[T77911S]

both of my brothers have made it, several times, but something always comes up and I cant go. this trip was no exception.
I have mineries disease. I can get wicked bad episodes of vertigo. to the point of throwing up. I am in between drug studies so the vertigo is back. its not always spinning. sometimes things just are not steady when ever I move.
so the plan this trip was to play it by ear and go as far as I could go and if I got vertigo I would just stop and get a hotel and hang out until I felt better then go back home.
so the day before I am suppose to leave for "base camp" I get dizzy about 10am. pretty much in bed until the next day,. still felt bad the next morning but hoping I would get better in time to leave.
not 100% so I leave for the drive south, 1.5hrs, to base camp to my brothers house where my other brother is also.
we get up the next day and leave for the next location about 4hrs away. the BMW plant in Greenville SC. so we are off, 2 930's and one Z4.
we get to the BMW museum and I feeling a bit "drunk". things just kind of move when I do. I was actually doing better in the car.
next stop is the final camp before the summit.

we get on 28 off of I85, the moonshiners highway.
very tight twisty roads. man this is going to be the death of me. I CANT drive this slow. some of the lefts really do me in. I feel like my back is up against the wall and I am just spinning around one of the carnival rides.
finally a stop. I just need to stop moving for a few minutes.

so an evaluation of how I am doing.
am I going to make it to the final camp for the push to the summit?
not feeling that great. so lets find a place about an hour from the summit. If feel bad the next day (summit day) I can stay in my room. that means about 45 minutes to the hotel and more tight and twisty mountain roads.

summit day:
not 100% but I did not come this far for nothing.
an HOUR of twist mountain roads. man I cant keep my foot out of no matter how bad I feel. yea a few turns put me on the carnival ride.
I NEED TO STOP.
thank goodness we did and at the base of the summit.
here I am at the east coasts Mulholland drive THE TAIL OF THE DRAON

feeling a bit better so LETS GO.
not too much holding back. just to stay within my limits. new tires, conti's, that I really don't like, the slip angles are very hi but traction is very good, so I am not confident in the tires after having very good Michelins. also still learning to drive the 930.
with the exception of a bad habit of turning in too soon, I did very good.
got to the end MY brakes were smoking and so were my brothers in the Z4.
once I realized my bad habit the other 3 runs we did later on went much better but I never drove the entire course as hard as I did the first time.

as my brother said a great day is when you get to drive the car home.
yea only one wreck, some kid ran off the road.
Tuesday was a great day to go, very little traffic.

I must admit having oncoming traffic coming at you in the corners was a bit nerving, mostly as I did not want THEM to hit ME.

if you don't know, tail of the dragon, 318 turns in 11 miles.

the roads getting there were just as fun,. its just the history of the dragon and everyone on the dragon knows why you are there and will move over for you.

you can see photos at
killboy.com
19th of this month starting at 1040am and going to about 230pm.

2 blue 930's and one Z4.


with the way I felt I really could imagine this being like climbing Everest in the fact that everyone wants to get to the final camp for the push to the summit the next day. that's the way I felt. just wanted to get to within about an hour so I could make the final drive the next day.

the trip back was something else too.
5hrs, 90-120 when traffic let us.
I don't know how race car drivers get out after several hours of 150+ then drive 60.
I am still trying to SLOW DOWN.