Additional Information

Hello all and welcome to the 2024 Distinguished Gentleman's Drive!

If you are seeing this, then you've made it through registration, and I thank you for your participation and support.

The second year of this amazing event will be different from the last as we have a new start and end point. For those of us that enjoyed last year's drive, we will still be driving on our beloved Blue Ridge Parkway, but the route will be backwards as we will be starting in the South Asheville/Mills River area and ending in the Asheville "River Arts District" area.

We have a great starting point in place as we begin our drive at Mills River Brewing Company where there will be food and drink available to purchase, while we fraternize with our fellow distinguished gentlefolk in anticipation of the great cruise. We will then be leaving down Old Haywood Road to Brevard Rd, where we will hop onto the Parkway at the entrance to the North Carolina Arboretum. We will proceed on the Parkway for about 20 miles and exit at the Bull Gap Overlook/Elk Mountain Scenic Highway intersection. There will be a regroup point at the Bull Gap Overlook for those that get separated from the group. There will also be a turn marking vehicle at some of the less obvious turns for those that might miss it. Once we are off the parkway, we will travel down Reems Creek Road and turn right onto Merrimon Avenue. We will then turn left and go down Aiken Rd and a right onto Old Marshall Hwy. At the bottom of Old Marshall Hwy, we will make a left onto Riverside Drive where we will drive along the French broad river into the river arts district of Avl and end at Wedge Brewing Company (Wedge Studios). This will conclude the on-road portion of the 2024 Distinguished Gentleman's Drive. This is about a 50-mile drive and will take roughly 1hr 20 mins, but will be well worth the trip. Drivers will have the opportunity to see some of Western NC’s beautiful fall foliage.

The Wedge brewery is a full-service brewery with local craft beers among other beverages and an on-site wood fired pizza food truck. We are currently trying to have live local music lined up as well. This will be a great place to enjoy the afternoon upon the conclusion of this wonderful charity drive and fun for all ages.

We will have a support vehicle with tools, fuel, water, battery jump pack and a first aid kit on hand in the event any vehicles or participants need attention. We will have a mid-group driver who will stay in touch with the pace vehicle. As well as a tail car to bring up the rear and make sure anyone who gets separated will be able to continue along the route.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to gentlemans.drive.828@gmail.com and I will do my best to address your inquiry in a timely manner. If any of the drive details or locations change, I will update this page and summary as soon as possible.

Thank you for reading this and helping us to come together for men's mental health and prostate cancer research.

May we drive dapper and enjoy ourselves! Sincerely, Erik Kreiner (Drive Host/Distinguished Gentleman/Beer City Blazer)

www.millsriverbrewingco.com www.wedgebrewing.com www.facebook.com/BeerCityBlazers/