Doin' it Daytona style: Day 18

The day of the Dragon......

Sounds interesting huh?....like a movie maybe? Well I was anxious to get the day going but I somehow managed to get out the door around 10;30am. I loaded the camera and video cam onto the back of the luggage rack in some bungees. I decided that the top frame would be useful to mount the video cam backwards while running the Dragon. So off thru Knoxville and down highway 129 to Deals Gap aka the Dragon. The ride into the Gap was nice, the road runs along a lake that is nestled in the mountains. What a sight! The temperature and skies were absolutely perfect. There was a little cloud cover but it was till mostly sunny. I pulled over near the entrance to the Gap at the bottom near the Lake Santeetlah. I used the stop to install the video cam facing forwards on the bike. I ran the Dragon 5 times that day. I had the cam facing forward going over and back. Then I installed it so that it faced backwards and rode the Dragon over and back one more time. On the last run I took the camera in my hand and rode the Dragon slowly and shot pics from my perspective. In the course of the last run I got a lot of cool pictures, most of them are cool corner shots and twisty roads. Some also included other riders that passed me coming and goin. Remember I was going slow with one hand on the bar thru the Dragon. The road was in AWESOME shape and there was hardly anyone there. If I had to guess there was maybe 50 bikes on the entire length of the road, and a lot of them were sitting at the gas station, or the overlook to the dam. There was only 1 po-po and he left during my first run. Other than him, there were only a handful of cars. I had a new C6 Vette pull in behind me once as I had to slow for a long line of Harley riders. I even got him to come close to be in the rearward facing video. I got fed up and passed the Harley leaving the Vette. There was a gorgeous red Viper EATING up the Dragon, he was always going the opposite way, but man was he working that car. It sounded fantastic. On one stop at the gas station I started talking to a fellow Triumph owner riding a 955i Sprint. As we were talking a Buel rider from Michigan joined the conversation after hearing that I was just visiting a pal outside the Detroit area. He remarked that he had friend that couldn't make the trip because the pal just bought a second Triumph. I was like wow, my pal in Detroit just bought a second Triumph and said he couldn't make the Dragon trip. Weird coincidence huh?" What is his name" the dude asked?..I replied "Jim". It was the same guy we both knew. What a small world, he offered me Jim's hotel room if I needed it, but I declined as I wanted to ride the Cherohala Skyway back to Lisa/Todd's place. So after I had enough for the day and the light was dwindling, I set out on the Cherohala Skyway. WOW another nice road, in fact all the surrounding Deals Gap roads were awesome, the best of the trip bar none for twisties. I ran the Skyway and almost ran out of gas because there is nothing for miles once you get on top of the highway. I pulled into Tellico Plains and gassed up and had a quick bite to eat at Hardee's. I also called my pals to let them know that I would be in a little later. From there it was well after dark so I hurried to interstate 75 north then cut west onto interstate 40. What a memorable day, the Dragon is a must do for anyone that is a motorcycle enthusiast. That whole area of the Gap is outstanding in scenery and twisties. Don't miss out on this road if you are given the chance to ride it. I rode about a total of 350 miles for the day. 55 of these were all on the Dragon.

Here is a video clip of the Dragon with the camera facing backwards.

Ok so here are some of the Dragon pics.

This is at the start of the Dragon, near the lake.