After leaving Cherohala Skyway we head toward the Dragon.
Instead of taking the 411 we took the 360 instead, it is a very nice ride thru some beautiful countryside.
As we were riding beside the lake toward the northwest end of the Dragon, I see some lights in the rear view. We have traveled this road before and the speed limit was 50 mph. I thought I was only a bit over, but, over is over.
Got stopped and found out I was going 63 mph, and they had changed the speed limit to 40 mph. He took my license, registration and insurance and proceeded to write up what I thought was a ticket.
This would have been my first ticket on a bike since I was 17...I figured it was going to break my 39 year streak of riding fast & various other shenanigans with no tickets.
Most fortunately for me he just wrote up a warning. I thanked him profusely, and then he asked me how I liked the wethead Twin Cam. We talked bikes for about 10 minutes and then we were on our way again.
Oh, he did warn me to watch my speed on the Dragon, that there was a heavy LE presence there today.
I had planned on riding the Dragon very fast...faster than I did yesterday when I averaged 47 mph...
...but after being stopped at 23 mph over the speed limit, and not getting a ticket...
...I decided on a new personal challenge. See if I could maintian 30-35 mph through-out the entire 11 miles, including all the 318 curves and twistys...
...I came close, but there were just some tight turns that I did end up slowing down to about 25 mph...
...still had a great ride through it, Mary was able to take more pics, and I pulled over several times to let bikes I had caught up with get ahead of me some more before continuing on.
While there are MANY great twisty roads around the country, the Dragon is probably so popular because there are no side streets, beautiful scenery, good surface, and great cambers in most of the turns. It's just a lot of fun to ride!
The road was wet today, and I did get some nice, completely controlled & predictable drifting through some of the turns. No lifting of either rear wheel, I am more impressed than ever with how well the 14 TG's handle.
Leaving the Dragon we headed over to Cherokee to pick up the 441 to cut thru the Great Smoky Mountains National Park that dumps into Gatlinburg.
There's a stream that runs thru Cherokee, and since we've only been there when it was warm, we are used to seeing a lot of people down by, or in, the stream.
Today, being in the low 50's there was no one there. We parked on the side of the road....
....and walked down to it. Looked around, took some pics, then I sat down and took care of a little bit of business on the phone.
Leaving out of Cherokee I had it timed that we would be in Pigeon Forge right before dark. But almost as soon as we got into National Park, there were quite a few Elk near the road, and some of them were butting antlers.
It was quite a sight to watch And hear, and we ended up sitting there for a good 45 minutes...
....as had many other folks. The traffic was heavy and it was getting dark, AND foggy in spots....
By the time we got to Gatlinburg it was completely dark, so we took the bypass and went straight to Pigeon Forge.
Tomorrow is some sight seeing, and then the next day is a straight shot home.
More to come!
Kevin