Dragons and rats? 2025-04-27

Bird alarm clock around 0640. One snooze later the bladder alarm clock won. Dress, hike around the the camping area, over the bridge, to the bathroom. Grab coffee and head to rockers on the deck to watch for Jim (who was still snoring when I hiked away). Before seeing Jim I decided that I should get my battery pack and charge my phone. The pack was charging off the bike last night when I finished posting in my tent at 0130. Jim was collecting together his shower kit when I got back, and we shared the surprise that I was awake. Instead of waiting for late night writing I started during my coffee.

Jim felt a lot better last night after locating himself on the paper maps. We set off with a plan to ride Wayah Road, then back on Wiskey Route 28.

While riding Wayah Jim found his twisty road flow. He was just flowing around coners and no longer worried about having the "next weighpoint" for gps routing.

The gas station at the end of the road was closed. So we headed into Franklin to find a bathroom. While there we stopped at a breakfast/lunch place on a stream called the Gazebo. My roast beef aux ju was tasty.

Route 28 also turned out well, and Jim was really getting into the groove of riding the NC twisty roads. Feeling the bike flow around the curves. He wanted more of it.

On past trips I've riden the Fontana Dam roads, but never took the spur road out to ride over the dam. It was more interesting because we met a few HAM Radio folk at the bottom of this dammed up resevoir. Seemed like an odd place, but they had talked to Europe from this hole. Two had satelite based internet they offered to Jim so he could call is brother. One of the guys worked for Redhat, so we talked some techy. This spot could be the dozenth time that we had passed the Appalation Trail. Jim asked a girl hiking past how much further. "Seven miles, then a couple thousand more."

Just past the Dam we reached Deals Gap and bought our Tee Shirts and sat for a bit. I had previously vowed to not ride the dragon (Rt129) on weekends. The parking area was very empty for Deals Gap. The traffic seemed pretty calm, and there was a police presense. Jim thought it would be good to ride it So we picked a gap in the traffic and started.

The Dragon is 318 curves in 17 miles. It's often a zoo, and a pretty technical challenge to navigate at speeds on a motorcycle. The first half of the ride was clear and only one bike found our rear. But we eventually caught up to a harley, two cars and three bikes. All remaining orderly and not pulling off. Eventually four jeeps came in off dirt side roads and got into the gap we had made for ourselves. By the time we reached the far end at least 20 cars had backed up behind us. Having seen minimal traffic going in the other direction, we quickly u-turned and road back. The bike and Porche that we knew to be in front of us never to been seen again. But we did catch other traffic, that pulled off so we could pass. A number of vehicles warned us of an officer on a corner with a speed gun. But the ride back was pretty fun. Stopping for stickers on the other side of the road from Deals Gap.

After the Gap we continued down Rt129 to Franklin where we had a good mexican meal. I have to use the photo of Jim's meal because most "normal people" would think he was served two boiled rats and rice. He says it was very good. We had a wonderful time with our waitress. Jim exercised his spanish, and she we very happy to play along.

Arriving back at the lodge we found it mostly deserted. The few folk left seemed battle worn from there day's journeys. We shuffled our gear around and headed over to the fire pit where I started the fire with the contents of my water bladder backpack. Knive to split off some matchstick sized wood, and bic lighter to get the logs lit. Soon we had the fire were I sat to write this, mostly by myself. Jim took a shower then started learning the AV systems in the public spaces. Wondering now if a movie night is pending?