04/26/2008 - The Dragon
The Dragon, when you say that word to a biker, every one of them knows of what you speak, it’s a place that has a singular distinction. When a biker reaches the Dragon There are few experiences that have the same effect, perhaps when a Christian views Golgotha, or when a Muslim reaches Mecca, or when a shop-a-holic steps into the Mall of America. The Dragon which also goes by the name Deals Gap or 129 if you’re looking for it on a map is a windy road in the middle of nowhere that has 318 curves in an 11 mile span. It is the most famous motorcycle road anywhere east of the Mississippi. To navigate this curvy road takes 100% of your attention because there isn’t a straight piece in it. At the end of this road you arrive at what’s known as the tail of the dragon which is an otherwise unremarkable gas station. The station is at the junction of three roads all of which are extremely curvy and seemingly have no purpose except to cross some of the most beautiful country God ever graced us with. Bikers come from around the world to “slay the dragon”. On any given day rain or shine when you reach the end you might find anyone in the biking world, from the most anonymous gold wing rider to the most famous motorcycle racers or journalists there are. In the store you can of course buy t-shirts and mugs and everything Dragon. Along the way photographers set up in curves to capture photos of bikes and sports cars as they test their skills against the sharp and curvy mountain road. You can go online after a week or so and find and purchase pictures of yourself on the dragon. The photo attached is an example of such a photo. Going through the dragon on a Saturday is like being in the halftime show at the Super bowl. Camera’s flashing almost constantly, but a bit of Talladega thrown in with folks wondering who’s going to lose it on the dragon.
This weekend was my fourth trip to the Dragon, This blog actually began on the trip prior to this one, but this trip was unique in that I was on a lite cruiser with no passenger allowing me to push the bike further down and handle it more easily. The trip down the Dragon isn’t without risk, if you rode a rollercoaster and knew that almost daily folks got hurt on it, how would you feel about that? That’s the reality of the dragon. I myself am a skilled rider and as long as I don’t get careless and don’t push it too hard I can navigate it easily but some riders push it past their ability, get careless, get a little too big headed trying to show off for the photographers, or just flat out don’t know what they are doing and they can cross into your lane and cause an accident. There is a tree at the tail of the dragon that is plastered with bike parts from the hundreds of bikes that have met their end on the Dragon, many with inscriptions with the date, names, and circumstances of the victims. This tree is called the “tree of shame”.
Our accommodations were at a place called the Punkin Center which is just north of the Dragon on 129. Punkin center is a campground, but giving it such a lofty designation would be too much, Punkin center was more or less a bare patch of grass with a few wooden boxes that passed for bathhouses and cabins. The morning after arriving I got up early to shower, the floor of the bathhouse crunched under by loafers because there were literally hundreds of dead beetles on the floor. I’m not sure what killed them, perhaps I don’t want to know. The bathhouse was little more than a shed so it was like taking a shower outside, perhaps outside would have been better, fewer bugs, It was so bad I just didn’t bath again while there. There were cabins there to rent but they were about $50 bucks a night and though they had their own bathroom, they had no hot water, so they pretty much had to walk to the same bathhouse I did, and my tent actually keeps bugs out, their cabins did not, My travel companions called them wooden tents and I feel I got the better deal in the tent. The temps at night were pleasant and with my air mattress I was just fine. The weather that weekend was supposed to be bad but we managed to avoid rain Friday and Saturday. Saturday we rode many roads, many of which were more than 3 thousand feet in elevation so our temperature was ranging from mid 70’s down to the upper 50’s at times. It was a beautiful day start to finish. At lunchtime Saturday we stopped in Franklin North Carolina, they had a multi use facility which included put-put, bowling, game rooms; we stopped there because the GPS told us that there was a steakhouse in there. We found the steakhouse but they were not open but there were a bunch of grey headed old people waiting for them to open. We thought this is going to be good because old people always know where the good food is. When we walked in however we learned that they were having some sort of reunion there, it sounded like a family reunion but if that’s the case this must be the oldest family on earth as there was no one there who looked un-retired. Anyway they motioned for us to go to the back room where we were waited on by a young lady. The food was awesome and pretty cheap. The meal included a salad bar. The girl waiting on us told us to take plates off the table and head to the salad bar in the room where all the old people were. They had a buffet lunch and the salad bar but our salad plates were twice as big as theirs and some of the old people sort of got irate and I thought one old lady was going to kick one of my biker buddies. It was a weird scene for sure but in the end we got some really good food for less than $10 bucks a head. Soon after waking up on Sunday morning it started raining, when it rains in Appalachia it don’t screw around, it POURS. We got up and ate breakfast at the local diner and headed out. It was a pretty steady rain until we reached Chattanooga. Finally as we approached the Georgia state line the sun broke out and we had a pretty nice ride home. I had to kick up the speed a bit as there was a dark cloud approaching from the north. I pulled into my basement with sprinkles starting to fall again, 963 miles of fun for the weekend.
This weekend was my fourth trip to the Dragon, This blog actually began on the trip prior to this one, but this trip was unique in that I was on a lite cruiser with no passenger allowing me to push the bike further down and handle it more easily. The trip down the Dragon isn’t without risk, if you rode a rollercoaster and knew that almost daily folks got hurt on it, how would you feel about that? That’s the reality of the dragon. I myself am a skilled rider and as long as I don’t get careless and don’t push it too hard I can navigate it easily but some riders push it past their ability, get careless, get a little too big headed trying to show off for the photographers, or just flat out don’t know what they are doing and they can cross into your lane and cause an accident. There is a tree at the tail of the dragon that is plastered with bike parts from the hundreds of bikes that have met their end on the Dragon, many with inscriptions with the date, names, and circumstances of the victims. This tree is called the “tree of shame”.
Our accommodations were at a place called the Punkin Center which is just north of the Dragon on 129. Punkin center is a campground, but giving it such a lofty designation would be too much, Punkin center was more or less a bare patch of grass with a few wooden boxes that passed for bathhouses and cabins. The morning after arriving I got up early to shower, the floor of the bathhouse crunched under by loafers because there were literally hundreds of dead beetles on the floor. I’m not sure what killed them, perhaps I don’t want to know. The bathhouse was little more than a shed so it was like taking a shower outside, perhaps outside would have been better, fewer bugs, It was so bad I just didn’t bath again while there. There were cabins there to rent but they were about $50 bucks a night and though they had their own bathroom, they had no hot water, so they pretty much had to walk to the same bathhouse I did, and my tent actually keeps bugs out, their cabins did not, My travel companions called them wooden tents and I feel I got the better deal in the tent. The temps at night were pleasant and with my air mattress I was just fine. The weather that weekend was supposed to be bad but we managed to avoid rain Friday and Saturday. Saturday we rode many roads, many of which were more than 3 thousand feet in elevation so our temperature was ranging from mid 70’s down to the upper 50’s at times. It was a beautiful day start to finish. At lunchtime Saturday we stopped in Franklin North Carolina, they had a multi use facility which included put-put, bowling, game rooms; we stopped there because the GPS told us that there was a steakhouse in there. We found the steakhouse but they were not open but there were a bunch of grey headed old people waiting for them to open. We thought this is going to be good because old people always know where the good food is. When we walked in however we learned that they were having some sort of reunion there, it sounded like a family reunion but if that’s the case this must be the oldest family on earth as there was no one there who looked un-retired. Anyway they motioned for us to go to the back room where we were waited on by a young lady. The food was awesome and pretty cheap. The meal included a salad bar. The girl waiting on us told us to take plates off the table and head to the salad bar in the room where all the old people were. They had a buffet lunch and the salad bar but our salad plates were twice as big as theirs and some of the old people sort of got irate and I thought one old lady was going to kick one of my biker buddies. It was a weird scene for sure but in the end we got some really good food for less than $10 bucks a head. Soon after waking up on Sunday morning it started raining, when it rains in Appalachia it don’t screw around, it POURS. We got up and ate breakfast at the local diner and headed out. It was a pretty steady rain until we reached Chattanooga. Finally as we approached the Georgia state line the sun broke out and we had a pretty nice ride home. I had to kick up the speed a bit as there was a dark cloud approaching from the north. I pulled into my basement with sprinkles starting to fall again, 963 miles of fun for the weekend.
posted by slammer @ 2:39 PM
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