Just a few more weeks and I'm on the road again! Our trip down to Fontana, NC is rapidly approaching, and I'm getting pretty excited. It's been a long time since I've gone on a road trip, and I'm looking forward to it. As Jay mentioned in last week's comments, it would be very nice to get past the break-in period on my bike before we go down to the Dragon just in case I actually get to bring it. The long-range forecast is calling for a whole lot of rain over the next couple of weeks (it IS April) so it's hard to say how much riding I'll get to do. After this weekend I had 303km on the odometer, but that leaves 697km to go in the break-in period. That's a lot of riding, but I think I'm up for it.
I'll apologize right now to Jay, since he knows more about the Dragon than I do, the posts I make leading up to our trip are likely to be pretty boring for him. Sorry dude!
If you'd like to get a sense for where we're going, and why we're going there, check out this video:
http://vimeo.com/8092191
It's a chase-cam video shot by local photographer Killboy of his wife running the Dragon in her Mini Cooper S. It's a brilliant video that showcases just how awesome that road is. It also showcases some of the dangers. Observe at about 3:45 in that video and see how close they come to disaster there.
Another video that makes the dangers quite clear is this one:
http://www.break.com/index/driver-slams-into-rockslide.html
The web address gives away a lot there. I find that video particularly interesting. It's been floating around the Internet for awhile now as a comedic video. People find it very funny how this guy could slam into such an obvious obstacle. He really does make the dangers of the area fairly clear though; he was coming around a turn and was watching the commotion on the side of the road, and by the time he looked forward again it was too late to get stopped. This is the real danger of any blind corner - you don't have a lot of time to react to a dangerous situation, less so if you're speeding, and if you allow yourself to become distracted you won't see an obstacle until it's too late.
A good lesson to be learned from both of those videos, but let's not get too caught up in the danger posed by this epic road. There's also a phenomenal natural beauty, and some thrilling driving to be experienced, and it can be done so safely by anyone who keeps their head on their shoulders. I'm getting really excited to get in there and dive into the action.
6 comments:
Good news, you may get to ride the Dragon. The rock slide will likely not be cleaned up but "The Man" is in the final stages of reopening the road to enthousiasts.
You are right though one of the many tips for riding/driving the Dragon is "Do not sight see" the area is amazing but pull over at an overlook or go for a hike if you want to truly enjoy it, when driving you really don't know what can be comming around the corner.
Another rule is "stay in your lane" if you watch Top Gear you may notice that on twisty roads the boys sometimes cross into the oncoming lane, let us not forget that, that is a TV show, in real life you just may kill yourself or an other.
But as Colin said let us not be fearfull, this is looking to be a great holiday and I plan on having a great time, with my friends.
Let's here it for women drivers! Killboy's wife sure had great reflexes when confronted by that truck driver.
And in regards to that 2nd video; does that guy really have boobs or am I seeing things?
You are indeed seeing boobs.
Stumbled upon this http://traveler.nationalgeographic.com/drives
Specifically this article http://traveler.nationalgeographic.com/drives/smoky-mountains.html
because of the rock slide we will be arriving to Fontana via the skyway.
You know it never occurred to me that I was posting a video of a woman driving awesome and a man driving like a tool. Thanks for picking up on that Aunty J. :)
And yeah, those are some epic moobs.
Beauty site there Jay. The Cherohala Skyway may be a bit out of our way, but I'm sure it'll still be a fantastic drive. It's pretty hard to imagine any of the roads in that area being particularly boring.
Actually Colin if the rock slide is still blocking the road, witch is likely we have to get to Fontana the "back"way witch is the skyway.
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