MrsCYBERZ06

Biltmore trip overnight accomodations: Few of us will stay at the newly remodeled Holiday Inn Biltmore West. Rates online are only $96 plus tax. Convenient to Biltmore and downtown. Plenty of hotels available closer to Biltmore or downtown.
We will start looking into restaurant options to meet in with locals wanting to join the drive and a meal or two.
Sounds like quite a few of you already are with us for the drive & lunch...maybe even dinner! Looking forward to meeting you all with your babies and taking some great pictures!
Suggestions are appreciated for places to eat.
We will tour the Biltmore on Friday, anyone interested please let us know or if you would like to join us for dinner. I am assuming we will have lunch at the Biltmore.
Many of you have suggested great roads to drive on for our Corvette snake on Saturday (weather permitting). We will map them out and plan a nice drive and waterfall stop. Probably no more than 3-4 hours. Anyone interested for Saturday lunch or dinner, let us know so we can plan place and time. Once we figure out all the places to meet up, we will post them. Thanks and ! Mea

Here is what we have so far:
Biltmore trip/lunch
Vettin Man -2
Bruce & Kathy
Paul & Mea
Bob & Paul-maybe

Saturday Drive/lunch
Vettin Man
Leadfoot88
1truL48
RockinC6
JPBabyRange
NC_EB_Z06
Bruce & Kathy
Paul & Mea
Bob & Paula-maybe
Catbert-maybe

Cadillac Tech

Thanks Mea for all your hard work.

Vettin Man

If you don't mind a chain restaurant there is a TGI Friday's right outside the entrance to Biltmore. It is attached to a hotel but I can't remember the name.

1truL48

You might want to check out Biltmore Village (between the estate and downtown Asheville). Plenty of free surface parking, stop lights for easy in/easy out and a great selection of local foods. I40 and Exit 50, north on Hwy 25 to the Village. Here is the link

http://www.biltmorevillage.com/restaura.htm

MrsCYBERZ06

I checked out the web-site...that little village looks fab! Which restaurant do you recommend from their list?

The Corner Kitchen

Interiors of Asheville Cafe

La Paz Restaurante and Cantina

Red Stag Grill

Rezaz Restaurant and Enoteca

Rita's Cantina

Stovetrotters

Chelsea's and The Village Tea Room

This Village looks like a great place for a dinner and walking around, hangin out....are you guys thinking Saturday night? Everyone interested, let's hear your opinions.
Thanks for the great suggestion!
I hope they have an ice cream shop or bakery or something....I love great dessert after the meal!
Mea

MrsCYBERZ06

I like TGIF's...maybe Friday night for dinner after our Estates tour? Friday at Friday's seems appropriate...hehe
What do all of you think?
Mea

1truL48

Red Stag or Stovetrotters are my two favorites but then I'm bias. I would call each restaurant, explain what is going on and ask for their best pricing. freebies, etc to accommodate your group. Given this economy, all those restaurants are fighting for business so you may be able to snag something good.

Saturdays at the Village are pretty hectic in late afternoon and evening for dinners out so I would suggest if you do go there, make it for lunch. You could always time a Saturday cruise in the AM, lunch at the Village, and then a cruise in the afternoon. JMO.

Cadillac Tech

Thanks for all the info.

Bruce

MrsCYBERZ06

My hubby Paul has a business trip near you guys early March...so instead of him flying up for a day, we were thinking of driving up and checking out some of the roads you all recommended, and hopefully meeting up with some of you to say "Hi" and talk about the drive on Saturday.
I will post dates as soon as he figures out his schedule. This way we can check out some of the restaurants and the hotel as well. Mea

MrsCYBERZ06

I just looked at the website for TofD, and they have 4 large car/bike events over the period that we wanted to do the drive. So that might not be a good idea for us.

April 23-26
7th Annual Wake the Dragon Honda S2000 Event (WTD 7)
April 24-26
BuellForums.com 2nd Annual Slay the Dragon O
April 25-26
Club Honda 3rd Annual Dragon Run
April 25-26
Volkswagon EastcoastR32 Dragon Run

We might want to stick to the Blue Ridge. Mea

Strick

As always, the best times for mountain cruising is during the week as everyone (bikes, imports, and family riders) do it on the weekends. A great place to have lunch would be in Saluda at the Purple Onion. Nice roads getting there.

MrsCYBERZ06

I have been mapping out some of the suggestions you guys offered, and here is what I came up with so far. Please let me know what you think! If parts of this make sense for a nice trip, let me know which parts. As I really don't know the roads or the speed limits, this could be way more than I intended.
This will allow for some casual and aggressive driving, and a lunch stop somewhere near Saluda (maybe the Purple Onion), and also a stop at the Looking Glass Falls (which looks gorgeous). I might ask one of you to lead the drive, since you locals know the roads. 1trul48, are you up for the task?
Total mileage is about 130-140, with stops and lunch, it will take up good 4-5 hours total? I could be wrong...not farmiliar with the roads. Again, please break it down, or help me out with the route planning as you locals know the roads and how long the drive would take. Thanks for your help in advance! Or if a different route would be more sense, but I know we want to visit a waterfall along the way without having to hike in too far to get to it.

1truL48

I appreciate the vote of confidence and I'd be more than happy to lead a portion of this route, as I am sure others from NC and SC who have posted here would be as well.

Since you are planning to be in Asheville before Saturday, you should take the time on Friday morning if possible and head over to TOD and the Skyway. I'm sure several of the Asheville-area owners would be happy to join you for that.

The weekend is not the time to try and drive TOD - been there, done that, a $30 t-shirt and $5/gallon gas to prove it. The only thing I can say about it is be nice in Blount County and stay in your lane. The Skyway is a much better ride with less traffic and fewer LEOs...'nuff said.

You have a pretty agressive route covering what I see as 7 counties. You may want to allow yourself more time with photo stops, curvy roads, potty stops, etc.

I would also recommend getting FRS radios if you don't have them already. It is a great way to keep in contact with everyone on free airwaves, plus warning those behind you about LEOs, rocks, deer, pigs and cows, slow moving tractors, etc.

Strick

You will love rt 276. It's made for Vettes. You'll need some time on the Blue Ridge Parkway to catch your breath. You should plan on this being an all day event and you should start out bright and early and with a full tank of go juice. Going through Chimney Rock will eat a lot of your time, but it's nice for those who haven't been there. Edit: After looking at your route again, Rt 276 on the other side (north) of the Blue Ridge Parkway, is the part that is also great driving. If driving is what you are after, I'd skip the eastern part of your route (Chimney rock, etc) and explore Rt 276 north of the BRPwy. You could go north until Rt 215 and then go south to pickup the BRPwy back to Asheville. You will be happy with any route in this area, but listen to 1truL48 about planning stops. Some of these communties don't do Debt cards so bring a little cash. Our club has explored many of these roads and we just can't get enough of them, especially in good weather.

Cadillac Tech

Great job on the map Mea! I think we will need to shorten up the drive on Saturday. This route may be too long for everyone. If we do shorten the route, what would you guys suggest we remove. We could do the western side of the route with a stop at Looking Glass Falls.


We made our hotel reservation yesterday. It was $96.00 a night. The address is;

Ashville-Biltmore West
Holiday INN
435 Smokey Park HWY.
Ashville,NC 28806

1-828-665-2161 front desk #

Bruce

Strick

Suggestion for a route: From Asheville, Get on I26 south and get off on Rt 64 (Hendersonville) and go west. Turn right onto Rt 276 (heading northwest). Look for Rt 215 and head south on it to Rt 64. Turn left (heading back east) on Rt 64 to Brevard, NC, which has a few places to stop for lunch. Pickup Rt 276 heading south (right there in Brevard) and you will go by Caesars Head park (nice stop). Continue south to Rt 11 and go northeast which will bring you back to I26. This is a driver's fun type of day.

MrsCYBERZ06

I think the shorter route is much better idea. How about this? 76 miles RT.

or 80 miles total RT

1truL48

It's your party - we just enjoy living here and we'll go anywhere you want!

Cadillac Tech

The 80 mile route looks good, but we'll see what the locals have to say. It sure is nice to have such good advice to help us with the planning.

Bruce

1truL48

That's part of the ownership experience they don't tell you about when you take the RC8 option - we're all looking for the same ownership experiences!

Given the amount of time you guys are going to be in the area, I would concentrate on routes west of I-26 and north of US 64, including US 276, Rt 215 and even Rt 107. You'll get the waterfall experiences some are looking for, plus the curves in the roads and the better part (IMO) of the BRP with the higher elevations and longer range views.

BTW, my avatar was shot on the BRP below Waynesville, NC...