[Oct 4, 2019] 33rd Annual Dixie Run, (South Pittsburg, TN)

Just got home from Dixie Run 33.
To say I had a blast would be an understatement!
We got there Wed afternoon, and left out early-thirty this morning. I have NEVER ridden so much on one wheeling trip! There was only two of us in our group. We rode mostly the whole park, but concentrated on the most difficult. We rode every black triangle on the map, and all of those we found that were not on the map. Creampie, Soup Samich, Preditor, Riot Hill, Little Caesars, and more. VERY dry, traction was awesome. We broke nothing, and only ran into a few other rigs the whole time. We had no issues with trail congestion.
I'd have to rank this past weekend of wheeling in the top 5, of every ride I have ever been on.

Not sure who or who dropped the ball, but, there were only 3 Vendors there this year. A let down for sure. Only one food vendor. As a matter of fact, stood in line 20 mins, only 4 people walked away with food during that time. We went back and cooked burgers and dogs.

Shower house, in the new shower house, there was one fold out chair, for 4 showers. No Hot and cold water, just one valve. Wednesday if froze you, Thursday Friday it was decent temp, last night it would scald you!

As mentioned, it was dry, very dusty, and seems so many out in and around the field thought it was a race track. So yeah, easy to get choked on the dust.

Signs every where about drinking, and the woods were full of every type can made. Signs also out about no wheeling after midnight, they were still racing, revving engines and so on when I got up at 3:30 (our time)
 
Wasn't too packed compared to previous Dixie Runs I've been to. Still a good place for the event.
And what Chip said x2. There was only one food truck and a few vendors. The wait was near 45min-1 hour for your meal but was decent none the less.
and Cold showers wake your ass up tho!
The raffle was as good as previous years. A m8 winch and recovery bag as well as a set of tires being the top prizes.
I had a good time at AOP. First time being there and its got something for everyone. My fav was 41. That is a great boulder waterfall for maybe a half mile. Very similar traction conditions to Golden mtn. Slippery dusty rock and not a bit of wet anywhere until the sprinkling after the raffle. We could've used that the previous night to knock down the dust and get some tack on the trails but eh oh well.
Only thing is you can't really get over to the buggy stuff to watch. Its kinda separated not like Golden Mtn where you can at least get around to go see the big rigs.
Good seeing some familiar faces. See ya next ride.
 
There wasn't nearly as many rigs at AOP as there was for Trailfest last year. The Saturday night meal was a CF. They were supposed to have 2 food trucks, only had one with the slowest person at the window. At 10PM, they finally came over and said they were still open and finally had no line. If I hadn't been so damn hungry, I wouldn't have even bothered. The cheeseburger was marginal, the cheese fries weren't bad. SFWDA screwed the pooch on this. No vendors either to speak of. My other complaint was that someone the the registration booth stopped me as I was heading out to go get a ball joint press and u joint straps, Told me to slow down (I was doing 6 MPH) and that she had a bunch of kids out in the field with bikes and quads with no reflectors or lights. However, the buggy crowd could go as fast as they wanted to, kick up enough dust to totally cover the camp area and nothing was said.

They needed to apply the rules to all, not just some.

Other than that, I had a great time, did a bunch of interesting trails. Tore a sidewall and snapped a rear 1310 in the driveshaft Friday. Put it back together and went out Saturday. I know some don't like the guided rides but The advanced group rides I did were a lot of fun, Saturdays rides were very little waiting for anyone and were mostly blacks. Fridays ride, there was a lot of waiting for a Land Crusier that probably had no business being out there even though he was on 37's. The entertainment value though was priceless. It went out in decent shape, came back without a straight body panel, missing the rear tire carrier (it just kind of slowly fell off the back) . Hell, he took out the passengers fender entering trail 57 from the campground.

Trail 57 was fun, trail 77 was even more fun. Lost track of some of the other trails I was on.
 
I also had a great time at my first Dixie Run. Jeep did great for it's first "drive there, wheel it and drive home" excursion. Since we did not trailer, we stayed on the moderate trails, which were really good with a few challenging spots here and there. It was not near as crowded as I was expecting. As stated it was extremely dusty but the temps were great is in shaded areas with a nice breeze most of the time. The trails we not as clogged as I thought either. Only a couple of issues with meeting on coming rigs and had to pull over to let them by. Otherwise, things were always moving. The included dinner Sat. evening was a disaster. To get served was a 2 hour wait in line. There were folks still being serve at 9:30pm and they started around 5:30 pm. That was the only negative of the whole event for us.
Other good things about the trip.
The Park is a great place to wheel. Look forward to going back when a little cooler out, and can camp.
Visited the Warner Military Museum and got a private tour of the place. Awesome folks and tons of cool jeeps and extremely rare vehicles, prototypes, from the horse drawn era to the the modern hummer.
The Lodge cast iron cookware factory is located in town there for anyone who cooks on cast iron. It just so happens they were having a 3 day warehouse sale while we there there! Prices were 1/3 of retail. Needless to say, we had to pack another 150 lbs of stuff in Jeep for ride home.
The Best Western hotel in Kimball is a great place to stay if you don't camp. Was 1/2 price of other hotels i checked on, so was not expecting much, but friendly folks, clean hotel, clean room,comfortable bed, great shower head (small thing, but gets an extra star if good), fridge, microwave and coffee in room, plus really well serviced hot breakfast each morning (bacon, eggs,sausage, potatoes,cereal, waffles, donuts,bagels,boiled eggs,oatmeal, grits, coffee, tea, juices, milk, toast yogurt, ect.) and it is only 5 mins. to the park.
We took 24/74/40 home vs 24/77/40. What an enjoyable drive! Very light traffic, scenic, bypassed the gorge. Until we hit I-40.... damn the traffic.
Was great to see some old wheeling friends again, met some new ones too. Looking forward to more trail rides and some camping this fall and next spring.
 
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