Enter The Dragon

Preparation
For several years now my friends and I have talked about making a trip out to the Smoky Mountains and run the "Tail of the Dragon" along with some other great roads over there.
Well this year is the year we did it and it was a phenomenal trip.
At the beginning of every trip there is lots of prep work that goes into it. Making packing lists for clothes, and tools, getting the bike in order for the trip which usually includes a complete fluid change, double checking torque settings on bolts, new tires if needed, pulling out maps and getting on the Internet to look up routes etc... So for several weeks up to our departure date that is what I was doing in my spare time.

The short version
This year the group of guys was pretty small which made it easy to make good time running down the road it was

• Myself
• Princess
• Sponge Bob
• Pops

The total mileage for this trip was 2843.
We had one day of rain on the way out.
Zero mechanical breakdowns and 3 beautiful days in the Smoky Mountains on some great roads.

Day 1
Myself, Sponge Bob and Princess all met at Ihop for breakfast at 6:00am and KSU was at 7:00am. When we left it was over cast and cool out and nice change from the 90+ degrees it usually is this time of year. The first leg of our trip was up to Sulphur Springs to meet up with Pops and then head on over to Little Rock. The day was uneventful and everything went smooth all the way to Little Rock.



Day 2
Rain rain go away!!!
We woke up to some serious thunder storms on Sunday. We all huddled around the TV watching the weather channel and we all had our phones out watching the radar in our area.
We saw that there was going to be a break in the weather around 9:30 so we decided to wait it out, while waiting for the rain to stop we watched the cars and 18 wheelers run down the highway and they looked like boats in the water with huge bow waves coming over their hoods and windshields. At about this time there was a lightning strike just across the highway from us followed by a deafening BOOM!!! Things were not looking good for day 2 to say the least. About 15 minutes had passed and we heard a car skid out and we all ran out to see what was happening, as we came out of the room we saw a SUV slide off the road and into the ditch. Spongie and I ran over to assist the driver and to our surprise he drove out of the ditch to the frontage road. He pulled over and we checked on him and he was fine with the exception of some spilled coffee. At this point we were all wondering if we were gonna make it to our destination. Around 9:15 or so the weather had cleared and the interstate wasn't a free flowing stream so we decided to chance it and hit the road.
It rained on us till we got to the east side of Little Rock and then it cleared and the interstate started to dry out. At this point we opened up the throttle and headed east to Memphis.
When we got to Memphis it was only a little over cast and it looked like the worst was behind us. We pulled into town filled up the gas tanks and went down to Beal street for some lunch. We ate at Boogie's Cafe home of the largest autographed collection of guitars. As luck would have it there was a music festival going on while we were there so after eating we checked out the festival for a few minutes and we even talked about finding a place to stay for the night and enjoy the activities. Then the sky started to turn black and we decided it was a better idea to stay ahead of the storm. We saddled up and jumped back on the interstate, about this time the tornado sirens started to go off!! We all started scanning the radio and weather channels. Turns out leaving was the right decision, in the very spot we were standing down on Beal street they were getting hail and a tornado was in the area. At this point is was balls out as fast as we could ride to stay ahead of the storm. We were staying ahead of the weather and it looked like we were in the clear, then another storm cell starts coming in from the north and the tornado sirens started to go off again! During all of this Princess decides he had to pull over to take a leak; WTH MAN!! While we were stopped we gassed up the bikes and right as we were leaving it started to rain on us. Again back on the interstate and road as fast as we could till we got ahead of the second storm cell.
Finally we made it to Tennessee 50 and turned south, the sky opened up and the clouds started to break apart and for me at least it seemed like the stress of the situation just melted away and we finally got to start enjoying the ride. We followed the road twisting and turning all the way to Shelbyville where we stopped for the night.

I know Jack
The next day we woke to beautiful sky's. We grabbed breakfast and loaded up the bikes and headed south to Lynchburg home to Mr. Jack Daniels.
I have to say that I am a huge fan of Mr. Jack's Tennessee whiskey an I enjoyed the tour around the distillery tremendously. Even if you are not a fan of the product the distillery tour is a must see for anyone traveling in the area.
Our tour guide was the best! When I hear the term "bootlegger" the image of this gentleman comes to mind. He was tall, a little round in the mid-section and wore overalls and talked slow and walked slow. He referred to oak trees as "sugar makers" since that is where Jack gets it's sweet taste from. He has been working at the distillery for 20+ years, and knows the operation like the back of his hand.
On the tour we saw how they make their infamous charcoal, we visited the cave where the source of the natural spring water that is used to make JD, the original JD office, then we visited the vats where the whiskey was fermented, the charcoal room where they filter the whiskey, then it was on to the bottling room. After the tour we went to the White Rabbit whiskey store, the only place in Lynchburg where you can purchase a bottle of the old 07. I purchased 5 collector bottles to take home with me, unfortunately only 3 made it back ;)
After our time at the distillery we walked over to the town square where we picked up some souvenirs ate lunch and then it was time for us to hit the road and head to the Iron Horse Lodge.
Our route brought us in from the north and right down the tail of the dragon. What an AWESOME way to end the ride for the day. It was crazy, just when you thought the road would straighten out it just kept on giving with more banking turns and switchbacks.
We reached the end of the Dragon and stopped off for a quick break to pick up some T's and patches and to get a good look at the tree of shame that is covered with motorcycle parts from all types of different bikes. By now the sun was fading fast and shadows from the mountains were covering the road, we didn't want to get caught out after dark so we jumped on a road called the Moonshine 28 and headed south to the Iron Horse Lodge.

Nestled in the Smokey mountains just outside of Robinsville is a beautiful camp ground called the Iron Horse Lodge. If you're ever taking a trip out in this area I HIGHLY recommend this as a place to stay or use it as a base camp to tour the area. When we arrived it was pretty late around 9:00pm and they had already shutdown the kitchen for the night. While we were checking in, the lady at the front desk asked if we had eaten and of course we had not. She had the kitchen prepare us 4 pulled pork bbq sandwiches, chips and drinks! The hospitality at the Iron Horse was phenomenal!
The staff was knowledgeable about every road in the area, each day I would talk to one of the staff and ask what a good route would be, they had ride maps on hand and would not only tell you the route, but tell you about all the "must see" things along each route, and where all the good places to eat where.
The Iron Horse has amenities for everyone; there are cabins, tent sites and RV hookups. They have a main lodge that has a projector TV the size of my house, kitchen for food, community campfire, game room with pool tables. The location is GREAT there is a stream running through the center of the property which adds to the beauty of this place.
Blue Ridge Parkway
Next day we headed out to the blue ridge parkway, let me just say that if the this was the only ride we did during our trip, it would have been totally worth it. This road is awesome, it is smooth, scenic and has nice sweeping curves on it. It also has scenic overlooks every mile or so which allows you to take your time and take in all the scenery along the way. It took us several hours to ride just a small section of the parkway once we made it to the highest point on the parkway (6053ft) we stopped for a photo op and then decided it was time to get lunch. For lunch there was only one place that everyone recommended the Pisgah Inn which sits right on the parkway. The food was good and the view was AMAZING! The dinning room has a view over the entire smokey mountains.