Louisville to Banner Elk

Left the hotel at 10:00, stopped at Denny's then got fuel for the car and headed to Lexington, Knoxville and on to Banner Elk..

We met Greg Schickel on the road, he was in a black GTS (the last 928s made, bigger wheels, bigger engine) that he only had for a little over a week.  We drove the last ~100 miles with him, we led most of it since he didn't have a radar detector.  I heard a great quote from Greg, "I love driving behind a 928, it reminds me of Helga the washerwoman bent over, a nice round behind"  I don't know what part of his twisted past he gets that from, but anyone who has followed a 928 knows exactly what he is talking about, perfect graceful generous curves.  We fueled up and washed the cars so we could arrive prepared and in style.

The parking lot was already loaded with 928s when we got there, what a wonderful sight.  We parked and checked in and went outside to take pictures and chat with everyone.  Dave and Jeannie showed up just after we went back outside, I swear Jeannie gets hotter every year, and she always greets me with a smile and a hug, makes my whole day brighter just seeing her.  It really is pretty much a family reunion of our 928 family.  We met lots of folks I haven't seen in a year or maybe even a couple or few and a few new faces as well.  Mark Anderson even showed up this year, he is Dave's friendly competition from California and Dave gave him his personal red euro to drive for the weekend, talk about true hospitality.

After it started getting dark and people started getting hungry Jeannie announced that she had made reservations at another restaurant because the one in the Holiday Inn couldn't accommodate all of us at once.  Mike and I have been looking forward to the Italian food for a year now, so we didn't go with them, we unloaded the car into the rooms and went up to the restaurant for dinner.

I had a 16oz New York strip steak stuffed with crabmeat, mushrooms and onions and covered with a gorgonzola cream sauce with a side of bowtie pasta with carbonara sauce and hot fresh rolls with butter and crushed garlic on them.  I almost ate myself into a coma the food was so good.  There were such large portions that neither of us could finish our entree and do more than sample our pasta.

After we loaded up on all that food, and since we were already running very light on sleep we decided to head for the rooms and just crash for the evening.