Let Me Tell You a Tail of the Dragon

Every year, since my birthday happens near labor day weekend, Chrissy C and I tend to do a little getaway.  When we lived in Germany we did a five-day road trip that included Stelvio Pass (seen above) in Italy. We visited Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg and Belgium. We did other small getaways that weekend while in Germany, but none as grand.  Stelvio Pass has 48 hairpin turns to form the fourth highest paved road in the Alps.  Nothing can compare to those views, driving into a snowy mountain peak at the end of summer.

That said, we have our own wonderful mountain road right here on the East Coast of the United States.  The Tail of the Dragon is a section of US-129 In Tennessee crossing into North Carolina, an 11 mile stretch of blacktop through the Smokey Mountain National Park with 318 turns frequented by car and motorcycle enthusiast that passes through Deals Gap.  That was our destination this year for my birthday.  The track car was sitting on the trailer on slicks, so we took our 2012 Passat with a 5-speed, our daily driver.

Leaving early from work on a Friday, we started the drive with a target of spending the night in Knoxville, TN, about an hour north of the Tail. It is a long drive, boring drive, spending a lot of time on the highway in “speed and go to jail” Virginia, but we were hoping that the road would live up to the hype so were willing to make that trip.  We rolled into Knoxville around dinner time and went downtown to grab some dinner.  We ended up in the market square which is bordered by restaurants and is very remnant of a walkplatz in Germany. We wanted to try a bourbon and burger place, but they were packed, so we wandered around the square until we picked Myrtle’s Chicken and Beer.  I must say, if you find yourself in Knoxville and want some good ole’ southern fried chicken or chicken a waffles, you have to give that place a try.  We settled into our hotel near the airport for the night and looked forward to Saturday morning on the road.

We hit the road early, partially to beat the traffic and partially because we had to get back home Saturday night. We had a good breakfast at the hotel and started the hour long trek to the actual section of road referred to as the Tail of the Dragon.  The funny thing is, the road leading up to it was also fun and twisty, which gave me hope for what the actual road would be like.  There is a lot of hype surrounding the road, and we didn’t want to get let down after such a long drive to get there.

The closer you get, the more billboards you start to see for the Harley dealership near the start of the Tail, and various other small shops that are all building their business on how famous the road is.  You can also tell who the locals are as some sections of US-129 I was taking below the speed limit because of blind curves and ridges, not knowing the road that lay before me, while a local (who also turned out to be one of the photographers that always set up along the road) zipped passed me.

The Tail is tight and technical, full of blind corners obscured by the trees with 15 mph advisory speed limits.  And they actually do mean 15 mph.  We had pulled the summer tires off the car because one had gotten a nail and were on all-season tires that are probably 50,000 tread-wear that came with the car. They were howling in protest even at 15 on some of those corners, and the car almost never left second gear as I powered from turn to turn.  As we carved our way down the road, we were greeted by a pack of historic cars making the journey in the other direction.  And I really mean historic, as they were straight out of the 1920s or early ’30s.  We were headed the other way and only saw them briefly, but those large up-right grills and giant bug-eyed headlights are hard to miss.  We finally found ourselves at the Motorcycle resort nestled just inside North Carolina with a souvenir shop. There are shirts, stickers, patches, you name it, but that little sticker to the left caught my eye and now adorns the Passat (seen above).

As I said, we had to get back to Maryland, so we checked the GPS and the fastest way home was to double back from whence we came, so we got to drive it all in reverse as well!  The traffic was starting to pick up, as we saw more sports cars and motorcycles heading towards North Carolina as we cruised along.  And here is where I take a station break for an important safety message.  There are signs all along the road warning you to stay in your lane.  Many of the corners are COMPLETELY blind so if you try to apex a corner, you are likely to meet someone very close and personal who is headed the other way.  This almost happened to a motorcycle rider headed the other direction as he tried to apex a corner, was leaning on his bike with his whole body across the double yellow line putting his helmet at the exact same height from the ground as my left front headlight.  He was able to lean up enough to miss, but it was almost a very bad situation.  Stay safe!

We finished our road trip without incident (except for the wonderful smell of brakes) and then headed home.  I wish we had more time to make a few more runs up and down the road, but there was a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog that needed to be rescued and we were taking care of part of the transport, so it was for a good reason.  If we ever find ourselves in that area again, I would love to spend more time driving up and down the road, it certainly disappoint.  I am also glad I finally checked it off my bucket list. “A++ Would Drive Again”