We stayed at a motel in Robbinsville, North Carolina specifically so that John could ride the 'Tail of the Dragon' which is famous for being 318 curves in 11 miles. The icing on the cake for this motel was that the bike had its own garage! The downside was that we awoke to pouring rain! We sat around debating the merits of riding this road in the rain as it is notorious for bikes and cars trying to get to the top in the fastest time possible, and not always keeping to their side of the road.

 

We decided to go for it when the rain lessened for a while and the start (the Devil's tail) is above. It turned out to be a brilliant ride although there was quite a lot of leaves on the road as it is now fall. In the end John was pleased that it was raining as we only encountered one car on the way up so managed to film it all on his GoPro. We are currently trying to download it to YouTube but its taking a very long time. If successful, we will post the link tomorrow. 

 

We rode both up and down the 'Tail of the Dragon' and the starting point is the 'tail' above.

Across the road is the famous Deals Gap Motorcycle Motel and cafe.

 

 

Inside the cafe the ceiling is covered with signed T-shirts of people that have ridden the road. There was also a signed photo and letter on the wall from a NASA astronaut that had ridden the 'Tail', (check out his website:   http://www.astronautbiker.com/) There were also photos of the Blue Angels (America's equivalent of our Red Arrows) whose pilots have also enjoyed the road. Our motel is booked solid this week with motorcyclists as the roads around here are fantastic to ride and the scenery is spectacular.