Tail of the Dragon

Last weekend my family and I took a motorcycle trip to the Smokies to do some adventure riding. The last motorcycle trip I did, I drove to Cleveland, Ohio on a small 250 CC Ninja. And that was last July.



This time, I got to ride on the back of Paul's and got to enjoy the scenic views of the journey through Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina. We rode the Cherohala Skyway, Tail of the Dragon, Moonshiners Run, and also the connecting route between Cherokee, NC and Gatlinburg, TN. We did a little less than 1000 miles within 2 days.



And the majority of the time I had my camera strapped around my neck and snapped things that caught my eye as we were driving along. It kind of reminded me of the many train rides I experienced back in 2007 when we were going all over England. Of course, the train had MUCH more comfortable seats :)








There were many stops along the way. One of them being Deals Gap, which hosted a motorcycle resort right before the Tail of the Dragon. It was pretty neat because the entire ceiling of the indoor restaurant was covered in t-shirts from sponsors, competitions, and donations from all the riders that find their way to the dragon.



And I mustn't fail to mention the Tree of Shame: bits and pieces from people's bikes who have crashed riding the Dragon. Some people have actually died running themselves right off the edge of the road since there are no guard rails, signs, or warnings of any oncoming drivers. But after experiencing it myself, you have to be pretty reckless to have such high stakes on your side.



I did however turn sport mode on while riding the Dragon with the multi-shot setting selected to piece together a time lapse to test out the speed of my Canon cameras processor and I was EXTREMELY pleased. Check it out. But that's about as reckless as it got for me :P

On the way home it seemed like the longest and most undesirable stretch you could possibly hope to find yourself on. Note to self: DO NOT FALL ASLEEP WHILE RIDING THE BIKE. :) As soon as we crossed the Ohio River and found ourselves in home territory of Cincinnati, cops were lurking in the dark corners hoping for speeders. Witnessed a car that literally burst into flames with 3 firetrucks blocking 3 lanes of the 4 lane high way. AND got stuck in a huge, ridiculous storm with winds that blew us off the road and made us have to stop at a gas station for an hour until it passed with us only 20 minutes from home. Thumbs up for adventure though!



That is all for now though. It is time for some sleep tonight. <3 Good night all

P.S. After seeing the shopping cart above I do now believe anything is possible..! Here I come pirate ship soaring through space! :D

Brooke