2018 East Coast Fall Rally

[DR.GTS.DUCATI.FAZER Dave]

Can the group chime in, who wants to reserve Cherohala Campground for next falls rally? It is currently open for our usual weekend.

[Motofun]

Nancy and I always liked Cherohala Campground.  Really miss the old KOA but I don't have any hope that it will ever be rebuilt.

[ddlewis]

I like Waynes place too, and I would go for it again if everybody is in.  But I gotta say.. all of us staying in that big "cabin", eating a big breakfast, hanging out drinking beers with football on the big screen..  It did not suck.  I wish we could find a cabin about 3x that size and all stay in that.  

And while I'm at it, also wish we could live their permanently, every morning eat lots of bacon followed by motorcycle riding instead of working.  

[mst3kguy]

Danny, I'm fairly certain we can find a rental that would comfortably accommodate double what we had this year.  It might not be within a couple miles of Tellico square, but they're out there, because I looked.

I think it's unrealistic to expect all of us to go to that campground, as there are a few of us that just don't care for it.

Carey and I tossed around the idea of having the rally in a radically different location for next year, but we know how people don't like change.

[Bill_Rockoff]

What'dja have in mind? How radically different?

I don't mind a bit of change. I wouldn't have ever wanted anything different than the Tellico Plains KOA, which was great as far as accommodating all of us and giving us room to have a decent fire and being close to the good riding. If it ever comes back, it'll be worth celebrating.  But it hasn't, and I don't think it will any time soon.

I like Wayne and Kelly, and their place is very pretty. But if we get a decent FJ rally crowd staying there, four toilets just ain't enough - especially since each toilet shares a room with a shower and a sink, so only four people can use a plumbing fixture of any type at any one time. Two people showering and two others brushing their teeth? Nobody can use the john. That's pretty much all morning every morning. And just my contingent (I swear it's coincidence they all ride Italian twins) constitutes a decent FJ rally crowd all by themselves.

I liked the Bryson City location just fine; the campground was close to a cool town full of good beer and food, and there were lots of cabins, and it was well located compared to most of the fun roads, with the sun at your back morning and evening.

What are other suggestions? It's a big ol' world out there, I wouldn't mind riding some other parts of it.

Danny, I have a spreadsheet that says in 16 more years I can just get a place up there & ride all the time.

[mst3kguy]

Nancy and I always liked Cherohala Campground.  Really miss the old KOA but I don't have any hope that it will ever be rebuilt.

and i'm sure the rest of us would like it as much as you guys did, if we had your accommodations at that campground.  unfortunately, most of us don't...

[mst3kguy]

bill (r),

two possibilities that we threw around were north georgia, because we seem to spend so much time on those good roads, or virginia.

north georgia:  when we ride, i'm always looking around for cool places to stay, and i always noticed quite a few cabin rentals, often times cabins clustered together as we would like, along some of our favorite rides.  one of the criteria that i prefer to prioritize is near to a city (as bryson city was) in case we need supplies, whether they be motorcycle- or food-related.  so we wondered it someplace like dahlonega (sp?) might fit the bill.

virginia:  on one of the prior boone rallies, i spent a couple days prior to arriving in boone in sw virginia, based on recommendations of some riding coworkers of mine.  this area had some amazing roads, and clearly they've seen how marketing to the motorcycle crowd can be a positive.

http://clawofthedragon.com/

i seriously doubt we will make any changes this coming year; i tried to find us a location that had the best of everything with little compromise, we tried it, and still a certain few decided we should go back to tellico.  people don't like change.  i'm also noticing a bit of a split in the group, so not sure what the future holds.  stay tuned, i suppose?

[ddlewis]

virginia:  on one of the prior boone rallies, i spent a couple days prior to arriving in boone in sw virginia, based on recommendations of some riding coworkers of mine.  this area had some amazing roads, and clearly they've seen how marketing to the motorcycle crowd can be a positive.

http://clawofthedragon.com/
...

Re: that claw of dragon map, town of Marion VA would be a cool place to try, decent sized town with restaurants etc..  just north is Hungry Mother state park with a bunch of cabins, lake, rv spots, etc.   Great riding around that area.  All the roads on the map above are all really good, particularly Rt 16 north out of town, it's one of those snake/dragon theme  roads- "back of dragon".    On top of all that still very close to Damascus/58, 91, shady valley..  

And easy to get to, right of I-81.  I think that would be a great spot.

oh yeah, almost forgot.. the crucial piece of the pie.. Marion has a Macado's.

[Motofun]

There's a KOA in wytheville.......

[rlucas]

oh yeah, almost forgot.. the crucial piece of the pie.. Marion has a Macado's.

That kinda seals the deal, eh?

[rvnmaniac]

virginia:  on one of the prior boone rallies, i spent a couple days prior to arriving in boone in sw virginia, based on recommendations of some riding coworkers of mine.  this area had some amazing roads, and clearly they've seen how marketing to the motorcycle crowd can be a positive.

http://clawofthedragon.com/

i seriously doubt we will make any changes this coming year; i tried to find us a location that had the best of everything with little compromise, we tried it, and still a certain few decided we should go back to tellico.  people don't like change.  i'm also noticing a bit of a split in the group, so not sure what the future holds.  stay tuned, i suppose?
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That looks interesting. We could switch up every other year for the Fall Rally. Tellico one year and somewhere else the next.

[mst3kguy]

There's a KOA in wytheville.......

Yep, that's where i stayed when i came down before the boone rally.  wish i could remember more about the koa itself, but i do remember that at least they had a town there.

[mst3kguy]

http://clawofthedragon.com/maps.html

[mst3kguy]

so, the question.  do we actually consider this?  if you recall, the reason we moved _back_ to tellico from bryson city was because jeff hoffman opened up a discussion with some core members to say that majority of members wanted it in tellico and not bryson city.  are we to actually do the research to make this happen?

[DR.GTS.DUCATI.FAZER Dave]

Bryson has nice cabins and town and food, we all seemed to find room mates easy enough, it did require one individual to be on the hook for the cabin in full if they were stuck solo or others plans disintegrated, not all of us have the blessing in life to float that bill either on a single card or solo. I have had years where it would have gone either way, if the location allowed splitting of the bill, that solves part of that.

My only dislike of Bryson was the location was all about the $5 a day for parking each vehicle, $10 a day for a dog, $8 a day I recall, but $8 for the stay makes more sense just for sheets, maybe they changed them and $8 daily makes sense. I nearly forgot, the 10pm hard shut down of noise, it had no centralized socializing and I really missed the entire group relaxing. This centralized social gathering prevents breakage, like dean pointed out, there are signs or fracturing, and this group is full of good people with differences that make life interesting, lets keep it mixing and watch the chemical reactions. There is strength and longevity in numbers.

I for one am hoping to find a bike to spend a rally chasing Smola, Hoffman and Frank for once, well, following their dust trail anyway.

I am in for alternating locations and/or one here, one Tellico and out again. I also look forward to the day when I can scout locations like Dean and others, work is just too profitable for the foreseeable future.