This is a link to some pics from this weekend:

http://s275.photobucket.com/albums/j...tewide%20meet/

 

That was pretty funny to see those gus posted up on the hill and then taking pictures like crazy of us as we made that turn..........Awesome!

 

No, I was just playing with it, I saw that picture and thought it would make an excellent "Thank You" to send to the vendors who contributed freebies for the meet. I only remembered Freeman - the Mazda Sales Mgr is a longtime friend of mine.

It was more of an idea than anything. If you want me to do some other, just send me a list and I can do them for you if you can't.

 

Abra Kadabara now the other RX8's and people are gone

 

918 miles roundtrip for me. was a blast guys.

 

Thanks man! It was for sure a lot of fun this weekend.

 

So is this something you guys would like to do yearly?? I was thinking about having the next one in the spring so that it we can seperate it from the BOTD.

If this is something you guys want to keep doing just let me know. I want to make the next one a lot more orginized with more sponsors.

 

Sounds good to me as long as it isn't spring break...

 

I was thinking like sometime in May.

 

Well I saw someone wanted stories… and since we haven’t had a real one yet, I thought I’d write an epic long one from start to finish to start things off.

So Seatown, Creto, LordET and myself decided to meet up and drive down together to the meet. We all got there and I started to test out my radios and discovered that one could only talk and that the other one could only listen, grrr. So we headed out on 67, and let me just say I have never seen so many eighteen wheelers in my life on one stretch of road. As I was making this observation, some stupid SUV decided to get right in the middle of the four of us for about 10 miles on a one lane road… once we finally were able to pass it we had a good stretch of road.

Our first stop was at Kupper Koffee(kettle Koffee? or something like that) off of Highway 67 around 11:30 for lunch. Found out the hard way that for some reason small town restaurants don’t take any form of credit and had to use an ATM to pay for lunch. Such a rip off, though sadly I didn’t learn my lesson to carry cash.

So we headed off again and a couple of hours later we found ourselves on 290. For some reason they had the west bound side down to one lane for about 80% of the drive. Unfortunately, for the first part of it, we got stuck behind some PT Cruiser that was out for a joy ride or something, because it was only doing about 50 in a 60 zone. It didn’t take long for us to grow bored of this grave injustice. One of us had the awesome idea to use the cones as a slalom course. I have to say it was quite fun. Finally we got the bright idea to just pass the cruiser on the blocked off side and then all was right with the world… at least till we arrived at the hotel. (LordET left our crew to head to his parents place)

We finally got to Kerville about 3:30 and started checking in at our hotel and again we run into another wrinkle. Apparently Mr. Organizer himself didn’t have a room reservation despite calling the hotel multiple times to confirm it. We find out that the manager, Jeremy, was fired because he couldn’t book reservations (it’s not like it’s that hard). At this point we just said screw it and decided to share rooms because the whole placed was booked due to a biker rally and multiple other car meets at the same time.

We started to leave and the receptionist was like “every guests gets a free beer at check in, what would you like?” The three of us just looked at each other with a dumb look that was like “WTF?” I think this is the point that I started to realize just how sketchy the place was. The three of us picked our beers and started unpacking our cars. Upon getting to his room, Creto discovered lots of little bugs everywhere, a falling down ceiling in the bathroom, and a horribly crappy AC unit. He wasn’t the only one to report such bad conditions.

It was still pretty early in the day and since we weren’t supposed to meet everyone else till 7, we decide to explore our surroundings a bit. I mentioned a Wally world run to pick up radios since mine were worthless. Creto and Seatown also decided it was a good idea (and rightly so) to pick up some booze and snacks at the same time. While in the beer aisle we decided to discuss dining options for the night and hit upon the BBQ idea. Creto’s gf mentioned that she saw a decent looking place on the drive. Well the Budweiser man (he was stocking the shelves) overheard us talking and basically told us that place was crap and that he wouldn’t eat there if it was free. He told us about Buzzy’s, a really good BBQ place.

Afterwards we head back to the hotel to meet up with a few others that had arrived and hung out to wait for the rest of the crew to get there. We left for supper around 7:30 and got to buzzy’s at 7:45 only to discover they close at 8…. We changed our minds and headed out to a mexican joint. We had a decent dinner at (Apalocho’s?) and headed back to the hotel to wait for the San Antonio group to get there. They rolled in and we hung out for a bit and then went to bed around midnight.

The next morning we all met in front of the hotel where all the 8’s were parked. Sadly, none of us knew the roads that well, so we tried to hook up with a WR2 group. That didn't work out because we had a couple stragglers still on the way, but we decided to steal their map anyway as it had some stops planned out that we didn’t know about. None of us wanted to lead since we didn’t know the roads, but we finally got a volunteer from the San Antonio crew and headed out.

The first stretch of road was to head out to Stonehenge II for a break and photo op. The road was crowded with traffic, but it was a pretty nice drive along a river. Our initial leader missed the first turn, and Creto decided to fill his spot (and wisely so since he had a GPS and a navigator). We all got to Stonehenge and took a little break for photos and caught up to the WR2 group as well.

We headed out from there and after we got back on the road our group got split in three parts after a stop sign. The first group ended up cruising at 70-80 (so fun) and the last two got stuck behind trucks doing 50-60. I got a call on the radio asking where we were (I’m in the first group). I figured we are a couple miles ahead of them at this point and asked if they wanted us to wait up. I got a yes and signaled to Creto to hold up. We all get together again and spend the next couple of hours having the time of our lives on some freakin awesome roller coaster rides.

A trend started to emerge where we had two groups (sometimes three), a really aggressive one and a normal one. Luckily we didn’t lose anyone and I got to stay in the first group :P The groups met up on the road again after the first one got caught behind a Winnebago that forced it to slow things up a good bit up in the hills. Funnily, there was a random guy (txphotomoto.com?) taking pictures of all of us as we zoomed by.
About 1, people started getting hungry and we met up in a town called Camp (something) and ate at a sorta Mexican/American buffet that also only accepted cash (doh). I ended up borrowing some cash (Thanks Creto’s gf!) and we ate happily. We started to finish up and headed out one by one to get gas at the only place in town (was running about half a tank by that time).

We left town and head up to do the three sisters run. Let me just say that I have never had that much fun driving a car in my life! The first group probably averaged between 60-70 throughout the first part of it (slowing down for the bad curves obviously) Not sure how the other groups faired but the second one met us at the first turn off at a stop sign a couple minutes after we pulled off, and the third group got there a good 5-10minutes later. The Lexus that was with us ended up having exhaust problems and had to jack up his car so he could work on it to keep it from scraping the road. He got his stuff in order and we headed off again.

I figure now is a good time to mention that throughout the day we saw a good bit of bikers and other car clubs on the road, but always in the opposite lane. Regrettably, on the way down the three sisters we got behind three *** hat bikers that wanted to do the road at 40 miles an hour with no fricking helmets. Jack holes cost us pretty much that whole third part of the three sisters. We also hit our first (and thankfully only) cattle guards on a road that doesn’t have fences for live stock (WTF). About three quarters through the last bit one of the people behind me came up on me fast with lights flashing like crazy passing a few of us up on some pretty dangerous curves. Turns out we’d lost the turbo’d 8 due to the Valero fuel he picked up at lunch. He decided to remain behind and take things slow.

We got back on the road and started to head back to the hotel. It didn’t take us long to meet back up with the three bikes from before. They yet again robbed us of more good turns(so much for driving friendly in Texas). They eventually took a right on a road that we take a left on (Thank God!). We took one last stop at a place called Adam’s Apples I believe and got to eat some awesome ice cream.

The night ended well with us getting to take the last stretch of roads very aggressively and taking some of the tightest turns of the day. Creto decided to take a quick detour and brought us to a park we saw earlier on the Guadeloupe river for a photo op. The 3 rotor 8 ended up meeting us there. We spent some time talking and skipping rocks over the river. Before we headed out a couple of teenagers pulled up in beat up van and shouted they wanted to race (this is near the 3 rotor mind you). We headed back to the hotel for some beers and then later dinner and the raffle to end out our night.

All in all the trip was awesome and we learned some lessons on the way. I don’t think any of us would stay at that hotel no matter what the cost was. Having passengers is nice so they can take pictures of all the awesome views. Bikers suck *****. Radios are important. The group needs to be split up. WE NEED TO DO THIS MORE OFTEN.

Here are the pictures I got:
http://s233.photobucket.com/albums/e...Kervile%20Run/

 

VS8 let me know when that Porsche event is. I love that place. We should definately do this yearly or bi-yearly.

 

november 8th
http://www.sasportscar.com/forum/top...?topic_ID=3468

 

registration is full

 

We have two stories.

The first happening when we were leaving San Antonio, we are cruising at about 75-80 and out of nowhere there is a freaking Sunfire who decides to jack with us.

This guy kept cutting between each of us, and then moving beside us, and speeding up and slowing down and weaving in and out of us, finally we kept cutting him off from this crap, and he got stuck behind a bunch of 18 wheels of fury trucks..

Then there was our hotel room, we had the lovely bugs also, and even better an uncleaned barf carpet. The last patrons left a nice smelly present for us..lol..

How housecleaning missed this is beyond me, because it smelled. The wife covered it with towels and went to the lobby and told the manager she wanted it cleaned by the time we got back from our run.

The look on that girls face was priceless, she was like "OMG, I am so sorry, we will clean that right away." Our AC unit threw out fan air, but the AC was not cold at all, good thing it was not hot..

Oh, the other story, that actually scared the hell out of my wife, was Copper Red Shinka, he had just passed us and was taking pics and trying to navigate a one lane bridge; well, the next thing I know he was sliding all over the place ran over a plastic construction barrel, and just stoped short from going over the side.
I have to admit he did a good save and kept on hauling butt...

Seatownracer, we would also be interested in making this an annual event!!

 

Third story anyone

Cornholio covered the trip with the Sunfire so I will skip that part

So the San antonio 8's get to Whitten Inn were you sleep like a kitten to find out that everyone has left...but we check in and everyone gets a complementary beer even i (even though i am 18...and i dont drink)

So afterwards we go to our room and there is a wet towel in our refrigator and the carpet smells like someones feet....and then we go out to eat at chilis and i get the dirtiest look from some cowboy in a big hat

we then come back and find all of the other 8s and we talk about plan for next day

after everyone goes back to the rooms we find a cat and we play with it and it eventually comes into our room and we let it stay in our room

so we get up in the morning trying to leave with mr2s but we couldnt because of some stragglers so they were basically 15 minutes ahead of us on everything...after that we start the cruise and the fun begins...

cruising going very good speed was very fun until the end when there were motorcycles going 10 under speed limit so everyone has to slow down and then we pass them only for there to be a suv who doesnt want to let anyone pass and speeds up and honks at me when there is car coming car in the distance...

overall it was a good 300 miles drive

 

Here are our pics

http://www.flickr.com/photos/3042629...02291143/show/

 

Ok Ok so we learned a few things.

I will post my thoughts, please feel free to add/change for the next trip


1. I still don't know how to drive and that I learned at the Dragon
2. We are not all the same skill level.
3. Cell phones are mostly useless " in tem back roads"
4. It was fun as hell even if I almost lost it on that one lane bridge with construction
barrels right after I passed on a no passing road. Hey no scratches nor damage to the car just
to my driving skill pride.

This was a little different from the drive with the Austin group in Leakey last year, Nov 2007
A lot different from the Dragon.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To get better organized lets decide on some basic rules/common sense/guidelines?

Pre drive
1. Check tire pressure. BTW what PSI do most recommend?
2. Check lug nut torque, we dont want any tires flying off.
3. Check engine oil
4. Take a small cooler in the trunk with whatever you drink.
some places we stop, drinks are too expensive and in some there are no places to buy a drink
Just dont "drink and drive". We dont want to lose any of us.
There are plenty of places to buy ones drinks and snacks (before the drive). HEB and WallyWorld are on West 27
5. Fill up the gas tank.
6. Take snacks if you so desire. HEB and Wallyworld are good sources.
7. Carry a little cash, Buffet Lunch was 9 bucks cash at one place
Closes at 3Pm so make sure we get there before closing time.
Drinks and ice cream are also cash.
8. Bring an AC multi extension cord. Hotels do not have enough ac outlets to charge cell phone batteries,
digi camera batteries, bluetooth, etc
During the drive.

0. Leader/front driver must have a navigator, ie passenger so to help read signs. extra eyes

1. Do not pass or at least very careful when and where one passes
Noticed that some of us got hit with small gravel/rocks when passed

2. Do not follow too close. We dont want to join two cars together nor get hit with tocks fron the f rong
car.
So we want make rule as how far apart to follow?
or tapping the brakes 4 quick times means back off?
or one can never be too far behind. Rather be too far behind than too close?
If you feel the person behind you is pushing you. do not go faster. At the next rest stop, just let him go
in front of you.

3. This is not NASCAR nor a race.
You do not get any points/throphy/etc by finishing first.
This is supposed to be a fun drive

4. Depending on the number of cars, we might want to ride as 2 or 3 groups
Front, the fast ones/more skilled drivers.
Middle, the so so drivers ( hey it is still a fast group)
last, the "I rather be safe than sorry" drivers.
Remember we are out to have fun not regrets.

5. Radios required for all drives? At least the front 2, the middle 2 and the last 2?
6. Slow down on dips and cattle guard crossing?

We make stops and wait for the others, so no rush. We should all know where we are going
to make those rest stops

If you decide you want to change groups, wait till we stop and then join the group
you want to ride in. That is better than passing in a no passing zone and/or throwing rocks
to the one you pass
Some one complained that when he was passed a few rocks went his way.

Motel: At least it was so so. They did try but it could have been better, overall I am ok with it.
Hey showers worked, we got the beer, water, clean towels, etc.
Maybe we can do some scouting for hotels.

Lets make sure we study the MAP so we know where we are going,
The drive From Medina to Kerrville on 16 is also fun.
carefull with those deer. Did not see any but did see one dead/run over in the middle of the road.

So we want sponsors? (Ya, its nice to get free goodies)

To know who is who maybe we ( at the time of the drive not now) write our info
Screen Name Name Cell Phone # Car color Other

 

Any chance you could post a link to photos we can download? You've got some of the best canyon picks I've seen yet and I'd like to get them for my album if you wouldn't mind. The slide show is in flash and doesnt seem to be giving me the option to save them.

 

Here is a link to look directly at the pics, and not the slideshow...

BTW wife gets credit, she was the photographer, and she says thanks!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30426292@N08/

 

Guys thanks for the stories.

I have to apologize for the Whitten, I told Seatown about it. We stayed there with another car group just a few months ago with no problems whatever and moved from another hotel WE had similar problems with. As a matter of fact that group is going back to the Whitten in February.

Sorry I couldn't make the setup meetings or the meet. I could have helped with some of the problems you had.

Radios are a MUST for EVERYONE on our Kerrville run - no radio - no go.
why don't we just set a weekend one day up and work through some issues.

Overall it sounds like you had a great time. 3 sisters are awesome roads.

Thanks again for sharing the stories and the pix

 

Radios are a definate must as we found out...

Cell phones were useless, but was able to call out when our turboed friend broke down..

 

You will see many of those at the Dragon, one being www.killboy,com
There you see them all over the Dragon taking pics like crazy.

 

Wow, your wife is a great photographer!
Thanks to both of you for sharing

 

OK who took pics of the
2008 Texas RX-8 Hotties?
I mean of Steve's six wifes. He does rest on the 7th, right?

 

omg, first of all, wow, all who took pics did an amazing job!! i sooooooo wish i coulda been there!!!
i would love to get in on the san marcos run if the 8's do that!

TX09RX8 would you mind making up a thank you for North Park Mazda of San Antonio? i love what you did with the photo!

Riley Craven and everyone else, LMFAO, love your story telling skills!!!!!!! even tho i couldnt be there i got the feeling of it thru the stories!!

lastly, i've seen 3rotor several times on 35N and would have loved to see that engine in person!!

reeeeeeally wish i was there!!! i know you 8's turned heads!!!