Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT The Garage at The Place in The Valley (Garage Condo 45x23x20)

Random Update

I got the call on Wednesday that the Porsche St. Louis dealer has an official allocation for me for my Cayman GTS 4.0. It will be for a 2021 model (the earliest for PDK GTS 4.0s) and built in October and delivered January-ish. Model year production usually has turnover in August but due to the the Coronavirus production shut down and low number of 2020 models produced so far - Porsche is pushing the 2021 model year production start to October. That makes me feel good but that there is forward progress. However, the official order is not in yet because the 2021 model configurator (even for the dealers) has not been released yet.

The weather has been wet and dreary and with all the shut downs - we decided to just go take a drive yesterday. I convinced my 16 yr old daughter to go with us - so it was a 3 coupe convoy down some back roads out to Washington, Mo and back. My wife went a little slower than usual with my daughter along - but I'll take that trade to keep the next generation driving. I actually drove the BRZ and let my daughter drive the TTS. She was worried that her manual transmission skills had atrophied since she has not driven anywhere for weeks! We took a quick photo to commemorate when we got back to the Valley by the airport.

Remote Access Update

**Updated 6/5/2020 - Added photos of Lutron Hub and Pico Remote**

I talked about being able to open gates and stay socially distant while my wife's 997 was being dropped off. I also added some new switches for the unit recently and thought a remote app update would be interesting.

So this is a screen capture of the apps I have to interact with The Garage at The Place in The Valley from my iPhone or iPad.



The Ecobee app ties to my thermostat and 3 remote temperature sensor. I did a big write up on that already in an earlier post but I'll drop an iPhone screen shot here for completeness. I do use this app all the time to turn the heat up from home before I go down to The Place. The screen shot here is from my iPhone app.



The two remote camera aps are becuase I have access to two systems at The Place. The first is the TVRMobile app that connects to the exterior cameras that are run by The Place. They actually have 10 fixed view cameras up and running 24/7 and the screen shot below is of 9 of the 10 in an order that makes sense to me for sweeping visually around the facility. The 10th camera is one mounted right next to the key pad at the gate so you can talk to someone trying to gain access but I do not know if I have ever used it that way. People usually call me on my cell phone when they want in. The screen shot here is from my iPad but I have an app on my phone too.



The second is for the two panning cameras that I placed inside our unit. They are Amcrest cameras and use the AmcrestViewer app. I've had some issues with these. They have night vision capability that worked great for a couple months and then stopped. I've also placed one in the back corner of my unit and it does not have a great shot of the internet router in my unit through the steel and concrete mezzanine floor. It works but there is a huge delay moving the camera around to look at different things remotely. I've been thinking I might go fixed cameras and get four separate cameras but the current setup works well enough I just haven't pulled the trigger. Notice, in the picture, that with no one driving that we have 3 vehicles stored at The Place while the Macan and 997 are up in our two car garage at home.



I have two MyQ door opener apps for the same reason that I have two camera apps. The first one is tied to the system for the gate. The second is tied to the opener for the garage door on our unit and also tied to the garage door at our house. The MyQ app does not allow you to have multiple accounts in one app. You can have multiple homes but not multiple accounts. Luckily, there is more than one MyQ ap during to branding on the Apple Store. I use the LiftMaster/Chamberlain app to run my home and unit garage doors. I use a Sears Craftsman app to run The Place commercial gate opener (that happens to be a LiftMaster). I wish the app just allowed for multiple accounts but at least it works. In theory, the MyQ gateway I use is supposed to be Apple Homekit compatible. Frustratingly, I've never gotten it to work correctly. I can add the gateway to the Apple Home app but I've never been able to get the garage door that is a child of the gateway to show up in the Apple Home app.

Craftman MyQ:


Liftmaster MyQ:


Here is a quick picture of the MyQ hub that controls the garage door.



For lights, I use the Lutron Caseta system. I have a small hub wired into my internet router and replaced switches for my mezzanine lights and ceiling fan with Caseta switches. I use some of these at my home too and they have been rock solid. The picture below shows two square hockey puck sized hubs. The upper left on is my travel router that I use to take The Place wifi and convert it to my own SSID wifi so that none of my devices show up on The Place network (other than the router). The lower right device is my Lutron hub that connects to wifi travel router by ethernet and to the Caseta switches by a proprietary wireless network.



The switches themselves use the existing wiring, do not require a neutral wire (for lighting), and can be used like a normal modern dimmer switch completely independent of an app.





One nice feature is that they have these small pico remotes that you can use to control the lights from another location without having to use an app. The remote snaps into a plastic adapter that you can screw into any wall location without the need for an electrical wall box. It is the simplest way to create a 3-way switch I have ever seen.



I ganged all three light switches on my mezzanine and put a pico remote at the bottom of my stairs (without needing an electrical box or wiring at that location). I can turn on the mezzanine lights before I go up and turn all of them off after I come down.





I wanted to control my high bay lights with the Lutron hub but they currently do not make a 0-10v switch for the Caseta line. The 0-10v switches have the normal load/neutral/ground wires but also have a grey/purple pair that does the 0-10v dimming. I hear that there is a very expensive box that could be added to the light so that a normal switch controls the box that controls the light. I know I don't want to try to access those high bay lights 20+ feet off the ground. I'm just holding out the hope that Lutron will add a 0-10v switch to the Caseta line eventually. I may have to find a different manufacturer that has a 0-10v dimming switch but that will mean yet another hub.

The ceiling fan switch is basically the same as the lighting but it does require a neutral wire connection. So you have to hook up four wires instead of three - not a big deal.





Below is a picture of the Lutron iPhone app showing the three light switches for my spots, the ceiling fan switch, and the pico remote that gangs the three spots together. You can adjust the three switches light level independently or grab all three at once with the pico remote. I also have scenes set with preset light levels at 0% (off), 10%, 50% and 100%.

Screen shot of iPhone app:


The last thing that I have running at The Place is the iDevices outlet. It has the ability to control both outlet plugs independently and also control the color and brightness of the night light LED. It will also measure the watts and hours of electricity used at the outlet. I tried to use this to control my Neon light when it was mounted on the half wall on front of the mezzanine. However, the Neon light interfered with the wi-fi signal getting to the switch. It was mounted directly on top of the outlet and the outlet would turn it on but would not reliably turn it off. I moved the Neon light to the back wall of the garage but didn't move the outlet. I was thinking I might want to try to control something else there someday. I think I might just move it to the outlet that controls the Neon light now. That outlet is a good 10 feet from the light so I might not have the interference issues. The only issue is that my outlets are all black on the lower level and this outlet is white. iDevices does not even make a black outlet. Note in the picture below that the usage is zero since I do not currently have anything plugged into it.



I had ideas when I started all of this that I would link up all of these devices in the Apple Home app and doing some automation. I had ideas like using the remote sensors on the thermos stat to turn the overhead fan on and off. I thought I might turn lights on when the garage door opened. I've had issues getting all of the items to show up in the Apple Home app (MyQ especially). I've also found that the generic automation is more like setting scenes and not if/then. I know things like IFTTT (IF This Then That) exist but have not tried to figure that out yet. My fan just runs all the time and I use the individual apps rather than try to use one that controls them all.

The two questions I get asked all the time about my garage are "How far away do you live?" and "How often do you come down to the garage?" I feel like with the remote access that I have that even though I am a half hour away - I have good access to what is going on all the time. It is not perfect and I am still learning bits and pieces of how to make it better but I like the way it works right now.

Mighty impressive. I'm saving this info for future reference!!!

Re: Remote Access Update

Greg_STL said:

The Ecobee app ties to my thermostat and 3 remote temperature sensor. I did a big write up on that already in an earlier post but I'll drop an iPhone screen shot here for completeness. I do use this app all the time to turn the heat up from home before I go down to The Place. The screen shot here is from my iPhone app.

Click to expand...

I remember you did some graphs early on what temp fluctuations. How is that looking? I have a Honeywell WIFI unit, and I hate that I can't get that much info. What are your experiences with the Ecobee? How do you like the interface?

I really like the ecobee. It has good web access from a browser in addition to access through the iOS apps. I’ve had no connectivity issues that were not due to my internet going down. I’ve thought about replacing mine at home but I’ve got a two thermostat setup with dampers zoning the house. I think two ecobees would do the trick but I have enough projects at the moment.

I found that the reason for those early wild swings were due to a couple things:

1. I think the set point for going from the heat pump to the emergency heat was set too high and once set better allowed the heat pump that is more efficient to work down to lower temps.

2. The units next to me were not being heated or in one memorable case left a garage door open during a cold snap.

3. If I take my thermostat physically off my wall, I get air pressure pushing through from my neighbor. As long as we are both going in the same direction not a huge deal but it can confuse the thermostat.

4. The sun comes in and shines directly on the thermostat at certain times of the day. Locally it would be warm but the unit would be cooling off. Later it would have to work overtime heating when it is colder out. Worse, I caught it running air conditioning then swapping over to heat when the sun got off the thermostat.


Fixes:

1. Got the flip point for heat pump to resistance heat set correctly.

2. Got remote temp sensors and told it to ignore the temps on the thermostat itself. I put those sensors in better locations than the hard wired thermostat. (It was nice ecobee has that option). That fixed issues 3 and 4.

3. I now manually set to heat only in the winter. Not sure I really needed to do that. I think the other two above kept it from running the air conditioning in the winter but it also seemed prudent.

4. The other units filled in and I think everything just averages to a lower heat load (or cooling load) than before when the next door units were not occupied.


5. Finally, I just run my big fan 24/7. That seems to keep the air in the unit all about the same temp on the mezzanine and down below. I probably run the heat more doing that but it keeps the temps more even and is much more livable.


My bill is really not high. I set it at 50 degrees in the winter when I’m not there and it needs about an hour or maybe a little more to get to 70 if I want to go down. We would go down every 3-4 days to work or do something even in the winter so it did not sit at 50 degrees for weeks on end. Most of my bills are in the $50 +/- range but I have had a few higher if I used the space a lot during a cold snap.

For the MyQ main gate does everyone have to have an account to access it? If they made you a guest on one of their accounts wouldn't that then appear on your main account. Or could you just do that yourself if everyone has their own account. Looking at my app I can have up to 3 guests that I can authorize.

TX4runner said:

For the MyQ main gate does everyone have to have an account to access it? If they made you a guest on one of their accounts wouldn't that then appear on your main account. Or could you just do that yourself if everyone has their own account. Looking at my app I can have up to 3 guests that I can authorize.

Click to expand...

So there are 30+ owners that all use the gate. The sharing feature of the app doesn’t really work with that many users ( limited to three guests). However, we basically created a group account and gave out the user ID and password for the group account and there does not seem to be a limit there. So far so good - fingers crossed.

Security wise, as long as the only thing on that account is the gate, it is really no worse than the fact 30 plus owners have pins to get in the gate with the keypad. We are trusting people not to share Pins or Passwords.

The funny part was early on people added their home garage or unit garage doors to the group account. For a while there I could have opened random people’s doors at their houses miles away from The Place. Thankfully, that got fixed quick!

I bought a 2018 911 Carrera S yesterday, thought I would share it with a fellow Porsche lover.

Used-2018-Porsche-911-Carrera-S-1586903065 by mactexas, on Flickr

Used-2018-Porsche-911-Carrera-S-1586903011 by mactexas, on Flickr

@MacTexas - Looks nice!!! We are definitely becoming a Porsche family. It started with the 997.2 4S (a CPO), then my wife got very active in the local club, we picked up a CPO Macan S, and now I'm working on getting our first new Porsche (Cayman GTS 4.0). My wife says she does not ever plan to sell her 997. She might buy something else but not sell the 997. It might be getting out of control....

Greg you're a lucky man. My spouse has zero interest in cars, car clubs etc.

@slik560 - I realize I am a very lucky man. My wife is an engineer and a car enthusiast. I realized she was a keeper when were first started dating and she was teaching herself to drive stick on a Toyota MR2 Turbo. I did not let her escape and have never looked back - we should be hitting our 25th wedding anniversary in about a month.

Greg_STL said:

@slik560 - I realize I am a very lucky man. My wife is an engineer and a car enthusiast. I realized she was a keeper when were first started dating and she was teaching herself to drive stick on a Toyota MR2 Turbo. I did not let her escape and have never looked back - we should be hitting our 25th wedding anniversary in about a month.

Click to expand...

Lucky, indeed, but I must assume you're doing a great job in the relationship, too. An early congratulations to you! ( Going on 43 this July myself.)

First time doing brakes on the 997 today. The front rotors were looking worn and we have an AutoX coming up and some summer driving that we wanted to be ready for.... I say we because it was my wife, daughter and I but I kept them out of the photos.

I did not take a ton of pictures but it is hard not to snap a few with a cell phone. I really like the QuickJack as I can get the car up once and pull off all four rims as needed. I also really appreciate the air conditioned garage.



I've done my own brakes on multiple cars and I always seem to find some way to make it more difficult. When pulling out the damper plates, one of the masses was corroded down in the piston. While pulling it out, the screw holding the mass to the backing plate pulled out and left the mass behind in the piston. Ugh. I had to back out the screw that was supposed to be tied to the plate and then grab hold of the screw with pliers to get it out. I was sweating for a while on if that was going to work.

Here is a shot of the front driver side completed.



We did not do the back brakes because they looked ok - at least enough to put off for a couple months or more. We did bleed the brakes all the way around though. Note the sacrificial boards that I throw down when working with brake fluid. The floors are supposed to be good for it but why risk it?



We only did a quick drive to bed the brakes with some repeated medium and high speed stops - but all appears to work well.

I also have continued to play with the Porsche AR app. This is closer to the spec with the seat colors and LED headlights that I want on the car.





6-7 more months of waiting!!

Wait. When did that wing go on the car? I've enjoyed playing with the visualizer also. Agree on the quickjacks. For the light work I do, it's great!! Doesn't stop me from wanting a full lift for storage, but my garage isn't tall enough.

TX4runner said:

Wait. When did that wing go on the car?

Click to expand...

Post 1036 ..

TX4runner said:

I've enjoyed playing with the visualizer also.

Click to expand...

It really is cool. I love that I can change details on the interior and see what is actually included in something like the leather dash option.

TX4runner said:

Agree on the quickjacks. For the light work I do, it's great!! Doesn't stop me from wanting a full lift for storage, but my garage isn't tall enough.

Click to expand...

I've got the height for the lift - even under the mezzanine. I was originally thinking a double wide (HD-9SW) but I'm not sure I need places to park 5 vehicles at The Place and two at home. The height of the deck in the lowered position is also higher because the beams need to be stronger for the double wide width. The higher beam height makes the ramps steeper.
I'm also not sure what I would do with the tires that are in the back of the garage. If I only do a single wide - I could keep the tires on the right side of the back of the garage. Maybe after the GTS shows up I'll feel the need for the extra space - but for now I have plenty of space without.

Loved following along during the build. Sad to hear and see the damage at that sauget warehouse. Was wondering if you can provide any info on re-sales yet? have any owners tried to sell their units yet and whether prices are appreciating or not? Maybe any difficulties encountered that you may have heard of.


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I do not know of any resales or anyone even wanting to resell. I’m not sure how I would know unless some one posted on the owners Facebook page.

No real issues. The gate was flaky for a while but they replaced some parts and redid some supports and I have had no issues for months now.

Interesting write up on the electrical automation. To the novice like me, it seems complicated.

Have been interested in adding remotely controlled interior, exterior lights along with the same for the two t-stats for my shop space.

Have an access point installed in the shop for wi-fi and think the individual switches could be controlled without having to reconfigure the legacy wiring. Would Lutron be the go to vendor for this type of equipment or would you suggest other vendors?

Also have the LiftMaster openers and don’t know if they will support any automation...

Enjoy your discussion on the Porsches too. We don’t have any water cooled P-Cars, just the old air cooled ones. Your new on order car looks like it will be a real delight to drive!

All the best,

ODIS said:

Interesting write up on the electrical automation. To the novice like me, it seems complicated.

Have been interested in adding remotely controlled interior, exterior lights along with the same for the two t-stats for my shop space.

Have an access point installed in the shop for wi-fi and think the individual switches could be controlled without having to reconfigure the legacy wiring. Would Lutron be the go to vendor for this type of equipment or would you suggest other vendors?

Also have the LiftMaster openers and don’t know if they will support any automation...

Enjoy your discussion on the Porsches too. We don’t have any water cooled P-Cars, just the old air cooled ones. Your new on order car looks like it will be a real delight to drive!

All the best,

Click to expand...

I have a hard time giving advice because I am just a novice that jumped in and tried. Having said that I would recommend the Ecobee thermostat and the Lutron Casetta line. Both have been rock solid. The Lutron system uses a little hub that would need to be in your garage on an ethernet line. I’m not sure if your access point has a line running to it or an extra port. The switches themselves just use legacy wiring and are simple to install. Most of their switches do not even require a neutral wire. I *think* the only one that did was the fan switch.

The LiftMasters have an app for open and close but the connection into HomeKit really *****. If it worked you would be able to create a macro that let you open the door and turn on your lights with a single button press, have it geo fenced to your phone opening when your phone got within 50 feet, or even open with a voice command through Siri. I’ve never gotten it to work because I’ve never gotten it to show up in HomeKit.

I would love an air cooled Porsche but I wouldn’t know where to start. They are amazing cars.

Greg_STL said:

I have a hard time giving advice because I am just a novice that jumped in and tried. Having said that I would recommend the Ecobee thermostat and the Lutron Casetta line. Both have been rock solid. The Lutron system uses a little hub that would need to be in your garage on an ethernet line. I’m not sure if your access point has a line running to it or an extra port. The switches themselves just use legacy wiring and are simple to install. Most of their switches do not even require a neutral wire. I *think* the only one that did was the fan switch.

The LiftMasters have an app for open and close but the connection into HomeKit really *****. If it worked you would be able to create a macro that let you open the door and turn on your lights with a single button press, have it geo fenced to your phone opening when your phone got within 50 feet, or even open with a voice command through Siri. I’ve never gotten it to work because I’ve never gotten it to show up in HomeKit.

I would love an air cooled Porsche but I wouldn’t know where to start. They are amazing cars.

Click to expand...

Thank you.

I just added the Ecobee to the house. I love the information I get, and the control I have. Good call Greg!
I went Wyze for my lighting and outlets. I also have their cameras in my house. I like having the control over the lighting around the house. Being able to turn all my outlets off when not around is great for controlling my phantom pulls. The cameras are ok, but not something that I would use for serious protection. It was the first step into cameras. Improvements will be made.

I updated post 1043 to include pictures of the Lutron Caseta system pico remotes and hub. I thought just integrating it in the original post would be better for future reference than having two separate posts. You can follow the hyperlink below to get back to post 1043.

1043 Remote Access Update

Thanks for the additional information. This is starting to look quite doable.

The air cooled corner save for the 964.



Thanks again.

25th Drive - Intro

My wife and I have reached our 25th wedding anniversary this year and we planned on two trips to celebrate. The first was a cruise at the end of March that didn't happen for obvious reasons. Our second trip was to be a driving trip to The Tail of Dragon area and on to the Porsche experience center in ATL. It was originally going to be a first trip with my new Cayman GTS but the purchase of the car also got delayed. We thought very hard about not doing the trip but in the end decided to go ahead and take the risk. At the time we made our final decision the cases appeared to be dropping - had we known what we know now - we might not have gone. We did adjust our plans some to be safer. We spent the vast majority of our time in our own car or in one of two small single room building accommodations. We masked up and even gloved up at times and kept our distance. As of today - it was worth it but give me a couple weeks to tell you for sure!!

My plan is to drop one new post a day for the next six days to follow along with our trip (but two weeks later than it occurred). I'll need the extra time to get my pictures all sorted and get the posts written.

Day 1 - Drive East - First Dragon Crossing - River's Edge Tree House
Day 2 - Dragon / Cherohala Loop
Day 3 - Moonshiner 28 - Cherohala Redux
Day 4 - 6 Gap (Northern GA) - Helen - Glampsite 113
Day 5 - PEC ATL
Day 6 - Back to STL

No introduction post is complete without a couple teaser pictures....



















Those teasers will have to keep you for now...

25th Drive - Day 1 - Drive East

The trip east from The Place to our cabin in the Smoky Mountains was about just under a 9 hour drive. We had originally planned to stay the night part way and make some side trips but with the pandemic protocols in place we decided to just bomb our way across country in one go.



We set up pre-set points to get gas and food and arbitrarily picked Mobil/Exxon so we could use an app to pay at the pump and not have to pull out credit cards at the stop. It is a tank and half drive in the 997 but my wife preferred a 3 stop approach - women have smaller bladders - just a fact. We planned stops in Paducah, Nashville, and Crossville. That gave us 2 to 2 1/2 hours stints each which went quick.

We headed out at 7am so that with stops and the time change we would get into NC by 4-5pm. Here is the first picture of the day checking tire pressures before we hit the road. The bags are already packed in the frunk and rear seats.



We had clear skies to start but by the time we were into Illinois the rain started. It would be a common theme for the rest of the trip. I will have to say that it never was continuous rain and parts of each day on the trip were dry.

Entering Kentucky:


Entering Tennessee:



We stopped just past Nashville for lunch at a Culvers. We did the drive thru, eat lunch in our car, and then used the bathrooms quickly before we hit the road again.



Turning on to 129 after filling up with gas and getting off the interstates.



We drove by the flats and up into the Tail of the Dragon. It was my turn to drive so I go the first crack over the pass. We had some traffic so I would go a bit then stop in one of the pull outs. I really did not push as after a 8+ hour drive I was probably not at my best. Mind you, the car was also filled to the gills with bags and a cooler. We did not take many pictures as I was driving and I think Nancy was just holding on! (The NC sign picture below was taken the next day - the lighting gives it away - but fits the story better here).











Anyone that has been there knows that photographers camp out at certain corners and take pictures as you drive by. This is a shot of that first drive over the Dragon that Sunday night.



Once we passed the Tail of the Dragon store it was down 129 to Robbinsville and the River's Edge Treehouse Resort. The treehouses are basically two room (bedroom/bathroom) cabins on stilts in the woods. The resort only has 6 units so it is a nice isolated location. All the arrangements were made online or over e-mail and the code to get in the gate and into our cabin was done without having to meet anyone in person. There is even room to park your car under the cabin to keep it out of some of the rain.



Each unit is named after a tree that they use for wood to finish the interior. Ours was the Popular and was nice and bright inside.



The trees literally grow up through the deck. The deck had a grill and we brought steaks to cook out two nights - including this first night.







There is even a couple fire pits for usage by the guests with a complementary bundle of wood to burn each night per cabin. We spent parts of two nights down there seated on the opposite sides of a fire with the folks that were in the cabin next door. They had driven up from Charlotte NC in their Mustang 5.0 to enjoy the driving as well.

Nice trip! Great car to drive and will bet there was less traffic to deal with too. Thank you for sharing. Have not seen this area of the country. Beautiful!

When I started reading your post, I wondered why NC. Then i remember the Dragon. Reading on, yep you’re headed to the Dragon. A group of friends and I rode our motorcycles up and stayed in Robbinsville. We too had intermittent rain and light traffic but still had a blast riding up and down the Dragon. Definitely a must do at least once in a lifetime.


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@ ODIS & shortykorte - Thanks for following along. Tomorrow's post should have a few nicer pictures and narrative. Today's post was all about just getting there as fast as possible. Yes, we hit the Dragon but that was only one of many fun roads we hit. But, I'm getting ahead of myself....

25th Drive - Day 2 - Dragon / Cherohala Loop

The plan for Day 2 of the trip was to do the Tail of the Dragon / Cherohala Skyway loop. We would start in Robbinsville, drive North over the Dragon, head west to Venore, south to Tellico Plains then east over the Cherohala Skyway to our starting point in Robbinsville.



Part of our plan for this trip was to pick a time when there were no large groups in town like "Wookies in the Woods" or "Rennsport". We wanted a quiet week day when we would not have to deal with much in the way of traffic. Between the Pandemic and our plan, the area was very quiet all week.

We slept in some on Monday morning and arrived at the start of the NC side of the Tail of the Dragon around 9am. We stopped at the store at the start and took some pictures. I'll drop an overall map of the dragon here as well for those not familiar with it.







We watched people start up the hill while we were standing outside the store and timed it so we gave the last group a good head start. We did something right because Nancy's first run went all 11+ miles without anyone impeding the pace she set. We were not trying to set a speed record or anything but it was nice to take your own pace and not be slowed down by a F-150 with a trailer. The PDK of the 997 really shone as we put it in sport mode and the gear selection always seemed to be perfect. The exhaust was sounded great with the rear muffler removed and the "Gundo Hack" done on the side mufflers. The flat six would sing under throttle and burble and pop when let off. Frankly, it was addicting. We swapped seats to come back south and I had to stop multiple times to give people some room to move out. I also wanted to get some static shots of the car on some of the pullouts with the road in the back ground - so win-win.





The photographers were out in full force. Between our three runs (and probably due to the low traffic), we had 52 photos taken of our car by just one site (US129Photos.com) between 9:50 and 10:48 am!! Here a couple that we purchased but you can go to their site and look at June 21st and see the others if your really want.







We stopped at the overlook (mile 8.8) where you can see another of the TVA dams.



I also had to get a close up of the stickered over Welcome to North Carolina sign.



Nancy took the third run over and at that point we decided we needed to move on if we were going to do the Dragon/Cherohala loop. We drove west towards Venore but stopped at the Dragon Pitt Inn and A&R Texas BBQ. The seating was open air and social distancing was easy as were literally the only customers there. The owner said that weekends were busier but the weekdays have been slow.







The drive through Venore and down to Tellico plains was uneventful. We did get a call from the River's Edge needing a credit card number ... but it was another good happenstance. The owner of the resort told us we should drive into to see the Bald River falls. About 5 miles into the Tennessee side of the Cherohala Skyway you can turn off on River Road and drive to the falls.



The River Road was this tiny little road without lines that had some of the highest traffic of any of the two lane roads we drove on all trip. I guess lots of people like waterfalls.



We stopped at the a bridge along the drive in and took this picture of the lazy little river the road is named after.



It was misting when we got to the falls but they were quite beautiful.



We headed all the way back to the start of River road because we didn't want to miss anything of the Cherohala Skyway. I'm not sure that we needed to. The road is a wide road with long sweeping corners - not anywhere as intense as the Dragon. It's claim to fame is the elevation change. Telico Beach, the start on the TN side, is only 880ft above sea level. By TN mile 5, you are at 1000ft; TN mile 14 - 2000ft; TN mile 17 - 3000ft; TN mile 23 - 4000ft and finally 5,390ft at NC mile 6.8. The start of the NC side (NC mile 17) is at 2,660 ft.

We got out at a couple of the photo stops but the one around TN mile 16 (Turkey Creek) provided some dramatic photos. The view looking west was of a big rain storm headed our way.







There was no obvious lightning so we hung out taking pictures for a bit. We were at 2600ft at TN mile 16 so we were only halfway up. Unfortunately, and not surprising, it started to rain pretty heavy at this point and the trip the rest of the way up and down the mountain was in the rain with not many opportunities for scenic photography. It was still a fun drive. As it was going to prove over the trip, the 997 with AWD and Michellin Pilot Sport 4S tires was a great companion for the wet roads. Over the length of the trip, the car and tires always provided good grip despite the wet and changeable driving conditions.

We finished the trip in early afternoon and realized we really did not plan a long enough drive. It was pouring rain so we just hung out at the tree house for a while. We decided to order pizza from a local drive-thru pizza place for dinner. When we went to pick it up - we realized that the weather was sunny again. On the spur of the moment, we decided to run up and eat the pizza at the overlook on the Dragon. Since I had done the North-South twice but not the South-North - I drove up. The road was deserted. The rain must have scared away everyone because the photographers were not even in their usual corners. I made it all the way till about a half mile from the overlook (~mile 8) when I caught up to a jeep. What resulted is one of the signature photos of the trip (for me at least).



After the meal, we finished my north run. We swapped positions and Nancy got a North-South run in with out catching anyone the entire trip. She had quite the luck with a unicorn run North for the first drive of the day and a unicorn run South with the last run of the day. We drove back to Robbinsville and enjoyed a campfire with our neighbors thinking we had a pretty good day. The camp fire got cut short by a sudden rain storm but it just made us all laugh running back to our cabins to get out of the rain.

Sounds like an amazing trip already!

Wow, beautiful weather and no traffic. Definitely a unicorn. Did you get any pictures of where the road looks like waves due to the short, quick switchbacks? That’s one of the things I thought was amazing. I enjoyed the Parkway for the reasons you mentioned. Not being a crotch rocket guy or experience on something like the Dragon, the Parkway allow me to open it up safely. Since then I’ve ridden my black opposed six (Valkyrie) around the Helen area pretty hard.
It’s great y’all are having a great trip.


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shortykorte said:

Wow, beautiful weather and no traffic. Definitely a unicorn. Did you get any pictures of where the road looks like waves due to the short, quick switchbacks? That’s one of the things I thought was amazing. I enjoyed the Parkway for the reasons you mentioned. Not being a crotch rocket guy or experience on something like the Dragon, the Parkway allow me to open it up safely. Since then I’ve ridden my black opposed six (Valkyrie) around the Helen area pretty hard.
It’s great y’all are having a great trip.


Sent from my iPhone using Garage Journal

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The weather did not always cooperate but we had some good weather each day. I did not get any good pictures of the “dips” or how angled the curves became sometimes. I liked the tight whip like corners going from North to South where the natural left to right slope of the hill matched up with the crown of the road to really angle on the inner curve. I never let myself cross the yellow line but I would dip across the white line inside on those tight corners ... fun fun fun!

25th Drive - Day 3 - Moonshiner 28 - Cherohala Redux

Our plan for Day 3 was to try to do Moonshiner 28 loop from Robbinsville, up to the Tail of the Dragon Start, East to Almond, South to Topton, and then back to Robbinsville. We decided that since the prior day had gone faster, we really needed to be more ambitious. We decided to not stop on Route 28 at Almond but take it all the way down to Franklin, the work our way back to Robinsville via Wayah Road (Rt 1310).

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The day started out dry-ish and the run from Deals Gap to Fontana Dam was particularly nice. It was an older two lane road and there was a lot of early morning mist or fog.



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You can really see in this shot I took this morning that we were losing the battle on keeping a clean car. The roads were all wet with water running out from the shoulders. There were also lots of limbs that would fall and get crushed leading to lots of fine wood debris on the roads too. But what is the quote?? "Our cars were meant to be driven, not polished." - Ferry Porsche



The car looks a little cleaner in this staged shot. We liked the curve and the sign so we stopped and took a picture. Did I mention that the roads were deserted? I think we passed like two people on that first section from Deal's Gap to Fontana Dam.



It was good we took that shot because it started to rain more. The road also turned into a four lane highway from what felt like not long after Fontana almost all the way down to Lauada. The next section that is labeled Hillbilly Pop and CatDaddy cliffs was a nice two lane. It was raining (not hard) but there were no turnoffs to get good pictures. We got a few through the windshield but ...



The Cool Water and Old Horsey Hills section was more like open prairie between ridges than real mountain runs. We did grab a quick shot of downtown Franklin while wandering through....



The next section, along Wayah road from Franklin up to Topton was some of the best driving roads of the day. It is all small two lane road that goes up and over a ridge and the follows a river down to the intersection with 19. We didn't get any shots going up and over the ridge but we did stop at a bridge along the river and take some photos under the bridge out of the rain.



I took this one walking back to the car from under the bridge.



It started to pour after this and I mean as hard as I have ever driven in. The 997 C4S and PS4S tires were rock steady even in the down pour. I wasn't pushing hard but i also never felt the tire lose grip or hydroplane. The trip from Topton up to Robinsville was uneventful if unremarkable on a 50 mph two lane with long sweeping curves. It is probably a good road under normal circumstances but after having just driven on Wayah it was ... meh.

We got back to Robbinsville in time to have take out from Wendy's in Robbinsville. We tried to be more ambitious on the drive length and still only got a half day in - weather and all. After lunch and waiting the weather out some more - we decided to try to go back up the Cherohala Skyway to get some pictures on the NC side since it was raining so hard the last time we drove it.

So this is the start - heading up at NC mile 17. It is nice and sunny.



We stopped at the first couple look outs and took some pictures. Everything was so green.



Heading up you could see the clouds starting to close in and the mist starting to appear above the road.





When we got to mile 8.5 we decided to stop. We were done taking scenery pictures - at least distance scenery pictures.





We headed back down and grilled steaks on the deck and hung out at the campfire telling stories with our one neighbor. It was another good day.

This is taking too long and I have caught up on the write-ups. I think I will drop day 4 tonight and day 5 at the Porsche Experience center tomorrow morning...

25th Drive - Day 4 - 6 Gap - Helen - Glampsite 113

Day 4 was a transition day for us. We were moving out our little tree house in the woods and heading down to the big city of Atlanta.





We wanted to extend our driving to enjoy more of the great roads of the area. Originally, we thought that we might hit one of the six gaps (passes) in northern Georgia on our way down to Atlanta rather than just taking the fastest route from Waze. After our quick drives on the Dragon/Cherohala loop and Moonshine/Wayah loop, I decided to hit 5 of the 6 gaps.



The plan was to hit Wolfpen gap first, back track and go up to Neels gap, back track again and go to Hogpen gap, backtrack for the third and final time then head to Jack's Gap and Unicoi Gap before heading to Helen, GA. My wife grew up in GA and remembered the little German town of Helen and wanted to stop by.

Wolfpen Gap

The turn off from 19 to Route 118 downsized the road size and headed up to Wolfpen Gap. The road was narrow and twisty and reminded me in some ways of the Tail of the Dragon. We got to Wolfpen Gap and I was disappointed to not find even a sign marking the location. It was obviously the pass as the road dropped in both directions from that point but someone in the GA tourism department needs to get with the program and put up a sign!



Neel's Gap

We back tracked on 118 and went south on 19. It is a more modern road but still fun to charge up a hill. I always like going up more than down as it feels like you can push a little more knowing that gravity will help with the breaks and the sound of the engine working hard is beautiful. Neel's Gap has a store at the gap that's claim to fame is being the only store that has the Appalachian trail going through the store. We were still following pandemic protocol so no visits inside stores.

Here is a picture of the trail going through the store.



I also took this shot of a historic marker sign telling the history of Blood mountain. Notice all the hiking boots in the tree. There were dozen's of pairs in the tree - must be an Appalachian trail thin. <shrug>



A final shot of the workhorse and the boot tree in the back ground.



Hogpen Gap

Hogpen Gap is along the Richard B Russell Scenic Hwy. It would say it was a better road than 19 at Neel's Gap but not near as nice as 118 with Wolfpen Gap. The Appalachian trail goes through Hogpen Gap as well and I found this marker as proof of visitation...



It looks sunny in that shot but looks can be deceiving. This is the shot of the car at the Hogpen Gap.



Jack's Gap / Brasstown Bald

We did our final back track and started up Route 180 to Jack's Gap. When we got there - there was no sign (for the Gap) and it didn't really even feel like a Gap. The road was very wide there - in part because there was an entrance road to go up to the top of Brasstown Bald.



We were foiled again when we got to the parking lot of the park. If the park had been open, we could have taken a tram/bus up to the top of the bald. Given the weather, we decided not to walk up to the bald as there would most likely not be many good views.



Unicoi Gap

So one last Gap for us for the day. We made our way around to Unicoi gap and someone didn't take a picture of the road/hills around us. We must have been "Gapped Out". I took a picture of an Appalachian Trail marker and one of the map proving to myself it was Unicoi Gap.





I remember there being some good curves dropping out of the pass down into Helen. Helen is a little tourist town that mimics a German alpine town. I think they do SOWO or Southern Worthersee in Helen every year mimicking the more famous one in Europe. We drove through town and were shocked at the crowds and the lack of anyone wearing masks. I know we had been isolating pretty hard up till then but it was a jolt to us to see such a change. We took some shots out the windows but didn't get out of the car in the crowds.





We found a small German restaurant with outdoor seating on the outskirts of town that had no one there (when we arrived).





I got some potato pancakes and bratwurst .. mmmmm ...





The restaurant outdoor seating started to fill up. People were literally walking up from the stream next door to the restaurant and sitting down to eat.



We were almost done by then so we finished eating and left.

The drive to Atlanta from Helen was quick. Our original plans, made last December, were to stay at the Klimpton Hotel directly across from the Porsche Experience Center. The Klimpton is an expensive high end hotel but we thought for our 25th anniversary we could swing it. When we called two weeks before our trip to find out if there were any special pandemic protocols, we were surprised to find out that they were shut down and had never sent us anything (e-mail/phone) to let us know. We were already thinking that we might not want to be at a big hotel so it helped us find an alternate solution. Nancy used her black belt in google-fu to find an AirBnB in Alpharetta - just north of Atlanta. The AirBnB was a converted Airstream trailer located in someone's back yard. We made all the arrangements online and got the codes to enter by e-mail - no human contact involved.

I'm not sure I could describe this AirBnB and pictures might just be best.





















I'm not sure the pictures do it justice. It is over the top on multiple levels. It is half trailer and half cabin - but manages to have a full bathroom and full kitchen. You better like who you are glamping with because the bathroom is visible from anywhere in the unit. There is a window from the bedroom to the shower and from the kitchen you can see reflections off the Airstream trailer into the bathroom. And craziest of all, this is all in someones back yard. It is crazy but somehow it works.

On a complete side note... I woke up in the morning and did my usual check of the Porsche site to see if the configurator for the Cayman GTS 4.0 had been launched so I could order the Cayman I have been trying to order for a year. Surprise - the configurator was live! It was buggy and not all the options worked but it was live. Later that day, I saw that the official announcement from Porsche USA was made and orders were open. My sales associate called when we got to the AirBnB to let me know that I could place my order if I gave her my configuration code (Porsche speak for which options I wanted). I explained I was on a trip (to Porsche Headquarters tomorrow - yes) and only had a phone to do the configuration. Besides, the configurator wouldn't let me pick an interior color at all. We made an appointment for Monday when we got back to do the optioning in person. Who Hoo - Progress!!!

Looks like you had a great road trip. Great driving roads and great scenery.
That area of the country is beautiful.

Boosted1 said:

Looks like you had a great road trip. Great driving roads and great scenery.
That area of the country is beautiful.

Click to expand...

The area is beautiful and really lived up to the name of Great Smoky Mountains while we were there. The low ceilings and mist in the mountains everyday added something special to the green green scenery.

25th Drive - Day 5 - PEC ATL

Day 5 - Porsche Experince Center

Day 5 was all about Porsche. We were scheduled for 9am experience on the Porsche Experiece Center at the Porsche North America headquarters in Atlanta. Nancy chose to drive the GT3 and I chose to drive the Taycan Turbo S.







From here on - all the photos are iPhone photos since we did not think we would want to bring the big camera with us during the "experience".

Porsche made changes to their methods for the pandemic. First, all the forms were filled out and signed digitally prior to arriving. Before you can enter the building (or even park), they check your temperature at a screening station. Masks are required at all times in the building. The instructors do not sit in the cars with you but the experience is all done "lead-follow" with two identical models. We were asked to arrive 30 minutes early to make sure everything was settled before our time slot.

When we arrived at the facility, a masked-up guard checked our names and allowed us in the gate. We were directed to enter the garage where we would have our temperatures checked before we could park. Entering the garage, before we could even get checked, there was a Le Mans winning, record breaking, hybrid 919 just casually sitting in a parking spot. Once we passed our temp check and parked - I walked back and took a photo.



Entering the building we were met with instructions to make sure we were up to speed on the new rules.



Waling up to the check-in - you pass the restoration facility.





We checked in an then had some time to walk around the building prior to the the 9am start. The building was pretty much empty. I only saw a couple employees. There were ofcourse displays, art work, and cars on display. I particularly liked the mobile that didn't look like anything in particular until you stood underneath it in just the right spot and the individual pieces resolve into a 918.









Having done this in LA, we had to step out on the terrace and see if our cars were in place - ready for us to go. It looked like there were going to be four teams out there on the track this morning - 992, 991.2 GT3, Taycan Turbo S, and another set of 992s not pictured.



The track is different than LA. There is no Ice Hill. The low friction track is not continuous but has a start and end that is regular tarmac. But other wise, the same areas exist. We did not get to do the high speed handling track at LA so we were hoping the rain would hold off.



We met our two instructors at 9:30 and after the usual feeling out discusion (Oh you did PEC-LA, and you've been on track - Yeah Mid-Ohio is great - What do you know about the Taycan? 750 hp - 0-60 in 2.6 sec - AWD - 2 motor - 2 speed rear gearbox - 5000lbs - sat in it at the STL launch event .. ok - lets go). We quickly separated and got in our repective cars. A radio was pre-positioned in my back door pocket and the instructor could talk one way to me. I would need to flash my headlights to get his attention if needed. It seemed odd at first, but in practice worked very well. We would stop after some exercises and talk with him outside and my window rolled down.

We started with the low friction handling circuit - probabably to see if I could control basic under and over steer. We did it with PSM on, PSM with stability control off and with PSM with stability and traction control off. Having driven an Audi TTS that never turns off, I really like the 3 mode Porsche way with a fully off as the final option. The ATL low friction course was not wet like in LA so we had tons of grip by comparison. The Taycan is also AWD and 4 wheel steering so it is much more nimble than expected for a 5000lb vehicle. Heck, it is nimble for a sports car. Next we went to the dynamics area to do a simple 8-10 cone slalom. I say simple but the Taycan really excelled at it. They had me carve big arcs and the Taycan stays very flat and with the four wheel steering, AWD, and monster torque - it really puts on some speed. It took me a couple runs to really push it and trust that it was not just going to under or over steer on me.

Next we did a highlight for an electric AWD vehicle. The launch control sprint was insane. 750 hp and a 0-60 of well under the official 2.6 seconds. Quiet and mind bendingly fast. The first launch was expected and yet when your brain catches up to it - it panics again when it reallizes the car is still accellerating. Just Wow!

Another highlight was sitting there waiting to go and hearing the GT3s scream by on the back straight - knowing that it was my wife wailing by...

We then went to the low friction circle. We did the same 3 step process with the PSM. With everything off,the car is still pretty nuetral but tends to understeer at the limit. With some promting and a heavy right foot, I was able to get the Taycan to go sideways and it is wants to circle the pad at 90 degrees and with the nose almost pointing to the center. I got a couple very micro drifts in but I will never be a drift king.

Next up was the kick plate. I felt I did alright with that at LA and went in too sure. I had a hard time guaging speed with the Taycan as it is silent and I hit the plate way too fast the first time. I was supposed to be doing 18-20 but was doing 26 mph. I spun out. I tried it again slower - probably around 22 and spun out again. I finally did it at close to 18 and caught it. We ramped up speed again and I finally did one around 27 but I think I had another failure in there too. I was watching my speedo too much to get the speed right, didn't have my hands wide enough, and kept forgetting that with AWD I needed to use my throttle to pull me straight and not just rely on the steering wheel.

Next was the handling circuit. We started slow but picked up speed quickly as I matched his marks hitting the right braking and apex points. The back side of the track actually has some good elevation change to it and the Taycan was very good at powering up the rise. The car is a torque monster and speed was a small press of your foot away at any time. It was very controlled and very flat around the course. After the back straight, we would go around the curve by the building and there was a bit of a puddle there. I could see my instructer hit it at speed and do a small 3-4 inch 4 wheel drift and then plant and start the slow squeeze of the accellerator onto the front straight.

We were going to go back and work on the kick plate some more but it was acting up so we just spent more time on the handling circuit. Darn... ;-)

When we finsihed up our 90 minute session my "fuel tank" had only gone from a ~91% charge to a ~72% charge. Not bad really.

I had a blast - I belive my wife did as well. My wife's instructors first words for me when we met afterwards were "You should know your wife is a speed demon!" I am well aware.

Pics of the actual cars we drove:





After finishing up, we tried to go into the heritage gallery. It was locked but we went back up and the person at check-in said they would get someone to open it for us. After a very short wait, they opened it up for just the two of us without anyone else in the gallery. It is hard to social distance better than alone! Below are just a few of the pictures we took with our cells:









There was even an area that was down stairs that wasn't fully lit and the displays were not on. They had already gone out of their way to open the gallery for us so I didn't track someone down to turn on the lights. We didn't care - I could see the cars fine and that was all I needed to see.









We left with a sad feeling that the vacation was ending but it ended on a high note.

When we got back to the glampsite, I had a message from my sales associate saying that the 2021 Cayman configurator had been fixed. Nancy and I sat down and worked through the configurator on my phone and sent my code to the STL Porsche dealer. I went a little upmarket from my original plan but I have had an entire year extra to save. I'm sure spending the day at a Porsche playground had nothing to do with it....

I'm sure the Taycan is nice but those wheels are hard to overlook, wow, hideous! [emoji1787]


I'm doing the BMW driving experience late August and it will be interesting to see what they do as a result of this pandemic.

GRN96WS6 said:

I'm sure the Taycan is nice but those wheels are hard to overlook, wow, hideous! [emoji1787]


I'm doing the BMW driving experience late August and it will be interesting to see what they do as a result of this pandemic.

Click to expand...

I think I have to agree on the wheels. They are an almost exact copy of the wheels that where on the MissionE concept car and apparently enough people liked/requested them that they brought a version over to the production car. If I had enough money to buy a Taycan Turbo S - I might have to get some Vossen wheels to put on it.