RIDING THE DRAGON PG4

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Here is one last shot of that ribbon of highway, called the Dragon. This is another of Darryls' photos'.

We left The sea of motorcycles and rode through the Dragon without it consuming anyone. Even old Don made it through. The day had turned out to be a beautiful day and a good day to ride, so thats just what we did. Didn' stop and take that single picture from deals gap to the house. We saw an accident on one of the curves in the Dragon, ambulance and state trooper working it. I don't know what the statistics on accidents on the Dragon are, but there are memorials along the way. At one point they had a pair of boots and the rear end of a motorcycle sticking out of a bank in one of the curves. I looked for that and couldn't find it as we came through. I was going to pull off and take pictures of it. I have a picture here somewhere of it. I might look it up and scan it to post later. Above is Floyd in my shop, looks like he has been rode hard and put up wet. ha

Don, Floyd and Marie are prepareing to leave in these shots. It has rained most of the day the 25th. It is around 1:00 pm when Floyd decides to make a try for memphis. He was hopeing to make it home on the 26th.

The final prep. for the trip back to Granbury. They came and Tennesse weather tried to dround them, and after rideing two days I still drug them on 2 more days of rideing. Butts of steel is what it takes. ha Floyd still has two days ride before he is home.

Here Don and Floyd are leaving, yes Floyd is in the picture, his trike is behind that tree. I think half the pictures I made of him were behind bushes or trees. ha
This was the end of 3 days I will remember. When friends rode through rain, and was miserable and tired, but enjoyed the experiance. I truly enjoyed the visit from these friends and hope to again ride with them someday before long. (Sturgis I hope). Sonny is coming by later and we will ride the Dragon also. If we do I will stop and get some pictures in the Dragon, to share with you. Floyd laid over in Little Rock to visit a Brother BTW member, Al Speelman (Wizzard) who had rolled his pickup and was in serious condition in the hospital. We wish Al and Audrey the very best.

On July the 12th. here I am back on the dragon with Sonny Suskey and his wife Deborah. Sonny is the Kansas state director for BTW. We had better weather this day than Floyd, Don and I had when we were up here. This is an overlook, where Don wanted to stop as we went through, but I rode him through too quick to know we had been there. Sorry about that Don.

This is the scene from the overlook. There is a dam down in the valley. This is just when you start the dragon. This is about the last scene, other than trees, before you reach Deals Gap.
This shot and the one following, are the work of Darryl, at www.killboy.com, visit his site for more really stunning photos. This is showing the top of the dam which you can see from the overlook.

Here you can see below the dam. this sure is a good shot to set the stage for the dragon. It is misty and damp looking, like a dragons lair.

We have rode through the Dragon and have stopped here at Deals Gap to get some souveniers. They are not as crowded as they were the day Floyd, Don and myself were there. There were motercycles going and comeing but not lingering long.

It had started to rain on us as we crossed the Smokies. We had stopped to put on coats just a ways back from this scenery. It was not a downpour as Floyd, Don and I had experianced the wk. before. It was just enough to cool us off. I think by the time we finished the ride into Pigeon Forge we were dry.

Here is another angle on the above scene. This picture doesn't do this scenery justice. It was framed by these trees and it had the sunset hues just showing through the mist.

As you can see in this picture it was drizzeling rain, and beginning to turn dark due to clouds and time. This ride would be best done in a 2 day deal. You would have time to see more. Spend the night in Cherokee North Caroldina. This way you would have time to loaf around and see more of the sights.

Sonny and Deb here in front of the sign at the entrance of the Smokies, on the Tennessee side.This was our last stop before we left the Smokies. We were going to spend the night in Knoxville. We stopped in Pigeon Forge to eat. Then went on to Knoxville for the night. This made for a long days ride. The weather was pleasant and we had a real good ride. We returned home the next morning, the 13th of July.

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