Corvette Mountain Cruise
April 27-28, 2024

This mountain cruise was organized by Rod Halsell and was enthusiastically supported by members of the Ridge Runner Corvettes club. Many thanks to Rod for putting together a spectacular weekend.

The trip was 120 miles staying on 28 all the way from Seneca to the Dragon. We made one planned pit stop in Franklin, NC for approximately 20 minutes. We took Hwy 28, also known as the Moonshiner 28, from Seneca through Walhalla, Highlands & Franklin. At the Dragon / NC & TN state line Hwy 28 became the infamous Hwy 129 for the 11 miles 318 curves stretch of roadway known as the Tail of the Dragon. Once we completed the Dragon we pulled off to the left in the very accommodating parking area along Chilhowee Lake. We took a 15-20 minute break before driving the Dragon back to Tapoco Tavern/Lodge. This final drive of the afternoon was a brief 15 miles / 30 minutes finishing the day socializing and having dinner at Tapoco Tavern.

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Some spent the night at the historic Tapoco Lodge but most of the Ridge Runner Corvettes club members stayed at a hotel in Robbinsville, NC.

For those that didn’t get enough mountain driving and views, some continued the fun by driving the Cherohala Skyway on Sunday, some went straight home, and some headed to destinations special to them.

Below are several videos for you to enjoy as well as some pictures. I’ve attempted to give credit to the appropriate person, but for some, I didn’t know the source.

Click the button to see a video taken by Penney Baumgartner of the Ridge Runner Corvettes cars queuing up to depart Corvettes at Keowee for the mountain cruise. The anticipation was palpapable. The video was scraped from a Facebook Reel so I couldn’t do anything about the Facebook extras.

Queuing Video

Click the button to see a video taken by Barry Blakely (I think) of the cars departing Corvettes at Keowee to begin the mountain cruise. I counted 17 Corvettes preparing for some spirited driving. Again, the video was scraped from Facebook. Enough said.

Departing Corvettes at Keowee

Click the button to see a video taken by Rod Halsell somewhere in the South Carolina / North Carolina mountains as these beautiful Corvettes drove past. The fun was about to begin.

On the Road Somewhere in the SC/NC Mountains

Click the button to see the 32.9 mile drive from our pit stop at McDonalds to the staging area for the Tail of the Dragon east to west drive. The video was shot by the Performance Data Recorder in the INVISIBLE Corvette. The video is 52 minutes and 11 seconds long and the driving is only mildly spirited. Consider it just warming up the suspension. Feel free to skip the first 3 minutes (it takes that long to get out of the McDonalds parking lot) and the last 3 minutes, they’re pretty boring.

32.9 mile drive from a pit stop at McDonalds to the Red Barn Hollow General Store & Cafe

Steve Verdone did a bit of investigating about the last pit stop we made before getting to the Tail of the Dragon and provided the following information:

We stopped at the “Red Barn Hollow General Store & Café”, which opened 4/19/2023

We thought it would be “Wolf Creek General Store & Café”, but it closed 2/15/2023

50 years ago, on 4/3/1974, the area was destroyed by a tornado.

The picture at the right was taken from the Graham Star Newspaper, Robbinsville NC

This video was again shot by the Performance Data Recorder in the INVISIBLE Corvette. I managed to insert myself behind the 3 leader cars ensuring a more spirited drive.

The video is 55 minutes and 46 seconds long but here are significant points in case you want to jump right to them:

45 seconds in - pull out on the highway as 3rd Corvette
9 minutes and 45 seconds in - a slow truck pulled over allowing the Corvettes to pass. We saw this polite behavior several times this day.
The most spirited driving of the day occurred from the 9 minute 45 second mark to the 30 minute 30 second mark.
30 minutes and 30 seconds in - 23.5 miles into the drive we entered the Tail of the Dragon from the east.
33 minutes and 39 seconds in - encountered our first of 3 motorcycle accidents. This was by far the worst. At our hotel for the night we heard the story behind it. A motorcyclist knew he wasn’t going to be able to make a curve so he laid his bike down. As he was sliding he became separated from the motorcycle and was run over by a car. The motorcyclist had at least a broken leg. It takes an ambulance a long time to reach the accident scene. The other 2 accidents were motorcycles going off the road and plunging down the hill.
49 minutes 5 seconds in - encounter our second motorcycle accident.
51 minutes 7 seconds in - 34.2 miles in, reached the west end of the Tail of the Dragon.
53 minutes and 15 seconds in - we see the ambulance headed to the first accident scene.
54 minutes and 41 seconds in - reached the staging area for driving the Tail of the Dragon from west to east.

36.9 Mile Drive from Staging Area to West End of Tail of the Dragon

I didn’t bother posting a video of the Tail of the Dragon drive from west to east because a Corvette driver didn’t follow instructions. Those instructions were: if you intend to drive slow, make sure you are toward the end of the group. A slow car pulled out behind the leaders and in front of me and we quickly lost visual contact with the leaders.

That’s it for the videos. The rest are pictures to help tell the story of the day.

The Moonshine 28 Highway as Recored by Steve Verdone

The Tail of the Dragon as Recored and Edited (4 times normal speed) by Steve Verdone (take your Dramamine)

That’s it for the videos. The rest are pictures to help tell the story of the day

A map of the Moonshiner 28 route we traveled on Saturday

On the road - Picture courtesy of Joy Phillips

On the road - Picture courtesy of Rod Halsell

On the road - What a beautiful site - Picture courtesy of Rod Halsell

Staging on the east side of the Tail of the Dragon - Picture courtesy of Steven Verdone

Staging on the east side of the Tail of the Dragon - Picture courtesy of Joy Phillips

Staging on the east side of the Tail of the Dragon - Picture courtesy of Rod Halsell

Deals Gap is the last stop before entering the Tail of the Dragon - East to West - Picture courtesy of Joy Phillips

Staging on the west side of the Tail of the Dragon - Early arrivals - Picture courtesy of Rod Halsell

Staging on the west side of the Tail of the Dragon - Picture courtesy of Joy Phillips

Staging on the west side of the Tail of the Dragon - Picture courtesy of Rod Halsell

Water release weekend - Picture courtesy of Joy Phillips

Historic Tapoco Lodge & Tavern - Picture courtesy of Rod Halsell

Tapoco Lodge / Tavern - picture courtesy of Steven Verdone

Historic Tapoco Lodge / Tavern - Picture courtesy of Joy Phillips

Dining at Tapoco Tavern - Picture courtesy of Rod Halsell

Dinner at Tapoco Tavern - Brenda Verdone, Steven Verdone (absent), Ron Williams, Tanny Williams, Mary Smits, Dave Smits, Scott Lindstrom, Jane Lindstrom, Barb Glaude, Leo Glaude (absent)

Dinner at Tapoco Tavern - Picture courtesy of Steven Verdone - Brenda Verdone, Steven Verdone (absent), Ron Williams, Tanny Williams, Mary Smits, Dave Smits, Scott Lindstrom, Jane Lindstrom, Barb Glaude, Leo Glaude (absent)

Dinner at Tapoco Tavern - Picture courtesy of Joy Phillips - Unknown, Unknown, David Baumgartner, Penney Baumgartner, Randy Rader, Emilio Zordan, Linda Zordan, Joy Phillips (absent), Gary Phillips, Karen Kenyon, Michael Kenyon

Tapoco Lodge - puncture courtesy of Steven Verdone

The route some in the group traveled on Sunday

There are several PHOTOGRAPHY companies taking pictures on the Tail of the Dragon — These are from Killboy.com

They’re low resolution pictures scraped off the killboy.com website with the Killjoy logo clearly visible, so I hope this is OK. It shows the Ridge Runner Corvettes member cars that participated in the Tail of the Dragon run.