Tail of the Dragon - May 25

Woke up at a quarter past 6. I seemed that mostly everybody at the Fontana Hilton shelter was early to rise. I wanted to get on the road before the motorcycles smeared me into the pavement. Since I wanted to expedite my departure I didn't break out the stove to boil water for a tasty meal of oats. Instead, guess what?! I put a gob of peanut butter on a bagel, I ate a peanut butter flavored granola bar, and I was set. Once everything was loaded onto Aretha (the bike) I headed up to the restrooms, which was where I filled up on water. I didn't mind the sign that said drinking the water there was unsafe unless it was boiled. The sign was from 2003, so I just hoped that the water quality had drastically improved since and that I wouldn't lose my guts from diarrhea, giardia, dysentery, or something with a name too difficult to spell or even pronounce. Just kidding. A few of the guys at the shelter told me they had been drinking the water for a while and were fine...time will tell if I'll be alright!

As I left Fontana Dam behind in the dust at 7:15 am I actually took the right road! I didn't get lost at all on this glorious Wednesday. There was a lot of climbing right off the bat and I was slightly nervous for the Tail of the Dragon (remember, it's the curviest mountain road in America). My nerves were calmed, however, as I rode parallel to the Little Tennessee river in the early morning. The fog on the water made for an exceptionally peaceful setting and it felt nice when the mist hit my face. Pretty soon into the trip I entered the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the state of Tennessee. Hennessy was now in Tennessee. Right before I got onto highway 129 North, I saw a pretty cool predator, but it wasn't a dragon. A red fox was skirting across the road with a dead rabbit in it's mouth. Awesome! Even though the prayer to see a bear for the first time in the wilderness had not been answered, I was still seeing some exciting creatures.

Then I started the Tail of the Dragon. It was cool because there were tons of small waterfalls directly on the side of the road. My personal goal was to see 20 waterfalls this summer and I'm pretty sure that I saw about 20 small waterfalls in the span of a few miles! There were not many cars on the road yet because it was early, but there was probably 10 to 15 motorcycles that passed me for every car that passed me. There are positives and negatives to having motorcycles on an insanely curvy road with you. Positive = motorcycles can maneuver out of your way much quicker than a car = less likely chance motorcycle will smoosh you. Negative = some motorcyclists are crazy and drive 3x faster than a car would on that infamous road = more likely chance motorcycle will smoosh you. Positive = motorcycle weighs much less than the car, so if it smooshes you, it won't smoosh you quite as badly. Also, even the tatted up guys on the motorcycles are pretty cool. They all waved and gave me this head nod that kinda said, Dang! This kid is doing this road on a bicycle...respect! So I like the guys on the motorcycles. Eventually I made it towards the end of the Tail of the Dragon and there was a professional photographer who snapped some pictures of me. I stopped to talk to him. His name is Al and he sits up there everyday taking pictures and selling them to the tourist motorcyclists who come through. Al asked me if I had a sponsorship. I laughed a big laugh and said, shoot I wish! I was honored he thought I might have a sponsorship, but I'm yet not that much of a beast. Anyway, you can check out some of the pictures he snapped of me here.

http://www.photoreflect.com/store/Orderpage.aspx?pi=0CVY00SG050000&po=0&pc=155

Eventually I made it off the mountain. The Tail of the Dragon was fun! I was riding over 40 mph for a good bit of it. Grandpa always told me I wasn't allowed to ride a motorcycle, but this seemed pretty darn close. Once off the mountain I rode next to beautiful Lake Chilhowee for a while. The road was flat once again...it seemed strange. Then there were some hills and I started to cruise through some farmland. I was getting hungry. A couple dump trucks passed me and their exhaust smelled like a Big Mac or a Whopper. As I realized that was ridiculous and that I was slightly delusional, I had to pull over and eat some food because I was going crazy. Peanut butter sufficed, but BBQ was on the mind. A few miles later I passed a BBQ joint. Closed. Dumb! There was only about 25 miles left to my grandparents house. I passed some tractors, passed some horses, saw some amazing weeping willow trees, and I found 4 turtles on the road. Each one I picked up urinated all over the place...sissies.

12:30 pm - made it to Grandpa and Grandmas house on Tellico Lake. Immediately ate an enormous cold cut sandwich, 2 Cheerwines, and 4 almond and caramel and oozing chocolate brownies. Glory! It took 200 miles to get to their house, but it was incredibly rewarding. Now I will plan a trip back to Greenville. I'm thinking about getting a little crazy and Going from here through the Smokies and up to Boone, NC, then down through Pisgah National Forest to Asheville, then back to Greenville. Should be fun times and about 500 more miles.

It was fun to have a few days alone with God and Aretha in the wilderness.

"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."
                                                                     -Romans 1:20

Now I am going to hang out with my Grandparents and Dad. Toodles for now.