
shooting.

 While Scott, Mike and myself were a bit busier than most in
attendance, I can see where the format works. I saw comments from
some who attended MMM who said that they never got to meet
everyone, or even a third of them due to all the happenings that
were scheduled. Even with our limited planned happenings, I was
still finally getting to meet some of the folks at almost
midnight Saturday night. If we had a full schedule of stuff I'd
never have gotten around to being able to talk to as many as I
did.

>It was nice meeting a lot of people from the list, and I am looking
>forward to attending Gap 1999!!!

 You betcha! Also note that the lodge was already booked up solid
for "Gap '99" by 3pm Friday. The folks there just gotta be doin'
something right. <g>

 If this came across as maybe a bit "defensive", maybe it is <g>,
but absolutely no bad feelings intended and I hope none
taken...we all are open to suggestions, etc. but what we found
from almost everyone we contacted last year told us (some in no
uncertain terms) that since "it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

 We're taking that one to heart.

 Thanks again, everyone.

Doc
phRed '95 - CSP #25
Team Monster Miata Stereo
--
Forget 0 to 60.  It's 95 to 55 that counts!