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I left Madison, WI, with the MN contingent of the Midwest convoy. We drove down to Merrillville, IN, and met up with the rest of the hardy Midwesterners. I came to learn, however, that a splinter group of the Midwesterners (namely Carter and FreeBMW) were breaking off from the pack and heading to Nashville, rather than Alcoa, TN. Count that as 1 convoy temporarily abandoned.
Carter, FreeBMW and I met up with people in Nashville for a very nice occasion. BBQ and Beemers go hand in had down here! Met up with the West Coast clan (Big Daddy & Drew, Cargogal, Zeattle Dave, Denise...Zoom) etc. Everyone seemed to be having a smashing time. After much-ado about something, we retired for the evening. This morning, I awoke to meet up with what I will call the "Nashville convoy" for lack of a better term. It really was just a conglomeration of several convoys. Suffice it to say, we had a bunch of Zs together. But then, after some photo ops, we started heading toward the Dragon. It was only 10 miles outside of Nashville that the first strike of lightning occurred.
As we drove along, traffic came to a sudden (and I mean SUDDEN!) stop. As the tail car, I looked in my rear-view mirror to determine which vehicle would rear-end me. Fortunately, they all swerved one way or the other, missing my precious baby. Over the Talkabout, though, I heard that someone was not so lucky. FRS radio announced that some unfortunate Z3 had been assaulted. Being at the end of the line, TimUK, Big Daddy and me were able to stop to render aid to this forlorn little car, and its passengers. Poor little red baby (TX tags) had been rear-ended by a van that had been rear-ended by a semi). We radioed to the Nashville convoy to go ahead, we would fend for ourselves. Count that as 2 convoys lost.
After making sure that our brethren were cared for, Big Daddy and I headed off to return to the highway. We made it back just in time to catch the Texas convoy on I40. They graciously allowed us to join their ranks for the trip to the Dragon. We decided I40 was simply insane, so we decided to take some back highways. A couple hours later, and with a meal in our stomachs, we were poised to slay the dragon! All fiction aside, however, our tour did not last as one would expect. Only 2 miles into the dragon, the Titanium Silver (with chrome gills) ///M in front of me lost its back end on a right hand turn. The nose of the car crashed into the ditch, shortening the dimension of the car by at least 6 inches. Needless to say, poor Titanium ///M wasn't going much further. I drove the remainder (10.5 miles of 11 miles) of the Dragon to Deals Gap to arrange for a tow truck. When another member of the TX convoy arrived to make those same arrangements, Big Daddy and I bid our farewells and joined the Atlanta convoy. Count that as 3 convoys down.
Defying all odds, the Atlanta convoy held together. We arrived in Spartanburg hours later, to a warm and welcoming reception. With 2 Z3s down in one day, I needed some refreshment. After check in, I reunited with the Midwest Convoy at Joe's Crab Shack -- much to the delight of the wait-staff. Maggie and Amber say "hi" to everyone. And Clayton (I'm sorry, make that "Racoon Boy") if she's only 17, she's too young!
Needless to say, HC 2001 has been all that I could imagine and more! On to factory tours and performance driving courses! Wish you were here!
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