Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Saturday 5/17
Saturday came and I awoke (hell I was alive and not in jail so all is good) with a little bit of a hangover and some puffy eyes. I downed a lot of water and ate a Cliff bar and that helped quite a bit. Adrian was complaining of a headache but trying to look tough.
We decided to load up and head to The Dragon's Tail. It wasn't a bad ride there except there was still some soreness from the day before since any initial rides to prepare as much as possible were still never close to the length of the ride to Nashville. We followed the GPS towards Robinsville, NC which is on the South side of The Dragon's Tail. When were close to Deal's Gap I recognized the area and decided to look for a camping spot in that area because we were very close to the start of the Dragon's Tail. We stopped for gas and I asked a couple people about camping spots nearby and the second mentioned a place called Punkin Center Campground. I was actually able to pull this place up on the GPS!! We pulled into the place and it was setup just for motorcycles. You could of course trailer your bike in and whatever and park your car there, but they did not allow just a car or any RV's at all. We paid the $22 just to camp which I wasn't too happy about and setup camp.
There was still a little daylight left and I was pretty excited about being so close to the Dragon's Tail so when Adrian mentioned we should ride it I didn't hesitate.
This will give you an idea of how the turns just seem to keep coming and coming!
I figured he might be too sore, but I think he was excited as I was. We had all the bags off the bikes which I know made mine feel like a rocket when compared to being fully loaded. The sun was beginning to set as we entered the start of the Dragon's Tail. This is pretty much a 2nd gear race track that happens to be a public road. You can get into third (maybe 4th depending on gearing) if you want to push it on the straights and brake hard for the curves. We were taking it easy since it was his first time and the sun was going down so the asphalt is cold, but caught up to a guy on some sort of old crotch rocket in front of us. This guy was NUTS! I was hanging behind him with Adrian behind me and then I noticed that on almost every turn this guy was cutting into the oncoming lane. This is a two lane road. One lane going each way and almost every corner is cut out of the side of a hill so you can't see what's coming around the other side. About the 3rd time I saw him do this sure enough there was a car coming around that caused him to jerk the bike over throwing sparks and narrowly be missed by the car. We're talking about 2 feet maybe. I backed off and signaled Adrian to do the same.
Talk about hurting wrists from pushing so hard on the handlebars making those turns. There are turns where you could get down to first gear they are so tight. When we arrived at the top it was getting dark and Deal's Gap Resort was closed, but they were having mini bike races that were pretty funny.
Bad picture because of the darkness, but there were about 5 of these guys.
We rode the Dragon back from the resort all by headlight in the dark. That was pretty cool!! We ate some food and then hit the sack. Of course I was up later than Adrian, but I only made it through about half an hour of The Hitman on my portable DVD player.
The cops can be quite a problem there sometimes. Here's video that is a bit entertaining, then boring, then entertaining.
We decided to load up and head to The Dragon's Tail. It wasn't a bad ride there except there was still some soreness from the day before since any initial rides to prepare as much as possible were still never close to the length of the ride to Nashville. We followed the GPS towards Robinsville, NC which is on the South side of The Dragon's Tail. When were close to Deal's Gap I recognized the area and decided to look for a camping spot in that area because we were very close to the start of the Dragon's Tail. We stopped for gas and I asked a couple people about camping spots nearby and the second mentioned a place called Punkin Center Campground. I was actually able to pull this place up on the GPS!! We pulled into the place and it was setup just for motorcycles. You could of course trailer your bike in and whatever and park your car there, but they did not allow just a car or any RV's at all. We paid the $22 just to camp which I wasn't too happy about and setup camp.
There was still a little daylight left and I was pretty excited about being so close to the Dragon's Tail so when Adrian mentioned we should ride it I didn't hesitate.
This will give you an idea of how the turns just seem to keep coming and coming!
I figured he might be too sore, but I think he was excited as I was. We had all the bags off the bikes which I know made mine feel like a rocket when compared to being fully loaded. The sun was beginning to set as we entered the start of the Dragon's Tail. This is pretty much a 2nd gear race track that happens to be a public road. You can get into third (maybe 4th depending on gearing) if you want to push it on the straights and brake hard for the curves. We were taking it easy since it was his first time and the sun was going down so the asphalt is cold, but caught up to a guy on some sort of old crotch rocket in front of us. This guy was NUTS! I was hanging behind him with Adrian behind me and then I noticed that on almost every turn this guy was cutting into the oncoming lane. This is a two lane road. One lane going each way and almost every corner is cut out of the side of a hill so you can't see what's coming around the other side. About the 3rd time I saw him do this sure enough there was a car coming around that caused him to jerk the bike over throwing sparks and narrowly be missed by the car. We're talking about 2 feet maybe. I backed off and signaled Adrian to do the same.
Talk about hurting wrists from pushing so hard on the handlebars making those turns. There are turns where you could get down to first gear they are so tight. When we arrived at the top it was getting dark and Deal's Gap Resort was closed, but they were having mini bike races that were pretty funny.
Bad picture because of the darkness, but there were about 5 of these guys.
We rode the Dragon back from the resort all by headlight in the dark. That was pretty cool!! We ate some food and then hit the sack. Of course I was up later than Adrian, but I only made it through about half an hour of The Hitman on my portable DVD player.
The cops can be quite a problem there sometimes. Here's video that is a bit entertaining, then boring, then entertaining.
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