Linda Deals with the Dragon - 222 miles

We set out rather early and straight into a thickish fog. Not to worry, we had a fair way to go to get to the fun part.

Out on to the highway for a bit, then plunged back into foggy hills on roads with lots of corners.

Charleen asked, "Have we started on it?" "No dear, this is just the tyre-warmers."

Sure enough we soon came to Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort. It was still quite early and we could see a few motorcyclists emerging from their rooms. Almost no one on the road, so away we went. 11 miles and 318 curves lay ahead. We only got around about four curves and a bike coming the other way signalled "Police ahead". Good to know the boys were on the job early. What is the speed limit here anyway? I hadn't noticed. Next corner and there was a sigh - 30MPH. They're kidding - right? Apparently not.
But we went by the approaching police car at about forty without hassle so apparently there's some leeway.

Then it was get in to it a bit. This road is great fun. There is absolutely no letup from the corners and each corner flows nicely into the next. You can set up a pretty good rhythm and get a move on. The corners are also tight. Very tight and we found ourselves mostly at or under that 30MPH limit with the occasional squirt, but that was always followed by heavy braking.

This was way different from the Blue Ridge, with its gentle curves flowing through veritable parkland. This was short sharp corner after corner and full-on concentration just to keep up a "normal" pace.

Now Linda does not like fast cornering or deep leaning of the bike. All this trip, Jack has been quite gentle on the cornering since she joined us. No see-sawing my rear bumper or blasting off into the distance. He has been quite considerate for her. But The Dragon is The Dragon so he was getting in to it a bit. But when we pulled up at the other end, he was quite surprised. No customary digging in of the knees when she felt uncomfortable. For this run she had pushed hard down on the floorboards, pulled tight on the grips and held herself rigid so Jack could have a bit of fun. He was pleasantly surprised and delighted. So we turned around and went back to the Deals Gap resort. This time he was in front and having Linda's blessing, he disappeared into the distance leaving me well behind.

It was another good run and I got into a joust with a hotted-up cruiser style. I had caught him, but with so many sharp corners so close, overtaking is not on the cards if way is not given. Fair enough. We had a lot of fun and were travelling at a goodly pace, so no need to push the issue.

Sure enough we came across the police again going the other way, but they were busy booking some poor sod on a streetfighter style bike. Could have been for anything, the bike was pretty home-made looking.

Back at Deals Gap there were a lot more bikes parked up and more arriving all the time. It was a nice Saturday to go for a ride and this is THE place to ride. We got souvenirs, coffee and a bite to eat and then went out to walk around and look at bikes. The local emergency services, police and bike awareness mobs were having a Safety Awareness Day in the car park. On show was the sleekest looking stealth police vehicle I've seen.

All the time there was a steady stream of motorcycles heading out onto the road. It was sure to be just a procession out there. So we saw all there was to see and headed out ourselves. Out route took us through the Dragon again but this time it was as part of the procession, with slow bikes and cars all along the way. Even the police had given up patrolling - no one was going to be going over the 30MPH limit now.

So we carried on out of that area and took a few back roads making our way to the Cherahola Skyway - the next on our list of Roads That Must Be Ridden. After a while we found it and it was quite enjoyable as well, rising to over 5000 feet in parts making it nice and cool. But I think we have been spoilt and this was not much different from the Blue Ridge. Might have been good to do it first I guess. But it was certainly better to leave the Dragon until after the Blue Ridge. That leaves Cherahola out on its own and a little disappointing.

Wasn't too long before we were on our way back to Cherokee and we celebrated having Done the Dragon in a time-honoured method for GoldWing riders - ice creams at Dairy Queen.

Then later, when we all met up for dinner, we all four proudly wore our Dragon t-shirts. People noticed and even asked us questions.

Once you've ridden a Dragon, you can hold your head high.

A misty start to the day

Best left for motorcycles

Jack lays into a corner - Linda hangs on

This little beauty turned up where we parked. A Lotus Eleven. Noice

My short time riding buddy

Parked up at The Gap

Stealth Police car - Dodge Charger

Yup - We was there.

So was they

A few of the gentler corners

On the Cherahola Skyway. Looks just like Blue Ridge.