Nope, but the guy from California would have won... lol

If your talking about Glen then yeah, especially since he drove from cali to Florida and then to NC

We did it in 2011 and a group from Canada split the money. Not sure if it was done 2012/2013.

I second the comment about newbies feeling unwelcomed. After trying to talk to several people my wife and I mostly got the cold shoulder before giving up. We hung out at the car show for a while and then hit the dragon and went home. Didn't even stay for the pic. I'm glad we went to see the cars...I love my FD, but needless to say, we will not be returning.

Sorry that happened to you. I have made many good friends at DGRR and others. Now I go to try to catch up with people.

You must've not talked to the Mid-Tenn crew... We are the most welcoming group and most rowdy. Don't let a couple non-sociable people determine if you are or not going to attend the best rotary gathering in the nation. Hope that can somewhat change your mind.

What Vinnie said. Most FB and FC owners are very sociable :D

Hell, you could have stopped by my car and had a beer and a cigar, I was the OCD waxing his car guy

I could've smelled that stogie all over Nantahala.

You mean this guy :)
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...53552982_n.jpg

must have only talked to other FD drivers :lol:
all the FB, FC, and 8 drivers I have meet have been very chill
I personally have never had a negative experience at DGRR
everyone has always been very welcoming and socialable imo :dunno:

I would have to agree that it's not the greatest event to make friends. Still managed to find a couple rotor heads talk with, people tend to stay in there group I found it to be very true when it came to the car show part of the show people in the in parked up in paved lot at lodge every one else well, it still was ok event. So the next year ended up at a full campground at fontana full of Minies there rally ended up being on same weekend, this was about two years ago they were so cool invited me in to share there site had greatest time that weekend only rx7 convert at there event they even insisted I pull up to there car wash area and clean up my car. Learned a lot about minies that weekend witch was really cool they are good little handlers with there little corky problems. What's really kept me away from DGRR event is the car show part of the event, just feel show would be better if all cars were shown in same paved lot.

I really don't understand how people can say that it's not a friendly place or it's difficult to make friends. I really think some of these people are socially inept or just give off bad vibes or something. I've been attending DGRR since 2009 and every year it seems to grow more and more and people honestly get friendlier and friendlier. Every year I meet a few new people either by them walking up and talking to me or me commenting on thier car or something.... I've always found it to be the most welcoming of events

That's because it is a car show and there is limited space. If you arrive in a broken down rusting our hulk, or a non rotary car, you're going to be asked to move the car for others. I know this sounds harsh because everyone loves thier own car and thinks it's the greatest, but it is a show after all and there is limited space. I arrived to the show late this year and parked way off to the side mostly sticking out into the street.... my own fault for showing up late. Usually I'm there @ 6:30 in the morning....

With 300 cars and spots for what, 50? that's not going to happen. Logistically it's an impossibility.
However, this is why there is the Damn Dam photoshoot which I've missed every year up until this one, and yeah, even though I spent most of my time directing cars and yelling over the mic and calling DJ a freakishly tall yankee... I still had a lot of fun there.

^what he said...

hey wait...technically I am classified as "non-rotory" now...but I was there on time so :P

speaking as an eccentric, OCD, anti-social, mad scientistic and somewhat grumpy machinist type...I say if you cant talk to people at DGRR....:dunno:

hell not to toot the ol horn, but I am sure there were a lot of people with questions for me about mine...but I was too busy talking to others about theirs to stand by it all morning...that is why I have a build thread hehehe

anyway, lets focus on important ideas rather than non-negotiable terrain limitations..

An idea i had today..and someone please alert me if its exists and i missed it, was to maybe have some sort of sign up sheet for various "runs" to different roads and the times and leaders of such groups, be nice to have the ability to see a persons car and face that you may not know that has volunteered to lead a group of cars to X road at X time so that someone new or old can find that person and get a run-down and status and be ready when time.

I am still learning that area and get lost a lot..but hell i will still take a group out if they want lol i drive slow too :suspect:

for me this year i had my friends with me in their truck so i mainly just went with them at the pace they could run, there was no point in them trying to keep with the pack of 7s, kept me out of trouble too hehehe, but really i did miss some good group runs but oh well, next year.

communication was the biggest failing for me and a lot of other people, our phones wont work, the wifi at the lodge was garbage so even savanadan couldnt get a hold of me, and we rode up together, if we werent within eyesight it was hopeless, not sure what to do about that, that is a landscape issue with service providers...so having perhaps some experienced members organizing drives at designated times so as to sync up everyone out of communication would be nice.
perhaps a marker/chalkboard or series of clipboards for use in this.

the itinerary for the show and the photo shoot and all that is all good and works, but it is the "free time" that falls apart if you dont know specifically who is going where and when(especialy for new people that dont know anyone personally) like i was in 2011, but i just followed the smell :smilielol5:

I'm a bit surprised by the comments of the DGRR newbies who said they got the cold shoulder from folks they tried to strike up convos with. Maybe they just had the bad luck of meeting the few snobs first, and first impressions carry a lot of weight. I'm not the most extroverted & socially talented sort of guy, but that's not my experience at all. My 1st year at DGRR was 2010, and I've been attending every year since mainly because everyone I've encountered here is so friendly and I always have a great time.