Day 7 - Friday, June 22, 2007

Okay, Dragon, here we come!!

This was our day to ride the Tail of the Dragon, US-129. For those of you not familiar, the Tail of the Dragon is an 11 miles stretch of US-129 in Tennessee just west of the North Carolina border. This highway is reputed to have 318 curves in those 11 miles. As I said before, we couldn't verify that count because we were too busy turning the front wheel from the left to the right constantly. In case any of you are wondering if we did the "sissy up" thing - NO! Wanda and I rode our own and quite well, thank you. We first drove NC-28 to get to Deals Gap at the start of the Dragon. We went west on US-129, stopped at the lake at the bottom, and then turned around and did the Dragon going east. Yes, we did it TWICE! Afterwards we bought the t-shirts ("I rode/survived/slayed the Dragon") and then had lunch at Tapoco Lodge. That evening we celebrated our accomplishments with a great dinner at Stoney's Crab Shack in Sylva.

Note: We learned to pay attention during the trip to the highway signs that let you know a steep an upcoming grade is with the graphic of a big truck going nose first down a hill. Often the signs will let you know how steep the grade is with a percentage number. With a 5% grade, you pay attention and maybe slow a little. A 7% grade, you might down shift, especially if there are curves involved. With 9%, you definitely down shift. On NC-28, one of the hills was marked with a 12% grade. My first reaction was "oh crap" and I may have said that out loud. We did manage it and again, quite well, thank you.

Highlights: THE DRAGON; lunch at Tapoco; and dinner at Stoney's