Miatas at the Gap

I have an Aunt who owns a little cabin in Sapphire, NC and has been inviting my wife and I up to stay for a couple of years now.  I have been hearing of the Tail of the Dragon forever.  And I recently snagged a nice miata driver/cruiser - one with working A/C and cruise control!  So, it feels like the stars are aligning for a vacation to NC and road trip to the Miatas at the Gap gathering in August.  The only problem is my Aunt's cabin is over 2 hours away from Deals Gap.  So, I don't plan to drive back and forth several days in a row.  The plan is probably to pick the "best" day to join the festivities at the miata gathering and spend the rest of the time near Sapphire. 

So, who has been to this event before?  Is it safe to assume that the Saturday is probably the best day to spend hanging with the group?  Any tips or stories to share?

Nothing useful to add, I keep meaning to go and life keeps giving me other things to do.  Gonna try harder this year.

The schedule seems to indicate that Friday is more geared toward driving the roads and Saturday is more the hanging out events. 

MATG Website

I went in 2000. By the time we got to Topeka Lodge (via the Gap), we'd seen something like 6 Miatas with body damage including two that had managed to hit each other. People get a little crazy when they get near that road.

The only thing that I have ever heard about driving the Gap is that it is impossible during events because there is just too much traffic.  The only way to enjoy the road is to head out at dawn, before the rest of the crowd arrives.  That may be tough with a 2-hour commute, but might be worth it. 

I went to MATG with my dad when I first bought my 1995 Miata. It was an okay time. There are a ton of great roads near the Dragon that are almost better to drive as there's fewer people crowding them. 

Police are everywhere. Lots of people think they are srs bzns racekor drivers and crash. Someone had died the day we arrived. It's a nice road to drive, but I can drive other nice curvy mountain roads and not travel 10 hours to do it. At this point, if I'm traveling that distance, it's to share a racetrack with other drivers who know what they're doing.

MATG in particular was underwhelming to me as the age of attendees skewed older. Like 55+ only, and the more boring 55+ subset. Lots of parking lot activities, a swap meet, and examining each others' chrome trim and style bars. If you love the crowd on the Miata.net forum, you'll fit right in. Given you're on the GRM forum... I'm sure you will meet good people, but it will not be "GRM in person" at all.

Oh, and be ready to share the road with a lot of couples on trikes. 

Interesting comments so far. Maybe I should adjust the planned dates and skip the gathering. I am definitely not a parking-lot-car-show kind of guy. I don’t think my wife would enjoy that much either. 

No experience with this event, but I have been to the Gap. Wife and I hit it on 4th of July, I think. Being a major holiday, there was almost no traffic, which really made the drive a lot more enjoyable. I'll echo Keith's thought about the area's effect on people's brains.

Here is a better route near Sapphire. https://maps.app.goo.gl/MsHsFiwubd58zyMb8

You might need to fix some points as I did that on mobile. I do the 215/281 loop a lot. Or the 276/215 loop.

Edit: duplicate post. 

Cherohala Skyway is a fantastic drive in the neighborhood.

I've gone twice, I enjoyed it, but its not something I feel I have to do every year, or even every other year. If you're going to go, honestly, you're best off reserving at the Fontana Village Resort and staying there, as that's really where it is based out of. Otherwise, you end up having to factor in time to get from where you are staying to the resort, and 10 miles as the crow flies in that area is often a 30-45 minute drive. It's an okay event, lot of nice people there, but as some have said, it seems to be more heavily attended by the 55+yo crew who just want to putt around in automatic NCs. There is a "spirited" drive the one day, but from what I heard from some people who had done it, they are the complete opposite type of drivers (very fast, borderline unsafe, if you can't keep up or run out of fuel or have mechanical issues they just leave you behind). Friday and Saturday are the days to be there.