The weather that time of year really isn't fall weather yet.  It is still warm, it tends to be drier than in June, and the leaves are still on the trees.

I arranged the trip last year to accomplish 3 things:
1)  The early trip was soggy and I wanted a dry weekend.
2)  The first Dragon trip of the year was at Waynesville, and I wanted to be "at" the Dragon Central and get to ride the Tail of the Dragon on the way to/from the other rides.
3)  The Deals Gap resort had the Wounded Warrior event which added even more activity than normal at Deals Gap.

This year the "official Wounded Warrior" group is not a participant in the weekend group ride....and so far the event seems to be less well organized as they really don't have much of a program for the weekend.  So not being at "Dragon Central" may not be a big deal....however I still do enjoy staying there and the high level of activity.  The bathroom and showers in the campground are kept very clean, and it does quiet down when evening comes and it is time to get some sleep.  Breakfast is not available......and the store and restaurant closes early in the evening.

If everyone wants to move the weekend away from the Deals Gap resort and to to the Simple Life.....I am not opposed to it.  I do have a very flexible work schedule and I will still reserve the ability to cancel my appearance if the weekend is a washout.....and go a different weekend when the weather is more favorable.  I would rather spend rainy days at work than riding around on a motorcycle!

http://thesimplelifecampground.com/


Simple life has put in more 3 and 4 man cabins that aren't on their web page yet (they have to occasionally pay a webmaster to re-do their page to show all the new cabins that are available).

Big Dawg is available, but we would need 4 people to make it as cheap as a Blue Ridge cabin (but we would only need 3 to make it cheaper than a Dragon room).

$20 a night will get you a smaller 3-4 man cabin with a bed, sheet and pillow/pillow case (you need to bring a blanket if you think you will need it).

Right now nothing is booked up and all facilities are available -- but we need to MOVE on a reservation if we are going to sleep inside as they will all get scheduled as soon as folks look out past the 4th of July holiday.



Who is going, and what do you want to sleep in?



(if we go Big Dawg, we have built in extra capacity for late comers, plus our own bathroom and shower, kitchen and private deck -- but you need 4 people to make it work $$$ wise but that gets you those 3 extra spare beds for latecomers)


Say something boys, we need to know you are going ......

MM, we are shooting for a weekend as Dave and I have to work during the week.   Labor Day weekend is Friday the 4th through Monday the 7th.

And yes, we all need to ask our wife what they have planned, since they do most of the family planning and we always forget what little bits and pieces we are told about in advance.


......  Needless to say, none of us are going to piss our wives off by making them feel like we are ignoring them.

I count 5 people right now (with two staying separately) .....  the rest of you I wanna come folks need to say something and be counted.  

We need one more person to make a reservation for a small cabin.   Rooster Pen or Fishing Hole looks likely as our low end bet for a 4 man cabin, but if we had a couple more we could go with the Big Dawg (and get a private shower and bath and full fridge and kitchen and private deck).



Friday September 4th is the potential early start date, 5th, 6th, and 7th as the main days.

Dave
Oldfeller
MM
Old_Rider and wife

They have like 4 cabins with larger bottom beds which could fill your bill.   Or, if you want to stay somewhere nicer, tell us where that is or where/when we will meet up for breakfast.

......   mmmmm    I hear the word Microtel echoing back through the etheric waves  .....

1.4 miles between the two places (not bad for a breakfast meet up routine)

Old_Rider has posted on another thread that he and the Missus will be up on Labor Day weekend and if they can find us they will go ride with us some.   With the new job thing pending, he isn't able to say anything more than the Labor day weekend as details beyond that simply don't exist yet.

Our choices right now are to take a 4 man cabin (@ $20 a night for the three of us) or tent it.

My vacation time is verbally approved, so I am good to go for Friday.   If Dave is taking off on Friday afternoon, I will take the cabin/tent for Friday night so he has a bed to arrive into.

Choices left right now are Fishing Cabin (they only have 4 bunks in it now) and the Rooster Pen Cabin (4 bunks).   Rooster Pen has a private driveway we could park cars & trailers on while Fishing Cabin does not really have any dedicated parking space for multiple car/trailer rigs.

I am going to get a last confirmation from Dave on the day he is planning on arriving, then I will spit on the 3 day reservation.

SimpleLife requires that you take the cabin for 3 days on a holiday weekend, so we would take Fri, Sat, Sun, packing up Monday before leaving around noon on Monday.  

Their cancellation policy sucks as it is copied from the Dragon Lodge -- they keep one day irregardless and you have to cancel 30 days out and then they charge you a 20% cancellation fee on the remainder beyond the one day they already took.

We need to reserve a cabin before this upcoming weekend, or else we will be all booked up all over the place and we will be tenting by default.

 
http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/robbinsville-nc/28771/month/2096614?monyr=9/...

Don't worry about what you see, as you cannot cancel your cabin in any meaningfully timely manner as they will fleece you just as bad as the Dragon Lodge used to do.

I suspect these folks make as much money off inside the 30 days cancellations as they do actually renting, as they throw the cancelled room back out there to make more money off of yet more cancellations.   And in the end if the weather is decent at all, they rent it anyway at the last minute.




"OK Google, call SimpleLife campground Robbinsville NC"

Ring Ring Ring

Hey, whatcha got available for Sept 4th-6th?   Really, Big Dog is gone already?  Somebody has already hooked the Fishing Hut?

We are committed to the Rooster Pen for noon Friday Sept 4th through noon on Monday (Labor day)