Today was another day of great weather, despite the predictions.  I made a number of trips back and forth across the Dragon. There was very little traffic – most of the time it seemed that I had the road to myself.

I stopped at the Overlook and chatted with a bunch of folks about the Atom. Here’s a picture from there:

That’s not a UFO in the picture – it is one of the basketball-sized orange things they put on power lines so helicopters can see the power lines and avoid them. There’s a lot of power lines here because most of the dams generate hydroelectric power – Alcoa built them in the first half of the 20th century to generate the massive amounts of electricity needed to process aluminum ore.

I had stopped at the Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort to gas up the Atom and grab a soda, when I heard a siren in the distance. An ambulance came tearing up the hill and made the turn onto 28 on two wheels. Some of the folks at the Resort commented that they wouldn’t even take the turn that fast on a bike.

As I went down the hill, there must have been a dozen emergency vehicles of all types heading up the hill to 28. There hasn’t been any verifiable news about what happened, though I’ve heard various rumors. I’ll just say that I hope everybody is Ok. It’s a sobering thought that this may have happened to someone I was just talking to less than an hour before.

With all the hooplah about the police presence on the Dragon, it’s easy to overlook the hard work put in by all of the emergency services people – getting to a spot that’s pretty remote and risking their own safety to get to someone who needs assistance in as fast a time as possible.

I had great weather today – unlike the predictions by the weather service.

I drove in from Tennessee via a number of back roads, culminating in Route 129 (the Tail of the Dragon). I’m staying at the Dragon’s Rest Cabins, which are nice and secluded, a way off Route 129. The front porch of my cabin looks out onto a meadow with mountains in the distance:

I got several runs on the Dragon. The last one of the day was great – I had no vehicles in front of me for the whole distance. I’ll put up a video once I get home. For now, here’s some video captures:

My car video captured this image of Killboy taking my picture:

I stopped in at Wheeler’s and chatted for about a half an hour about the Dragon, Atoms, and so forth. The police presence (seems to be pretty much all on the Tennessee side) is still being noted. As I came down the hill to the end of the Dragon, a police car had a whole line of vehicles pulled over and was ticketing them one after another.

I can certainly understand ticketing people if they’re doing something stupid (which can include blatant speeding), but zinging people in a trick 30MPH zone (it is posted at 40 going uphill and 30 going downhill) isn’t fair and just drives people away, which hurts the local businesses.

One last pic to close out this post:

Tonight I’m in Lenoir City, TN – a bit short of where I’d planned to be tonight.

Last night, when I was copying the car camera videos to my notebook PC, the hard drive in the PC apparently had some sort of failure. I can’t save new videos to it and many of the older videos can’t be accessed. Fortunately, I had also been backing up the videos to an external USB hard drive, so hopefully those copies are Ok. I’m now copying directly from the CF card reader to the external drive, bypassing the notebook PC’s drive entirely.

Somewhere along the line, the car video recorders got out of sync as well – each time the car is started, they create a new video file. Except that one recorder thinks the next video should be number 151 and the other thinks it should be 150. That’s not a big problem – I just need to power up the one that’s running behind by itself, and they’ll be back in sync. It is, however, just one more thing on the day of all things…

This morning the weather was sunny and warm as I left my hotel, but that was apparently just a defective area of a major storm system that’s been blanketing the southeast.  Light rain fell intermittently until around 60 miles west of Nashville, at which time it really started pouring down.

Fortunately, I was able to see a wall of rain a few miles ahead, but it wasn’t that bad where I was, so I pulled over to the shoulder and got my jacket out of the all-weather bag and put it on. However, that soon resulted in a very wet all-weather jacket. It was so bad that I put my rear safety light on so people could hopefully see my car in the rain.

Here’s a few still captures from the video cameras in the Atom. These were from around 3 PM:

A single still image doesn’t really show the magnitude of the rain. Since this is one frame of video, the raindrops you see on the road are those that fell in 1/60th of a second:

The Atom’s engine shut down 4 times during this rainstorm (for those who aren’t familiar, due to the experimental nature of the Atom’s engine control program from GM Racing, just about anything that would put the engine into “reduced power” mode when in a regular car, will cause the engine to not change from idle, no matter what you do with the accelerator pedal). I assume that this is the same “APP Correlation Error” from the accelerator pedal that I’d seen in the past. I’ll read the codes from the engine later on to make sure. I guess I’m going to have to build a waterproof enclosure for the sensor at the top of the pedal.

Somewhere during the middle of this, all of the minor gauges in my instrument cluster (fuel level, temperatures, etc.) went out. This was apparently from something getting wet and shorting out as they came back later in the day. 

The rain continued with intermittent showers, but the car and I were mostly dried out by the time I hit the next batch of heavy rain. It was chilly enough that I pulled into a rest area and put on my driving gloves. However, even with those, after another 40 miles or so I gave up for the day and pulled into a hotel. The rain ended between when I checked in and when I was putting the cover on the Atom, and I got to see a beautiful orange sunset as the sun moved from behind clouds to the west.

While I was in the rest area getting my gloves out, 2 people on a motorcycle were putting on their rain gear as well. A little while after I left the rest area, they passed me on the highway:

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better (and drier) day.

I drove from Ozark, AR to Jackson, TN (about 300 miles) today, heading toward the Tail of the Dragon later this week. All of the driving was on I-40, so not much to write about.

The weather is iffy for the next couple days, so I may be stuck someplace for a while. Stay tuned for updates.

This morning I left Siloam Springs and headed out onto the Pig Trail down to Ozark. The weather was overcast when I left, but no rain was falling. As I headed out on 412, it started raining, but not too heavily.

On the Pig Trail, it was nice and cool (I was wearing my jacket) under the canopy of trees. It is a wonderful drive and there’s almost no traffic on there – I only saw 2 cars going the same direction as I was, and they both pulled over to let me go by. Once the road came out from under the trees, it warmed up quite quickly so I stuffed my jacket under the luggage on the passenger seat and broke out the sunscreen spray.

I checked into the Ozark Inn and the desk clerk told me that there was a car show in town, so I dropped my luggage off and headed downtown. The car show was in full swing and judging had already happened, so I just parked the Atom nearby and went and admired all the cars that were there – all sorts of cars, from antiques to current muscle cars. No pictures, because I didn’t have my camera with me – I wasn’t expecting this. Once I get home and process all of the videos, I may fill in this post with some stills from the videos. Lots of people came over to talk to me about the Atom – most think it was a kit or conversion, not a production car.

I then had dinner at the Rivertowne BBQ, which I’d been planning for some time. It is indeed as good as I’d been told. After dinner (and a take-home box because the portions are HUGE), I went outside where the restaurant’s owner, Kevin, was admiring the Atom. We sat on the restaurant’s side porch and chatted for about 15 minutes, until an urgent cole slaw shortage required his attention.

Tomorrow I’ll be heading for Jackson, TN on my way to the Tail of the Dragon. Assuming I have good weather all along the way, I’ll be caught up to the schedule I posted in an earlier entry.

Monday arrived painfully early when Tim Webb picked me up at 7 AM in Randy’s new Corvette. It has one of those keyless ignition fob thingys, and we had a close call when we pulled into a gas station and Tim realized that if he shut the car off, he wouldn’t be able to get it started again.

We made it back to the track on fumes, and I proceeded to get the Atom out of the garage bay where I’d left it the night before.

Five of us had gotten together to book the track for ourselves on this day before AtomFest. Actually, I had booked it myself and when one of my friends on the Atom Club Forum contacted the track, the track told him I had it booked, so we decided to split the cost.

We all had different goals – some just wanted to have an extra day of fun, CalScot wanted to evaluate changes he’d be making to the car’s setup, and so forth. Personally, I just wanted to get familiar with the track and get some time in so I wouldn’t make an ass of myself during AtomFest proper.

During the day, more and more Atom folks rolled into the infield. The day was cloudy with occasional showers, but nothing major.

Alec and Nadine from the UK arrived in a rented camper, driving up from Texas. I could see that Alec wanted to experience the track, so I offered (after a nudge from Nadine) to let him take my Atom out. Actually, she’d just asked if I’d let him passenger while I drove, but (as I freely admit) I’m not that good (I believe in living the Top Gear motto – “Ambitious, but rubbish”) so I gave the car to him. He had a blast. Here’s a picture I took of him lapping in my Atom:

Here’s CalScot’s amazing 475HP Atom going past in a blur:

I don’t have any shots like those of me driving my car, but here’s a still from the video I was recording with my nose camera:

Once the track closed for official runs, people brought out various modes of transportation and drove them on the track in “slow” laps (though some of them were pretty spirited). In addition to Atoms, we had various cars, including a couple that were probably rented (shhhh….), motorcycles, and the occasional golf cart. There’s a sign on the pit lane entry that says “No Motor Homes” – I expect that someone was crazy enough to try to do a hot lap with a camper sometime in the past. Either that or the track owners saw the Top Gear episode where Richard Hammond tries to invent the sport of caravan racing…

Here’s my Atom #85 on the left and Eddie Hill’s #499 on the right. From left to right, the people are Tom Smurzynski, Eddie Hill, and Randy Lamp:

After everybody’s need for the track was satisfied (at least for the moment), Randy rounded us up for the traditional AtomFest eve dinner at the Rib Crib in Sand Springs. Unfortunately, they seemed to have misplaced the reservation Randy had made for 40 people. However, they recovered quickly and opened up a corner of the dining room for us. The serving staff had the impression we needed separate checks – normally there’s one tab per table and everybody throws into the pot. So they come out with 30-odd folios and try to match up bills with people. It all worked out in the end, and from what I could see, the tips were generous all around.

After dinner, we all got into various cars (we carpooled into town in “normal” cars, since it was raining off and on) and drove back to the track. I headed back to my cabin from the track, determined to make the 8 AM driver’s meeting the next morning (and hopefully catch the last of the 7 AM breakfast).

This morning I packed up all of my stuff and headed out to Freddie’s Lakeside and checked in. It’s an interesting place – they’ve taken what seems to be a pre-fab metal building and divided it into 3 cabins. I had the leftmost one, which has an extensive fishing theme. They used a variety of trims, including rough-sawn wood, beadboard, tile, etc. You can tell that it was a pre-fab building – the floor is concrete (with area rugs) and sloped toward the standard 4″ drain found in that type of building. There’s a combo entryway / kitchen, large bathroom, living / dining room, and a separate bedroom. Since I was using it mostly as a place to pass out when I got back from the track, it was a lot more than I actually needed. There’s at least one motel a little closer to the track, the Keystone Lake Motel with a big $39.99 sign out front. No idea what that place is like, though.

I brought the stuff I didn’t need at the track into the cabin and then headed off to the track. Various Atom folks had arrived and were in different stages of getting set up. The day was rainy off and on, so the event that was running over the weekend had a large number of their attendees leave due to the weather. By early afternoon, the weather had cleared somewhat, but because they had so few cars, they invited all of the Atom owners who had gotten set up out on the track. Eddie Hill took them up on the offer and ran a few laps. I’m not sure they knew who he was 😎

Randy got a bunch of us together and treated us to a great Italian dinner at a place called the Spaghetti Warehouse in Tulsa. By that time it had started to rain, so I asked Tim Webb to drop me off at my cabin and to collect me in the morning.

Last night, after I posted the update, I get a call from the front desk. They say “There’s a Tom Smuh… Smi….” and then I hear Tom say “Smurzynski” in the background. The front desk wants to know if they can tell him my room number. I tell them “Of course!”.

Turns out they’re in the room across the hall from me. Tom saw an Atom under the outdoor car cover and peeked under. When he saw the Wildberry Metallic fenders, he knew it was mine.

He and Judy (his wife) were heading out to dinner and wanted to know if I wanted to come along. Unfortunately, I just received a delivery from the Italian place that advertises in the hotel elevator, so I passed. When they got back from dinner, they invited me over to their room and we spent hours talking about Atoms and other things.

This morning (well, as early as I can rouse myself) I drove out to Freddie’s Lakeside Cabins and confirmed that they did have a room for me. Then I went to Hallett (the track). The guy handling the gate (the road to the infield crosses the track, so there’s a gate to prevent accidents) called me by name, as he remembered me from 2 years ago. Mostly I just watched the group that was running on the track, as none of the Atom folks were there (one guy had driven his rig in earlier, but had business elsewhere, so he was away). After a fun day, I went back to Tulsa for the night.

Well, I’m close to the track and 2 days early, since I didn’t take any days off due to bad weather. Unfortunately, the bad weather seems to be saving itself for the track:

I’ll be staying here in Tulsa until Sunday morning. Sunday morning I’ll check into Freddie’s Lakeside Cabins (presuming that they actually processed my reservation) and unload a bunch of stuff, then I’ll head to the track (unless it is really pouring down) to help Randy set up stuff for AtomFest.

I’m on schedule, staying tonight in Huber Heights, Ohio. Depending on how the weather looks on Wednesday, I’ll either stay another day or move on to Greenville, Illinois.

So far I’ve been pretty lucky with the weather – it just started misting when I pulled into Somerset, PA last night. It was quite humid there, though – 98%.

The weather was a bit chilly this morning when I left there, but it warmed up later in the morning. There was intermittent rain for most of the drive today. Every time I’d pull over to put my jacket on, the sun would come out. And when I took the jacket off and put sunscreen on, it would start raining again.

I apparently missed a torrential downpour near Columbus, Ohio by less than 15 minutes – someone else staying at the same hotel I am said that when he came through, he could barely see the road to drive.

Here’s a picture from my rollbar camera: