Gophers and Cheese

This is pretty much what it felt like...

The day after my father and I rode the Dragon together for the first time, my wife and I headed out and left our daughter with my parents for the day.  We headed straight for the Dragon. As you might imagine, riding that road 2-up is a different experience from solo.  My wife was fearless and was sitting on the back taking photos and video while we rode. We stopped at Deal's Gap Resort . While looking at the Tree of Shame again, I noticed the Bastard Bash 5 logo from the Quad Cam Bastards .  They have an annual get-together at the resort every year.  I hope the rider was OK.   This ashtray was an interesting re-purposing of a gas tank. We took a different road out of Deals Gap resort than my father and I did and ended up having lunch in a little town called Bryson.  It was the first time I ate fried green tomatoes (the platter in the middle). From there, we headed north into Great Smoky Mountain National Park .  We took ...

This past September, I drove down to Tennessee for a bit of a family vacation.  A driving force behind the choice of location was the Dragon / Dragon's Tail / Deal's Gap / Highway 129.  Whatever you call it, it's a legendary motorcycle road.  I hoped it would live up to the hype and it certainly didn't disappoint. While my original intent when planning the trip was to trailer one or both of my bikes down, I decided against it at the last minute.  It was enough to drive 1,000 miles each way with a fully loaded car (and 2-year-old in the back seat) without pulling a trailer too.  I really need to buy a van.  While I would have loved to have ridden my own bike in TN, I was happy with my decision. I rented a Street Glide for 2 days (9/11 and 9/12) from Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson in Maryville,TN. My dad brought his 1976 Triumph Bonneville up in the back of his truck from Florida.  He unloaded it at the dealership and off we went.  The Drag...