Lots to post today.....I'm exhausted and hope that I remember it all.
First off, after seeing how well my bike handled the highway yesterday, I agreed to ride on the interstate today. We both wanted to get down here as quickly as possible. So that's what we did.
Our day started at the Denny's that was about a mile from the hotel. We walked it as we thought it would be good for our legs after sitting on the bikes all day yesterday. We ordered our food and noticed the extra large guy sitting at a table right near us. Brian and I were just chatting and minding our own business, Chicago style. I don't recall what the guy overheard us talking about, but he broke into our conversation and we started chatting with him, and then eventually a guy from another table started in the conversation as well. The big guy had a very interesting laugh, and was full of stories from the truck driving job he did. The best line from him was when he was talking about this trucking job and said, "I'm about to fire this job, just like I did the last one" and then let out one of his hearty laughs. A real character....nice guy, fun guy to have met.
After walking back to the hotel, we checked our oil, suited up, packed the bikes up and were on the road again. This was ALL interstate.....mostly 65-70mph. My little 400 took it all without a complaint. Honestly, besides the light weight of the bike, it's doing a fantastic job! There was one sketchy moment in the mountains of Tennessee (and more later...read on!) where we were in a long sweeping left hand turn and came to a clearing between the mountains and a huge gust of wind caught me. This was more than just wind from the semi trucks, which also sucks....it was a big gust and was pretty unnerving. I slowed down for a few miles after that happened....then got over it and we were back in business. It's strange dance with the trucks....when they are going uphill, we were passing them, but once the crested a hill, they'd come roaring down at 75mph (faster than I care to push my bike) and pass us.
Eventually we got to Maryville, TN when the GPS told us to turn onto 129. From all the research that I had done on our trip, I knew that 129 was the route that the famed and feared "Tail of the Dragon" is on. When we stopped for gas in Maryville, I told Brian that it looked like we'd be on a portion of 129, and might be "near" the dragon. Well, as it turns out, we were more than "near" the Dragon, we were ON the dragon! We had planned on riding the tail of the dragon.....it's one of the most famous motorcycle roads in the world. However, we wanted to do it on a week day, when most of the crazies were not out there, and we wanted to do it fresh, NOT after logging over 300 miles! Well, as circumstances dictated, we didn't have either of those options. So we hit the dragon on a sunny Sunday afternoon. What to say about the dragon? WOW....is all I can say. You could watch 1,000 youtube videos about it and you'd NEVER appreciate what it's like to ride it. First of all, you better be prepared to have other riders treat it like their own personal racetrack. Because they do. Sportbikes GALORE, and running it at unbelievable speeds. We got passed on the left, I got passed on the RIGHT (what a jackass), and Brian got tailgated by an Asian guy on a sportbike that Brian wanted to punch later in the parking lot of the Tail of the Dragon motorcycle resort. I seriously had to talk him out of it.....he was ready to beat the guy down. Hahaha. I told him that it's normal to have people pass you at every opportunity.
So what was it like? It's 11 miles long....doesn't sound like much. 318 turns! And some of them are posted 20mph and they MEAN it. Off camber, uphill, and if you go off the road you're running right off the side of a mountain. It's SERIOUS. And scary. And demands ALL of your attention. Pick the wrong line, or even a good line and someone coming the other way comes into your lane (I had two TRAILERS come halfway into my lane on a hairpin right turn. I was in first gear and on the far right side of my lane or it would have been UGLY. At the end of the dragon, we came up to the motorcycle resort (and believe me I use that term loosely) we stopped in and bought t-shirts and I got a baseball hat. Brian and I were both grateful. Grateful first of all that we survived that craziness on a weekend day, with hundreds of knuckleheads out there risking their (and others) lives. Grateful that we got it done today.....even though the ride was planned for tomorrow....it's looked like it may rain tomorrow. The Dragon is the LAST thing I'd want to do in the rain!
So in two days, we've covered 740 miles and already rode the tail of the dragon. Pretty impressive. People at the resort were surprised to see a 400cc dirt bike with Illinois plates at the dragon. Here are some photos.....if I look like I weigh 220 pounds, it's because I have layers of clothing (and rain pants) on......if anything, I've lost weight on this trip so far!
We made it to the hotel after another 45 minutes of riding through the mountains. It's really technical riding, and much different than what we're used to in Chicago.....basically no hills and no turns, essentially. Haha. We decided to walk to the Mexican restaurant that I found online that got good reviews. It was a little over a mile each way, but we figured the walk would be good for us. When we asked the Native American girl at the hotel desk if we could walk there, she looked at us funny and replied, "I wouldn't walk there". We weren't sure why she wouldn't walk there....she was a little strange to begin with. So we said screw it and walked. Well, we were walking right along the highway, which was sketchier on the way back in near dark than it was on the way out there. As it turns out, the Mexican place that I planned on going to went out of business 2 weeks ago! Suck. So we asked a local and he said there was another Mexican place a little further down the road, "Just past the dollar general" so we walked down the road.....another half mile at least. So now we're in for 3 miles of walking. We survived, and the Mexican place was REALLY good.....some of the best sauces I've had anywhere. On the way home, we stopped a grocery store and bought some Klondike bars. Yum! Brian ate THREE of them on the walk back to the hotel. I had one and that was enough. We skipped lunch today so all I ate after our breakfast with the large trucker was a burrito (not huge), some chips and salsa, and a Klondike bar. I probably burned 1,000 calories just riding the dragon. Seriously. Brian said there were a couple of times he wanted to pull over on the dragon and take a breather. It REALLY demands that much attention. Make ONE mistake and you're gone. I completely understand why it's such a legendary stretch of road. In the pictures below you will see the tree of shame.....parts from some of the bikes that crashed on the dragon. I'm sure it's a small sampling of them, seeing what I saw today.
We need to rethink our plans for tomorrow since we already crossed the dragon off of our list today, but we definitely want to ride the Cherohala skyway......
No comments:
Post a Comment