The Journey - Riding the Dragon

The morning started early....7 am to be exact was the first rev of engines warming up to tackle the Dragon. Some of the racers (professional) like to get on that stretch before the traffic starts. By 9 am the parking lot was almost full and a half hour later there were bikes EVERYWHERE! Bikes of all kinds, Harleys, Goldwings, Goldwings and Harleys with trailers, sport bikes (known as Popsicles by the locals), cruisers, enduros, cross, you name it it was there. We took a bunch of pics and then started gearing up. I had sent Larry out for a run of the Dragon so he could enjoy it without the tag along...when he came back he was more than a little revved up. Once we had everything packed, we headed for the Dragon.....while we had ridden many twists on our route to the Dragon, i can now say it is truly challenging,,,strangely it doesn't seem like 318 turns when you are on it, however you are totally focused on the road and counting is the last thing you want to be doing.

As we neared the end we pulled over into an outlook, did the celebratory "woohoo" with the traditional fist punch to the air.....and pictures!

All in all the Dragon had been all we had hoped...the day before we had unknowingly tried another route, the "Moonshiner", quite by accident (right highway, wrong direction)....I must say Lee has us more than a little interested in some of the other routes there. I sense we will be back. When we finished the Dragon, we keep heading north on Route 129 and turned off on the Smokey Mountain Parkway. The route was a little busier traffic wise, but we had been told it was one of the prettiest rides ever. We were't disappointed! We followed along a river that had beautiful falls, pools and rapids. It was very relaxing and the road was again as smooth and windy as always. This route brought us back out to the Cherokee reservation and back on the Blueridge to Asheville. We got to enjoy all the tunnels again.....more than a few laughs as we passed thru them..

We got into Asheville around 7pm, went for a much needed swim and then shower. After eating some take out pizza and beer (thank you Larry), we took all our clothes aka dirty laundry down the hall to the laundry room...yep, this nice hotel has EVERYTHING! We weren't long for sleep time, as it had been a very long day...again!

Oh ya....and if you are wondering what happened after we slayed the Dragon...take a look...he's riding Bitch on MY bike.........