Wherever I May Roam: 2018

Today I slayed a dragon! I should probably amend that to say we slayed a dragon today because Leona was a champ on that stretch of road, especially after what happened yesterday. She didn't flinch once, and she let me ride it fairly hard considering the bike we are on. It takes a lot of gumption to be a passenger on a road like that I'm sure, and I don't know if I could even do that. I know she was nervous, and I had some nerves as well, though mine were more the nerves you get before doing something awesome!

The sky this morning in Bryson City was gray, and it was hard to tell how much of it was fog and how much was clouds. We had breakfast, and then headed for Deals Gap and the Tail of the Dragon. It didn't take long for the skies to clear up, and like it has been since we got into the USA, it was hot and humid.

Riding to Deals Gap was an experience in and of itself, especially highway 28. The corners here are just insane, they never stop. Riding up to the motorcycle resort where the Dragon starts was surreal, as I've seen so many pictures and videos of the place. We walked around a little, getting some pictures and looking at all the car and bike parts on the Tree of Shame. I wanted a shirt from there as well, so both of us ended up with a shirt and a cool tin that's going in the garage. I was genuinely surprised at how busy the place was for a Tuesday morning. There were cars and bikes everywhere, though the bikes vastly outnumbered the cars. It felt a little frantic there, as everyone seems to start the ride aggressively.

We must have timed it perfectly, because when we started the road in front of us and behind us was clear. One car let me go by and I let one go by me, other than that it was a wide open lane for me the whole way. It is an incredibly technical road, so the entire 11 miles I was focused on nothing but looking ahead for the next curve. I did notice the Killboy.com photographers twice and I am looking forward to buying some pictures of us riding. All the other riders and drivers were on their game today, no one getting into my lane at all.

It really feels like a person is riding on a road circuit race track at times, though there was more than enough oncoming traffic to remind me that it's a public road. The corners come one after another, and it took very little time to get into a good rhythm. I'll brag a little here because I feel like I rode that almost perfectly today. I stuck to a safe speed and rode within my abilities, and got to lean that big bike over almost as far as it can quite a few times. I'm amazed at how well the Goldwing handles all the corners, it feels a lot sportier than it looks. The power is really good and it comes through on this kind of riding, my big Harley touring bike would have been slower for sure.

Pulling off the road where the Dragon ends was pretty cool, we got to celebrate a little with a bunch of other riders who had just finished as well. For the next hour of the riding we got to kick back and relax a little as we made our way over to Tellico Plains, where we stopped for some lunch and an ice cream.

The Cherohala Skyway was the next road on the list, about 82km of road from Tellico Plains to Robbinsville. It's a much more relaxed ride, much the same as the Blue Ridge Parkway, though there are some pretty tight sections on it as well. We don't have many pictures from today as it was more about the roads than the scenery.

The last six days have featured a ridiculous amount of curves and corners, it's not a stretch to say that the majority of the riding has been leaned into corners, there just aren't many straight stretches of road. With rainy weather systems moving into the area, it's a little hard to say how the next few days will play out. I really hope we can check a few more roads off the list before we have to start heading back home. A person could come down here and spend a few weeks and never get bored. Those roads in the midwest and back in Alberta are gonna be very boring on the way back!