Deals Gap/Tail of the Dragon 2025

[kishy]

I haven't managed to make any social gatherings work on this trip the past two years, but I figure I might as well mention it.
edit for clarity: I've met gadget which certainly qualifies, but I meant more on the TN/NC leg of the trip.

As with 2023 and 2024, I will be going on a half group/half solo road trip. The group portion of the trip will be focused around the Deals Gap area, and US 129 known as "the dragon" or "the tail of the dragon" on the NC/TN border. As with past years it's a 10-15 car convoy going down, and as with past years I will split from the group to go visit a friend in NJ. No, I don't know how I concluded that it makes sense to combine these trips, but I did, so I do.

In 2023 I took my 1985 Country Squire. In 2024 I took my 1991 Grand Marquis. Barring any significant mechanical problem developments in the coming days, this year, it is my intent to take my 1984 Town Car.

The approximate schedule is as follows:

• Thursday May 15: drive south, late evening hotel check-in in Robbinsville, NC
• Friday May 16: drive the area roads, do activities, roam around
• Saturday May 17: as above. Check out of hotel in Robbinsville. Drive to Asheville, tentatively have dinner with TecNickal, stay in hotel in Asheville for the night.
• Sunday May 18: drive northeast following a different route than that chosen the past two years:
  I-40, I-85, US-58, Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, Lewes-Cape May ferry across Delaware Bay. Check into a hotel for the night most likely in Atlantic City.
• Monday May 19: activities with friend there (unconnected to car hobby).
• Tuesday May 20: hotel check-out - more of above - afternoon begin drive west. Tentatively, meet up with gadget and John (86vicky maybe? something like that) for dinner. Continue drive west until tired, find hotel as appropriate.
• Wednesday May 21: hopefully knock out the rest of the drive home, but PA and OH are an obnoxiously long drive paired together.

Unlike the past two years I do not specifically intend to use any part of the Blue Ridge Parkway, it simply adds too much time of an uncertain exact amount, and there is a great deal of uncertainty over sections which were affected by hurricane Helene which may not be reopened yet. And even for the sections which are supposed to be open, the common map apps won't allow plotting your route on them, so it's a mess to plan.

As with past years, the best opportunities to do something social (e.g. a Panther meet, if you will) would be in the vicinity of Tapoco/Robbinsville on Friday, Tapoco/Robbinsville/Bryson City/Asheville on Saturday, or somewhere Philly-ish Tuesday evening/perhaps expand the dinner plan. Then a lunch stop somewhere across PA on Wednesday.

Feel free to speak up if you'll be nearby one of the relevant spots and may want to hang out for a bit.

[P72Ford]

I am heading to the F-100 Nationals is Pigeon Forge on Thursday. Will be at the show and doing area things Friday and Saturday, and do the tail of the dragon on Saturday afternoon/ en route to Myrtle Beach area of SC. I will honk if I see a box TC!

[kishy]

Man, I've been trying to write this post for 4 days.

I made it home (with the car) without incident Wednesday evening. Everything went well and I'm pleased with the changes I made this year. Here's the rundown of the trip.

Thurs May 15: breakfast at a Bob Evans. Acceptable.
Drove south. Went reasonably well. Ended up at the back of the pack, unsurprisingly. Gave much less care this year to staying caught up because this year my friend Dan brought a 10 year old beater Tesla (yeah that's a thing now, kinda cool) instead of his Skyline, and its charging requirements were different from the newer Tesla which had set the pace for the rest of the group, so we just did our own thing. Eventually we detoured off I-75 due to a huge traffic jam which the rest of the group was stuck in, which caused us to leapfrog them getting to dinner. Good stuff.

The drive south revealed some behaviours of this car's transmission that concerned me. Notably, allowing the pedal to cause 4-3 kickdown at certain throttle levels particularly on a steep climb would result in what I'm going to call "gear 3.5" which I believe was the OD band slipping before an actual kickdown event happened. e.g. TV is too low, and I found a throttle position that allowed the engine to overpower the band and get slippy. This was never observed doing a manual 4-3 shift and as a result I did all the rest of the 3-4 manually, which is how I generally roll with AODs anyway. I bumped the TV up to the max the throttle body adjustment allows and it cleaned it up significantly, but still not enough to really trust it. I did find that I do not have 3-2 kickdown at 50mph, but I did at 45. Increasing it did not change the 3-2 kickdown speed. It was interesting seeing what the car could do with the pedal basically matted in 3, and it definitely exceeded expectations. Not the total slug that you may expect.

Fri May 16: made sure to drive the Dragon in both directions to get some photos taken. Drove some other regional roads. Took an afternoon nap, which I think everyone needs to do more of. Dinner at a Southern BBQ-type place, which was very good. Nobody wanted to drive the Cherohala Skyway so I went and did that on my own, and it was a nice drive. I did take out an owl that was unfortunately in the process of catching something running across the road, with a 60 foot pair of skidmarks left as evidence. Sort of bummed about that but I had no real way to avoid it which wouldn't have risked totaling the car in the woods.





(that's the closest to the same angle as the last 2 years that exists this year, sadly)





Sat May 17: got the group together (like herding cats) for the aerial group photos. Reasonably certain that at no point during the trip did I cross paths with P72Ford , but did see a good number of bumpside and dentside Ford trucks. Afterwards, with Dan, ventured off to Bryson City, NC. Spent a little money in an art gallery (art store?) called One Twenty Main (located at, unsurprisingly, 120 Main). Continued on towards Asheville.









We checked out Biltmore, which is a beautiful piece of property, but still fundamentally "a rich guy's house that we paid money to walk around and look at". There was a fair bit of sticker shock at the price to get in, but Dan had always wanted to see it so we did it. As we were wrapping up at Biltmore, TecNickal was arriving in the area, so we grabbed some dinner together. Again Southern BBQ but I have no complaints. From there, the three of us headed to the highest point on the Blue Ridge Parkway (a short distance south-west of Asheville) to try to catch the sunset, which turned out to be better a short distance further on the parkway, and then got back to Asheville for Dan and I to get a hotel for the night.

Sun May 18: Dan headed back to rejoin the group and do the drive north. I hit the highway heading for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.
The drive was good. NC lane discipline is quite good. People pass, then get back over. Refreshing. Unfortunately it set up some unrealistic expectations for what would follow particularly in VA, MD, and DE.

The Bridge-Tunnel was cool. A pleasant drive. It's part causeway, part tunnel, part bridge. I wish there were opportunities to pull off at the transitions from tunnel to causeway and back again, but there's construction work blocking them. There is a designated scenic viewing area which I did stop at, for a drone pic.



Continuing on, I made it to the ferry dock in Lewes, DE with plenty of time to spare. Dinner was a nice hoagie with some Old Bay-seasoned potatoes from Wawa (which I think is my preferred gas station/rest stop chain, and is very specific to that region). Spilled my entire drink directly onto the transmission tunnel so the carpet will need a good wash now.

The ferry was neat. 1974-laid MV Delaware. Pretty typical "roll on, roll off" ferry, with lots of seating options both inside and outside. Smooth ride. 1.5 hour sailing time. Arrived in Cape May, NJ on-time and continued towards Atlantic City for my overnight accommodations. Stayed at Tropicana, not because I wanted to go to a casino or because I was particularly thrilled with my time there before, but mainly because the pricing was acceptable and it was an option I was familiar with, so parking vs access to main routes and floor plan was all still familiar.

Mon May 19: spent the day with my friend Matt. Brunch at a diner, was quite good. Smithville Village Greene shops (sort of hard to articulate what this is, but it was nice). Wandered a dying shopping mall. Bookstore, bought a book. Non-commitedly scoped out an urbex opportunity, did not do it as neither of us had appropriate gear and I also don't know how bored the local cops are. Walked a trail at a nature center. Dinner (sushi, much of which was a new experience for Matt) at Sakura Japanese restaurant.

Tues May 20: spent the first 2/3 of the day with Matt. Lunch at Taqueria Rendon - fantastic. I had chorizo and shrimp tacos which were mind-bendingly good. Probably the best Mexican food I've ever had. We did the tour of Lucy the Elephant. Not honestly all that exciting but definitely something to do and priced acceptably. Wandered a thrift store. Walked a trail at a nice park with woodlands. Craft store. Ice cream. It was a good visit.

Parted ways with Matt and started my drive west. Met up with gadget73 and 86VickyLX at Talk of the Towne diner in Carneys Point, NJ. Had a decent Cuban panini. We talked car stuff, I delivered some parts I had brought along for them, and chatted for a bit. Eventually set off with goals of "avoid tolls" and "get at least 2 hours past Philly"; made it about 4, but it was 1:30 in the morning and I was exhausted. There was a 30 minute penalty for messing with the TV linkage again somewhere in there, as well. Slept in the car at a rest stop, which is a first and possibly last for me. Comfy as the car may be, I think I need a flatter surface, and at 6'2" I was folded up pretty considerably.



Wed May 21: hit the road at about 7:30AM. Found a Sheetz for breakfast as I was already too far west for Wawa. Weather was decent for most of it but getting closer to Ohio, the rain started, and it was intense. All of the trip through Ohio was rainy and at times it was almost too severe to drive through. Made my final fuel stop of the trip in Allen Park, MI, and continued across the border, arriving home at 5PM.

Some stats:
States visited or driven through: MI, OH, KY, TN, NC, VA, MD, DE, NJ, PA.
Worst drivers found in: VA continues to take home this trophy. I even took a significantly different route and they were still awful.
Tolls paid: about 30 USD but one of the booths was bill-by-plate only so a bill may or may not appear in the mail for an amount I will not know until/unless it does. I did not receive a bill for the toll-by-plate booth I hit last year but I don't recall exactly where it was, I'm sure it was ezpass though. The toll-by-plate booths this year and last year were definitely not the same locations as the route was different.
Distance driven: 2530.16 miles or 4071.89 km per trip odometer
Fuel consumed: 147.68 US gallons per actual fuel station pumps
Fuel economy: 17.0 US MPG average across trip per calculation of actual fuel vs odometer in each leg of the trip. Low 13.7, high 23.2
Highest elevation reached was 6053ft at Richland Balsam overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway
Lowest elevation would be essentially zero in Atlantic City.

[gadget73]

Good to see you again. let me know what I owe you for that EEC gizmo thats still in the trunk of the car with the shop light I bought a month ago.

[Mainemantom]

The Biltmore is an interesting place and allot of walking.The filthy rich certainly live differently. Didn't that get damaged in the floods of last year? Are the roads around Ashville back to normal ?
So many people lost everything in that area. The Chesapeake bay bridge and tunnel is really cool. 17 miles long if I remember correctly. Isn't the toll about $17 ?
That was quite a nice road trip. Glad you and your Lincoln did well.

[Tiggie]

Go box Lincoln, go.

I guess I am used to Virginia drivers. There is certainly some room for improvement.

[kishy]

Good to see you again. let me know what I owe you for that EEC gizmo thats still in the trunk of the car with the shop light I bought a month ago.

Certainly, same to you. I forget where we landed on that price but I'll message you.
Sorry to add to the pile of things but you do seem like an appropriate person to own it.

The Biltmore is an interesting place and allot of walking.The filthy rich certainly live differently. Didn't that get damaged in the floods of last year? Are the roads around Ashville back to normal ?
So many people lost everything in that area. The Chesapeake bay bridge and tunnel is really cool. 17 miles long if I remember correctly. Isn't the toll about $17 ?
That was quite a nice road trip. Glad you and your Lincoln did well.

Biltmore is amazing. It's a neat piece of history. Well-cared-for, as well. If it was damaged in the floods from the hurricane they've done a great job cleaning it up. But regardless of how nice it is, I can't justify the price of admission, and won't be back unless there's some sort of 50% off coupon.

I didn't find any apparent lasting evidence of Helene but there was some highway road construction that may or may not be part of repairing some of it. Everywhere I had to go was open and nothing looked particularly destroyed.

The toll over the Chespeake Bay was $21 cash. It's probably cheaper if you have ezpass, but for doing this once a year and having no toll roads remotely near where I usually am, I'm not bothering with a transponder.

Go box Lincoln, go.

I guess I am used to Virginia drivers. There is certainly some room for improvement.

Go box Lincoln with a growling rear end, no less. Car did great.

I think the most annoying behaviour is (as it was before) how people interact when a car is about to go out for a pass.
A car will seem perfectly content to ride behind me (on cruise control and being mindful to get into the pedal when cruise can't keep up, so my speed is pretty consistent) for miles and miles.
But as soon as I catch up to the car ahead and am about to hit the turn signal to change lanes left for the pass, the car behind will jump over, speed up enough to block me, then match and maintain my speed so I can't go anywhere and am forced to slow down to match the car that I've caught up to.

It's not passing, moreso just left lane camping, if I do the majority of the driving in the left lane. The whole key with passing is the moving back and forth thing. But that seems to really upset everyone on VA interstates lol.

[gadget73]

People do need lessons in lane management and in some cases driving at a minimum reasonable speed. Recently I got stuck behind someone doing 50 in a 65, where realistic speed is more like 70-75. Sitting there in the middle lane causing traffic to weave around on both sides. Sir, please GTFO the road, or at least into the right lane so you aren't causing as much of a disturbance.

[87gtVIC]

Good read. Thanks for sharing.

any damage to the car from the owl? That does suck but it’s part of road tripping.

[sly]

People do need lessons in lane management and in some cases driving at a minimum reasonable speed. Recently I got stuck behind someone doing 50 in a 65, where realistic speed is more like 70-75. Sitting there in the middle lane causing traffic to weave around on both sides. Sir, please GTFO the road, or at least into the right lane so you aren't causing as much of a disturbance.

I had the same issue going to work on Thursday. Same speed and speed limit as well. Spooky.

[kishy]

Good read. Thanks for sharing.

any damage to the car from the owl? That does suck but it’s part of road tripping.

No, the owl was stationary in the middle of the lane (I assumed it was already-dead roadkill) but at the very last second popped its head up. No evidence on the bumper so I'm thinking that part that pokes forward on the frame crossmember under the engine is what made contact.

Downhill at 50MPH, locked the brakes from getting on them too late, poor little dude didn't stand a chance. I did move the body off the road after so whatever may try to eat it wouldn't also get ran over. I stand by my decision not to swerve because of the overall conditions but I wish that I'd figured out the owl was alive quicker so I could have reacted better.