3/20/09 - Dragon and North Georgia

It has been a very long tough winter. Not only has it been brutally cold and wet but family obligations have terminated much of my riding. I bought the BMW in the fall but its taken me until Spring to get a trip on it. This weekend Shawnette and I went up through East Tennessee and then Eastward over to the dragon. We left on Thursday and spend the night in Chattanooga and it was fairly warm. But Friday turned out much colder than predicted. I was fine but Friday morning Shawnette was getting practically hypothermic. We wound up making more than one trip to Wal marts Friday to gather additional clothing. We eventually got to the dragon and ran through there. The BMW handled itself extremely well. Usually going through the dragon two up is not fun but this bike handles well even with the extra weight. Eventually we exited the bottom of the dragon and continued on 129 toward Blairsville Georgia. Deals Gap is the famous portion of 129 but that road is actually amazing all the way down into Georgia. It would be a great ride to follow it through, but in many places 129 is combined with other highways so at times its a little hard to follow. We found a nice local steak house and buffet in Blairsville thanks to a tip from some of the locals and after a good nights sleep we went home. The trip home was the warmest of the three days and I was actually getting a little warm at times by time we got back to Alabama.