Heading south to Chattanooga from Southern NH. Visiting family and looking for our forever home in the Smokey Mountains. The Cayman is in the shop for a clutch so we are taking StilettoSS' AWD Hemi Charger.
Cherohala Skyway, Tail of the Dragon, and more to come!
Adventure awaits.
Cool!
Pretty lame trip with just seeing a sweet foxbody that I got a terrible photo of. Then this:
been waiting on AAA since 1:30 in Glade Springs VA. Hopefully getting a tow to Kingsport TN to get fixed tomorrow.
Edit: Water pump. Stopped for lunch and the pulley was wobbling. Said berkeley it and tried to make the 30 miles to Bristol running the ridge. Got denied one or two exits later. Temp hit 223 so we should be fine. Knew E36 M3 went south when it put itself into power conservation mode.
No bueno...
Also saw this and it seems to fit well:
Edit: we said berkeley AAA after 3.5 hours of nothing, not even a call.
A couple very nice Tennesseans called their buddy and he is on his way from Bristol to get us. I love it down here.
At the next hotel in Kingsport:
You offered to trade?
In reply to chandler :
We got denied. Haha!
So we got the water pump replaced and made our way to Chattanooga just fine.
Hung out with my cousin and my uncle, both 6 years older than me so more like brothers and 250 bottles of bourbon.
Sent my uncle off at 4am this morning.
Tail of the Dragon and Cherohala Skyway in our future.
preach (fs) said:Tail of the Dragon and Cherohala Skyway in our future.
Nailed it today.
We did the Skyway and the Dragon today in a loop. Dodge hit 110K on the Dragon which was kind of cool.
Did some touristy stuff and drove around a ton but no special roads really. There was a great road heading up Signal Mountain but it was too tight for the Dodge to be fun and would have been too dangerous for the Cayman had it been here.
Other fun was our two buddies, my cousin's dogs. Junior and Willow:
And today we wnet on a scenic tour and they guides tossed out 4 chunks of hot dog on 4 buoys and we caught these Blue Headed Catfish:
That one weighed 19lbs.
That guy was 25lbs.
Very cool afternoon on the TN River.
Back in NH.
Great trip.
We figured out where we want to look for a house (or old racing venue in my dreams anyways).
Got to visit a ton of my family, with whom Stiletto gets along with great.
Ate some authentic Cuban picadillo from my great, great grandmother's recipe cooked by my 80yo great aunt. Phenomenal!!!
Also fell in love with fried catfish. I am a picky eater but that E36 M3 melts in your mouth. So good!
Food in the city of Chattanooga is excellent.
As pictured we were a part of catching some catfish, my first time ever. Hotdogs...who knew.
2nd time driving the Cherohala Skyway and 3rd time on the Tail of the Dragon (Deal's Gap). First time on both in a 400hp land yacht.
Trip computer said: ~2700miles, 23.7mpg (not bad IMO for a 5.7 hemi with sometimes AWD), ~50hrs of drive time.
The bad was the waterpump and when we were almost home the check engine light came on (still not diagnosed). Also had to redirect the route in NY. Some serious traffic and the hemi was reaching 223*, too much for me as my Cayman always stays at 175*. 203* is average for the Charger.
As above, but I just wanted to add, when life hands you a broken water pump, go next door and get a frozen mango margarita.
Also, here's the view from Signal Mountain, pretty place but a sketchy ride up depending on which way you go. Three hairpin turns in sucession and a big ol' lead sled don't really mix.
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