Idea for 2012's RFTH

[TopNotch]

I received this in the mail...

"Hi Pat,
My name is Karl Sutter and I represent Fontana Village Resort in the Great Smoky Mountains . As a former SCCA competitor I can testify to some of the best roads in America for car clubs to enjoy. We already host several groups including Miata

[Donster]

I checked their web site also.
I also think it's a great idea, as long as we can work around their Octoberfest schedule, as I'm sure most accommodations will be booked well in advance. Hence, we would need to get a head start on it and might want to scout the route early.

The Dragon is close enough, and those are prices most anybody interested in doing the run can afford.

Just as an FYI:
Fontana Dam, N.C. is about 175 miles north of Atlanta.

[Fierofool]

The Kappa Club (Soltice/Sky) used that as their venue each year when they went to The Dragon in August.  Only complaints I've heard were the high prices for very small servings at the restaurant.  You're pretty much a captive audience when it comes to eating.  There's nothing else close unless you want to drive all the way over to Robbinsville or down to the only gas station in the area to get a bag of peanuts to pour into your Coca-Cola. 

Assuming we're going to The Dragon as scheduled, remember that it's best to have a route that makes a circle so that you don't have to backtrack over the same route to get back to your hotel.  Roads are limited in an area as mountainous as that.  That can cause a route to be excessively short or long.  Some of the better roads in that area are south  of Fontana Village on 28 down to Franklin, then back up Wayah Depot Road. 

I have previous routes mapped and saved, and I've looked at some other routes that were based around Fontana Village.  It would take a scouting run to see if we can make some new routes work out.  We would need to start as soon as the chance for ice or snow  is zero and we need to keep in mind that if we have other events, some folks might not be able to afford multiple things in the same month, or family matters may take precedent. 

[85GT]

just to put my two cents in, i liked the place we stayed in franklin, and there were a lot of places to eat at...  just a thought.....

[Fierofool]

I have first-hand information about Fontana Village.  As soon as I have permission, I'll post it. 

[Fierofool]

This from Kim Evans of the Kappa Club:

We love Fontana and the services they provided. We always suggested that people do not eat in the restaurant because yes it is expensive, especially the breakfast buffet. We usually always ate at the grill which was much better food for less money. The banquet was always good and the price was reasonable.

We also had a special deal worked out with the restaurant for our group. For breakfast I collected $5 per person per day and they provided, coffee, juice, sausage biscuits and danish. Everyone loved that!

As for the rooms: We had Lodge Rooms at $81.75 for Thurs-Sun and there were discounts on the cabins and such but I don't remember what they were.