Heading to the dragon....

[DailyCommuter]

I thought I'd post up on this trip. A while back in the Tag-O-Rama thread I was mouthing off about all the miles I ride (kinda being a dickhead about it). But anyways I thought I'd put my money (my ass really) where my mouth is.

The other forum I belong to fjrforum.com hosts these annual get togethers every year, usually in a different location. Well this year it's in Johnson City, Tn. Which is way to close to Deal's Gap for me not to go.

So I decided that since the trip down there is a little over a thousand miles, I would turn the run down into a Saddle Sore 1K ride. For those that aren't familiar with that, It's a qualification ride to join the Iron Butt Association. Basically You have to complete 1,000 miles in a 24 hour period, and have your start time, your finish time, and all the fuel stops and such recordered, and then certified by the IBA.

I'll be leaving Weds. heading northwest to go ride out the length of the mohawk trail, then into NY, down through Penn, into Virginia, and along the way, I am going to ride the length of Skyline Drive, down to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Depending on how much time I have left at the end of Skyline Drive, I may continue down the parkway for a while, or may just have to slab it to Johnson city from there.



I plan on spending probably 2 days to come home, hopefully camp somewhere along the way home and take a little different rt than I'm using to go down, and I intend to find my way up to T**** Rd. in an undisclosed state and ride that one too since I'm doing all this riding anyway. I'll Post a ride report when I get back, with some photo's.... ride safe every one..

[mycirus]

Watch your speed on Skyline drive. I got a nice ticket up there.

[NobodySpecific]

First rule of T*** rd is you don't talk about T*** rd!!!

[DailyCommuter]

Lol. Yeah yeH...Like the ten zillion you-tubers out there.

[Cheese]

Watch your speed on Skyline drive. I got a nice ticket up there.

It's a great route but the LEOs do work hard to keep the speeds under control. I got yanked a couple times but was lucky enough to ride away from both of them.

Do you have a map of SkyLine Drive and The Blue Ridge Parkway? It's nice to know where gas is since the 2 roads combined are ~600 miles without a stop light or stop sign. I need to get back down there for another rip ....

[trider143]

I road the "Dragon" and returned via Blue Ridge etc. late September 2008. Ride the Dragon mid-week if you can -- fewer riders and enforcement... I was fortunate on my return, and saw (at worst) 1 car every hour or so riding north on the Blue Ridge. I think the time of year helped, not to mention the imminent arrival of a hurricane along the east coast.

[DailyCommuter]

Watch your speed on Skyline drive. I got a nice ticket up there.

I think by the time I get down there it'll be 14-15 hours into my trip. I'm going to take it easy speed wise the whole way down there. Chill out a bit on thursday night with some of the other early arrivals, and rest up. Fri, Sat, ans Sun. they have some nice group rides planned.

[DailyCommuter]

It's a great route but the LEOs do work hard to keep the speeds under control. I got yanked a couple times but was lucky enough to ride away from both of them.

Do you have a map of SkyLine Drive and The Blue Ridge Parkway? It's nice to know where gas is since the 2 roads combined are ~600 miles without a stop light or stop sign. I need to get back down there for another rip ....

I printed out some hard copies from my mapsource program that goes with the Zumo gps, (just in case of tech. failure with the gps) but for the most part I'm going to be using the garmin to find every thing I need. Fuel/Food/Shit (in that order) I'm still trying to figure out times to different areas, I don't want to wind up in the middle of the night with an eighth of a tank of gas and my fuel light blinking at me, and then wonder who's open at 3am for gas. I dont think at any point I'll be real far from truck stops and fuel though.

[LaRNZ]

good luck, take a bunch of pics

[Pestilence]

Sounds like an awesome trip!!!

We were down there in May. The blueridge is B E A U T I F U L! you can get lost in the views so take the time to stop at some of the lookouts on the way back. The road is just amazing. Good condition and smooth, just be careful in the tunnels as they tend to be pretty dark. FYI, you won't find gas on the parkway, you have to get off it and go into town.

Have fun and as said, hit The Gap on a weekday to avoid the insane weekends.

[DailyCommuter]

Sounds like an awesome trip!!!

We were down there in May. The blueridge is B E A U T I F U L! you can get lost in the views so take the time to stop at some of the lookouts on the way back. The road is just amazing. Good condition and smooth, just be careful in the tunnels as they tend to be pretty dark. FYI, you won't find gas on the parkway, you have to get off it and go into town.

Have fun and as said, hit The Gap on a weekday to avoid the insane weekends.

Hopefully The dark tunnels won't be too bad for me. I am installing some HID lights before the trip. I hate to fiddle with new things before a long trip, but I've wanted to get these lights for a while now. Sometime I have to post some pictures of all the mods I've done to my big SportTourer.
Suspension, exhaust, electronics, etc. It's not exactly a track bike, but for a fart like me its fun as hell to ride. My 8 year old daughter comes out with me sometimes, and says in such a cute little voice through the in-helmet com system, "Daddy, can we scrape some pegs today?" I never should have answered her the first time she was with me and I dragged a peg around this little decreasing radius turn, and she says "what was that?" "Nuthin sweetie, daddy was just scraping pegs..."
Now she wants to do it all the time. She's a little speed freak that one.... worries me!!

Anyways, I'm going to do up a nice ride report when I get home, and I'll have lots of pictures...