GA-Z Train Ride

2010 GA-Z Train Ride

GA-Z Rides the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway

John Stevens Conductor

***** 2010 Reservation Form *****
Click Here For Printable Version

Welcome to the GWRRA GA-Z 5th Annual Train Excursion. This year’s train ride will be on the Blue Ridge Scenic RR the weekend of October 8-10, 2010.

We will depart from Fairburn on Friday October 8. Our final destination will be our hotel which is the Comfort Inn & Suites in Blue Ridge, GA. I am planning a route up the north/east side of Atlanta. At this point in time, I have not picked out a lunch destination. Our Friday tourist stop is located just south of Blairsville, GA.

The hotel is the Comfort Inn & Suites in Blue Ridge, GA. It is located at 83 Blue Ridge Overlook. The room rate is $94/night. They do allow pets, but there is a $50 non-refundable pet fee. There is a complimentary breakfast. There is also a game room and an exercise facility. The hotel is located on top of a ridge just north of the highway through Blue Ridge. It has a 360 degree panoramic view of the mountains. They do have a website (www.comfortinnofblueridge.com) if you wish to see pictures. The phone number is 706-946-3333. When you make your reservation, make sure you mention GA-Z in order to get the group rate. I have reserved 30 rooms. Not all of them have king size beds. If you want a king size bed, I would suggest you reserve one as soon as possible.

The Blue Ridge Scenic Railway (www.brscenic.com) is located just a few minutes away from the hotel, but probably not within walking distance. One of the issues with the railroad has always been parking, but there is a new paved lot on the north end of downtown that will work out nicely. The train departs promptly at 10:00 am. There is NO SMOKING, NO PETS, and NO ALCOHOL PERMITTED ON THE TRAIN. The train travels to Copperhill/McCaysville. The ride takes approximately 60 minutes. The stop is approximately 90 minutes. There are a number of shops in the local area. There are also a couple of places where you can get takeout for the ride back. I am not sure the stop is long enough for all of us to go to a sit down restaurant. The train is scheduled to return to Blue Ridge at 1:30 pm. I know a number of people that work or volunteer for the railroad. It is quite possible that the locomotive engineer, the train conductor, and our car host will be friends of mine.

Weather permitting I am planning a ride over the Cherohala Skyway (www.cherohala.com) after the train ride. I am planning to take the route counter-clockwise. We will depart from the train station and go through Murphy, Andrews and on up to Robbinsville where we will pick up the Skyway. The more adventurous types may want to leave us in Robbinsville to (www.tailofthedragon.com) “Tame the Dragon.” Dinner for Saturday will be determined by weather and how long it takes is to make the loop.

For those of you not looking for a long ride after the train, there are numerous shops in Blue Ridge. You may also decide that you want to return to Copperhill/Mccaysville to do a little more shopping. A nice stop along the way might be the Mercier Orchards located just a few miles north of Blue Ridge. Be very careful near the orchard. Traffic is very heavy there during apple season.

Dinner on Saturday is not a planned event. I have reserved the game room in the hotel for Saturday night. We can sit around and tell lies about how fast we “Tamed the Dragon.”

Departure on Sunday is not scheduled yet as I haven’t picked out a route home. Sue and I are looking at the possibility of visiting the 2010 Georgia Apple Festival (www.georgiaapplefestival.org) in Ellijay on the way home. If we don’t do that, we will probably pick out a route towards the west in order to avoid the traffic in the Ellijay area.

I reserved a 60 seat car on the train and 30 rooms at the hotel. which should also accommodate 60 people. More than 60 people can ride the train, but if you wish to ride with us in the reserved car you should make reservations as soon as possible. GA-Z Caboose Pins and hanger bars for first time riders are available for $5 each. Hanger bars for returning riders are $2 each.

If you are interested in joining us for this year’s trip, please complete the form and mail it with your payment to me no later than August 15, 2009 to:

2009 GA-Z Train Ride

We did not travel to the hotel in one big group. There were about 30 of us there by dinner time. We walked over to Ruby Tuesday's for dinner and had a great meal. The weather was nice on Friday night, so we all gathered outside and talked. Every once in awhile a couple of more people would show up and we would tell our stories all over again. Most of us frequented the convenience store next to the hotel. I'm sure they saw quite a spike in sales, especially ice cream!

Saturday morning we drove down to Volunteer Landing. Our first event was a ride on the Star of Knoxville. When we arrived, they were printing our tickets. We were soon onboard and off for the 90 minute ride on the river. The colors were good, and the captain was very knowledgeable about sights along the river. The biggest issue we had was the temperature. It was a little brisk, but most of us still had our riding jackets on so it wasn't too bad. It looked like we were keeping the crew quite busy brewing coffee and hot chocolate.

Our last event for the day was a ride on the Three River Rambler. It was a good train ride. Because it was so close to Halloween, they passed out small bags to all the passengers. They then walked through the train with a selection of candy! When we got to the point where they move the locomotive to the other end of the train, the locomotive stopped at the open air car so we could take pictures. This was our first ride with a steam locomotive, so it was quite exciting. On the ride back, there was a narrator who talked to us about the history of the area and the sights along the way. This is usually done on the outbound leg, but I assume they changed it so they could pass out candy on the outbound leg. We like to get a group picture in front of the locomotive after each of our rides. Karen arranged to have the locomotive sit for a couple of minutes before it left to get serviced. We all finally got into the picture and multiple shots later we were done.

We didn't leave as a group on Sunday. Some people wanted to go straight back, and some people didn't want to take the route that I had picked out. I did lead a group of 12 bikes and 24 people for a ride over towards Oak Ridge and then down to Chattanooga. We rode along Missionary Ridge and then stopped at the Chickamauga National Military Park.

Although we got wet on our ride up on Friday, the weather the rest of the weekend was what you would expect this time of year. Everyone had a great time. I know there are a lot of people that are talking about visiting Knoxville again to see more of the sights.