Driving around the Dragon

I uploaded pictures from the 3 hiking/driving days to Flickr.


This is the loop I used, starting from the Microtel in the bottom right. I followed the orange line through NC 28 and the Hellbender-28, which was a nice warm up for the star of the show, the Tail of the Dragon.

View Tail of the Dragon in a larger map


Supposedly it is 318 curves in just 11 miles, and I believe it. There's a 4-mile stretch in the middle where I don't think the steering wheel was ever centered for more than half a second. I can totally see why bikers flock to this place - I'm not much for motorcycles, but this place is as close as I've ever been to really wanting one.

I stayed at the speed limit in the first run, heading north, as I'd read a lot about how the police really patrol it. Turns out there was a massive crackdown a couple of years ago, seemingly mostly for publicity's sake (sheriff election year perhaps?), and now they've learned to just monitor the endpoints. It's just too tight and twisty in there to park a squad car and nowhere to pull someone over. I had a clear run, never getting stuck behind anyone or having a biker zoom up on me and executing a risky pass. Best of all, no truckers (I can't believe they even try - hopefully it's pretty rare nowadays) and no accidents, mine or others. Still, even doing 30 mph was really aggressive on some of the turns and I was immediately looking forward to running it again.

However, I continued on my planned route, up 129, then over to 360 and down into Cherokee National Forest to pick up the Cherohala Skyway. This would have been a great drive if it hadn't been for the fog. For about 30 minutes of the drive visibility ranged between 10 and 30 feet, which meant plodding along, focusing on the white and yellow lines to make sure I stayed on the road and in my lane. I'm sure on a clear day the views here are absolutely gorgeous and it's probably better than most of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The Skyway brought me back to Robbinsville, about 3 hours after I'd started. I grabbed lunch at a local eatery (eh, so-so) and headed back to the Dragon, aiming to go a little faster this time. Unfortunately I got stuck behind a Kia Sorento which took its sweet, sweet time deciding to use one of the pulloffs and let me pass. I amped it up a little, but the really good parts were behind me and I was a bit disappointed. I did take a minute to pull off at the scenic overlook and shoot a couple of pictures.

By this time I needed to start making my way down to Athens, which is the denouement of the trip. Luckily (yeah, right) that meant heading south, back through the Dragon. This time an SUV stepped aside fairly early and I was able to really push it. It was a blast, but wow, how much more fun it would be on a closed course and be able to cross lanes and really nail the corner apexes. Still, my Acura did well, hugging every corner and never squealing a tire. It truly is a fabulous, exciting 11 miles of road.

Then I took NC 28, which was almost as impressive in it's own turns above and beyond the already driven Hellbender section. Most of the next 30-plus miles was bendy and twisty before getting to a boring 4-lane highway for the rest of the trip to Athens.

So that's pretty much it. I'm gaming this weekend, then visiting grandmother on Sunday and getting back home Sunday night or Monday morning and taking a day to do laundry, sort through mail and all that other hum-drum routine stuff I haven't had to deal with much. It's been an incredible 6 weeks of awesome times spent with wonderful friends and amazing memories. Thanks to everyone who was part of it, from bosses at work making it possible to everyone I got to visit and/or stay with. I just can't come up with enough adjectives to say how much this trip has meant to me.

A week of no interstate

So I wasn't ready to head back home but didn't have any specific plans. I talked with Craig about their adventures at Grandfather Mountain, and with John about Chimney Rock and both sounded like fun. Then I remembered that I've wanted to "shoot the Dragon" ever since Rob told me about it and just like that a week's worth of plans started to come together.

First was a trip to Carowinds, since I was in Charlotte anyway and the park is part of the same company as all the others I'd visited. So it cost me no extra money to go, which is a good thing. I was done with the whole park in almost exactly 3 hours. The crowd was light so the lines were short, but also the rides were pretty dull. The Goldrusher was about the dullest coaster I've ever been on. But the Carolina Cobra was one of the better "boomerang" coasters I've ridden (those that travel their track forwards then backwards). Nighthawk was ok, but the best coaster in the park was Afterburn (formerly known as Top Gun) despite being about 10 years old. Later research showed that many of the coasters in Carowinds were relocations from other parks, and that didn't surprise me. Nothing felt innovative or special. Even their "newest" coaster, the Cobra, had spent over 5 years at another park.

Then began what I'm callling "The Week of No Interstate". I told my GPS to avoid freeways and headed up to Boone, NC. No particularly good mountain roads, but scenic nonetheless. Boone is a very pretty town with friendly people. Tuesday I went hiking at Grandfather Mountain and it's Mile High Swinging Bridge.

I hiked a total of about 3 miles, one trail in particular was very rocky, and both led to spectacular views. The neatest thing about the park was that after crossing the bridge you had full access to the ridge. No rails, no baby-ing, no protection from falling except your own judgement. Amazingly, the guide said they'd never had any problem worse than scraped knees and twisted ankles. Apparently when it's obvious that, hey, if you fall you die! people actually bother to be careful. What a concept!

Anyway, I proceeded to climb out as far onto the ridge as I dared :-) and got several great pictures, but this panorama is my favorite:

I hung out at the top for more than a half-hour recuperating from the hike. It was a rough one! I wanted to take the same route back, but sensibly (can you believe it?!?) opted for the easy .5 mile walk in the park hike back down to the lower parking lot. Plug in "Chimney Rock" into the GPS and off to the next one.

This time there were some really good mountain roads, and I found a charming little inn right across from the park. I had dinner at a local Italian restaurant overlooking Lake Lure and watched a storm roll in. A little while after I got back to the room the power went out for a while, so thank goodness for laptops with charged batteries!

The weather hadn't moved off by morning, so the day's hiking was with intermittent rain and even less intermittent sunshine. And steep! I decided to start at the bottom-most trail and go the full almost 900' up the mountain. The first trail was not as difficult to hike as the first trail at Grandfather, but it was much steeper. And after that trail there were a LOT of steps going practically straight up the side of the mountain. Unfortunately 2 of the most interesting looking trails - the ones going along the ridge line - were both closed for improvements. It took right at an hour to make it to the top and enjoy the view, which was mostly of clouds. :( I got a decent picture of Lake Lure and then one of the Chimney from the gift shop.


My right knee gets fussy on downhill hikes, and I knew it wouldn't put up with all those steps back down. So I cheated and rode the elevator down, but still had to repeat the first trail in order to get back to the car. First I took a side trip over to the Hickory Nut Falls, during which it started to really rain instead of the intermittent drizzle it had been all day. So a mile total to and from the falls, and then another half-mile downhill to get to the car and I was ready to get to the next stop and get a hot shower.

I found a site that outlined a nice 120 mile circuit of some great driving roads around Deals Gap in Tennessee. The road through Deals Gap is called the Tail of the Dragon and it promises to be FUN! I went exploring after the shower, picking roads at random, and every one was a good drive. So tomorrow should be pretty awesome as long as I can avoid tickets and accidents.

Whitewater and Gulf Games

Next up was the week spent with my gaming family at Gulf Games. This year's summer extravaganza was in Charlotte. Tuesday was spent at a man-made whitewater facility that had an artificial river with Class I through IV rapids, climbing walls, zip lines and more. It's a pretty good deal - $50 and you get to do everything in the park as much as you want. I ended up gonig rafting twice.First on the big, blue 8-person boats, which involved being unceremonious dumped in as we went over Big Drop:
and later on small 5-person boats. These are a lot more unstable and guide is willing to do more agressive moves, including "surfing" where you see how long you can hang in the heart of a rapid. We started with 4 of us plus the guide, but by the time we'd been through the "easy" parts a couple of times we'd lost 2. Of course easy is relative, as in one spill I felt Paul land on my head and my head hit the bottom. Thank goodness for good helmets! John and I were the die-hards (read: crazy ones) who went through the harder section, which was a blast. I caught serious air several times at the front of the boat. We spilled a couple of times too, but no pictures of that. But I like this one (on right)because it makes us look like we actually knew what we were doing.

Then came 4 days of gaming, including lots of Tichu, some Masters of Venice, a few games of Valdora, which I like more each time I play it (with less than 5 anyway) and a fun prize table where I scored some muscadine jelly. As always, Gulf Games are the highlights of my year and it was awesome to get to see everyone again.

Alphabet Soup - WV to VA to DC

I'm nearing the end of the trip, trying to figure out what to squeeze into the last 2 weeks. From Michigan it was an enjoyable 8 hour drive to Charleston, WV to visit with Ted's clan. He took me for a joyride in his plane and we checked out Charleston from the air. We flew over the New River Gorge Bridge, and Summersville Dam, which releases into the Gauley River and in the fall that's some of the best whitewater rafting in the world. Next was Game Night with his group, and we had a great time.

Ted and Jane spoiled with me good food and good times, but I'd promised to be in Roanoke by Friday afternoon to visit my aunt and uncle. So I plugged it into the GPS and told it to avoid freeways and went on the best drive of this entire trip. First stop was a side trip to the New River Gorge Bridge I'd seen from the air the day before. It's an impressive, and impressively high, bridge - 2nd highest in the world now that they've built the Millau Viaduct. I finally pulled out the camera, so I actually have a picture.

Then the GPS proceeded to find just about every curvy 2-lane road I could hope for. At one point it had me a road that was only paved in the center, which fortunately only once had any oncoming traffic. Another time it tried to send me down a dirt trail in a National Forest, but I sensibly stuck with the paved road curving through the mountain pass. I enjoyed curvy mountain roads almost all the way to Roanoke, about 4 hours worth, which was a blast. Then enjoyed the weekend with family, checking out area restaurants and a very nice day hike at the Cascades in Jefferson National Forest. Hey, look! Another picture!
After the relaxing weekend, it was off to D.C. to visit friends from college, Ransom and Martin. First excursion was to King's Dominion as it had been over a week since I'd ridden a coaster. :-) We spent the day riding everything in sight, sometimes twice as there were rarely any lines. Many of the rides were similar to those at King's Island, but still fun. Highlights included The Dominator, the double-LIM Volcano and 2 wooden coasters, The Grizzly and The Hurler. But the best was saved for almost last. Sabrina is as fearless a 12-year old as has ever existed, and had all day been wanting to do the RipCord (called the Xtreme Skyflyer here). It cost a little extra, but was a little cheaper than I'd seen it at other parks. So I splurged and bought us a couple of tickets. They fit us into the harnesses, hook us up to the wire and start pulling us up to the top. I forget how high it was, but I'm sure it was at least 100 feet. The whole time Sabrina is grinning from ear to ear. When they get us to the top and are ready, they give the countdown. The instant she hears the word "Fly", she pulls the release cord. Absolutely no hesitation. Now I like heights, and I like thrills and I enjoy a drop/fly ride as much as anybody, but I know from past experience it takes me a second to make the jump/pull the cord/whatever it is that's going to drop me to the earth. Not Sabrina. YANK! and away we go, dropping 10 feet or so before the slack grabs and we go flying through the air. Impressive, and a whole lotta fun!

The next 2 days were tamer journeys, 1 day in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and another at the Air and Space Museum. Natural History was my favorite, with all the animals, skeletons, rocks, artifacts, etc. Hey look, pictures!Air & Space was a little disappointing. Several exhibits are showing their age and wear, but it's still impressive to see actual planes and rockets on display and hanging from the ceiling. And they were in the middle of putting together an exhibit on aviation pioneers that looked like it was going to be a really good one. It had one of Amelia Earhart's airplanes, this beautiful sports-car-red one.

D.C was a fabulous trip, as it had been way too long since I'd visited with them. The best part of this trip has spending time visiting great friends. The coasters and curvy mountain roads are just icing.

My Michigan Adventure

I spent my birthday on a beautiful drive through northern Ohio and into Michigan, and successfully arrived at Dave & Theresa's. My heart nearly stopped when I saw that Allison and Nick are both now eye-level with me and that's just wrong, wrong, wrong. How do they grow up so freakin' quickly?

After recovering from my shock and getting caught up, I took the gang out for some really good local ice cream. Then I settled in to work for a couple of days while they went to a family reunion camping trip, which worked out perfectly as it allowed me to get ahead enough to enjoy the next several days work-free.

For Independence Day Dave and I made the drive out to Grand Haven to see the sights and have a burger at Rosebud's. It still gets me just how big the Great Lakes really are. Then that night we headed out to see the Grand Rapids fireworks, using super secret access to avoid all the crowds and traffic. There were some really interesting rockets in the show that would pop and then accelerate really quickly. I'd never seen that type before.

Next day was a full day of gaming, including Tichu as Allison is now a full fledged Tichu fiend. I also got to visit with Chris, Elaine and their kids. On Monday the gang went to Michigan's Adventure for some good coasters and water park fun. Shivering Timbers is a beautiful wooden coaster, and the Funnel of Fear is a very cool, unique water slide. We got wet on the Grand Rapids river ride, survived a trio of spin-and-puke rides and finished off the day with repeat rides of the Thunderhawk and Shivering Timbers and a bag of kettle corn which I foolishly thought was just regular popcorn until Theresa showed me the error of my ways. That stuff is addictively good.

Tuesday the kids escorted Theresa and I on a drive up to the beautiful Mackinac Bridge, stopped long enough to dip my feet into Superior and grab some pasties (basically a meat pie) for lunch, and then on to the Soo Locks in Sault St. Marie. We got to see a tug dropping down then a tourist boat rising up. So I've now seen 4 of the 5 Great Lakes. Some souvenir shopping, then back to the Lower Peninsula and a detour to Traverse City for a nice meal and then home.

It was so awesome to get to hang out with such great friends, play Tichu with Allison, play videogames and rubber band wars with Sam and Nick, and get to know the whole clan a little better. I've met the most wonderful people through Gulf Games and it was an incredible time to get to spend 1-on-6 time with them for a week. I'm already hoping that circumstances allow me to do it again sometime sooner than later.

Cedar Point - Jun 30

I carried along my iPod and while standing in queue wrote up a few notes of each ride so I wouldn't have to remember everything later. Good thing I did, since it's taken me nearly 2 weeks to get around to making this post about it. So these are my immediate impressions of each ride, many of which I've ridden before. Just like King's Island, I think every high schooler in the area was in the park. This was my 3rd visit of what I hope are many more.

One of the things I love about this place is how they've shared space among the people and the rides. There are several places where a coaster dips down to eye level or passes less than 10 feet overhead. The queues often pass underneath the track and sometimes let you see into the engine room, so to speak. This intimacy between rider and ride really does amp up the energy and anticipation. Someone in Cedar Point's history was a genuine coaster junkie and really understood the experience.

Blue Streak: good camel backs, but The Beast has ruined me for all other woodens, for a while anyway.

Mantis: very good stand up coaster, but those have become my second least favorite, being just a step above hanging bucket style.

Power Tower has 2 towers each of different rides: Launch, with a fast ride up, and moderated drop down; and Drop, with a leisurely lift to the very top and a very fast drop.

Launch: Launching up quickly is a thrill from the positive Gs and surprise start but...
Drop: falling is a lot more fun. Rode this one with 3 high school girls, one of whom was crying after the drop. I don't think she cared for the experience.

Corkscrew: does exactly what its name says, but wow is it short. Luckily the line was equally short.

Magnum XL: 20th anniversary this year. Yes it has aged very well. Excellent traditional steel coaster. Great hill at start and super camel backs on the back stretch.

Gemini: it's a steel coaster hiding inside a wooden frame. The track is actually a steel tube and not a railcar track like a real wooden coaster. The curves are too smooth, but it is quick. Very nice sideways curve at the very end that causes some serious lateral Gs.

Cedar Creek Mine Train: another steel tube coaster on a wooden frame and so not very bumpy. I never thought of it before but 6 flags in Georgia may have one of the best mine trains anywhere.

Skyhawk: neat twist on the Flying Dutchman. And very cool. It needs about 10 degrees more arc and to last another half minute or longer. Still, it's the first ride since the Dragster 3 years ago to give me real butterflies.

Maxair: I think this one has a greater arc than delirium at King's Island and thus is better. I don't know why but this type of ride just relaxes me so much. Given the chance I could fall completely asleep on this ride. It's more meditative than thrill ride. But then again I'm weird.

Raptor: excellent inverted coaster. So only the front seats are worth having because of their unobstructed view. Speedy coaster with some real lateral Gs.

Millennium Force: probably the best traditional coaster I've yet ridden. Big, beautiful, ginormous hill at the beginning that gives so much speed it never has to touch a chain again. Stays fast to the very end. Not too smooth or too rough, just an awesome coaster in every way.

Maverick: I'd forgotten how much fun coaster rides are at night. This one had a long line and was the last ride of the night. In any other park this would be the premier coaster. I prefer MF but this is a solid second. Great snap left and right that feel like barrel rolls in a small airplane. Double LIM (magnet launchers) which keeps the speed up. Great way to wrap up tonight.

2nd day
Dragster: OMG what an incredible rush. I'm still shaking. Its a legal high. The only thing I can compare it to is once doing 140 in my car. And this is a whole lot safer.

Mean Streak: CP's only true wooden (flat rail as opposed to steel tube). Only 3 people on the train - 2 in front and me in very back. I suspect that made it even bumpier cause it was a real kidney bruiser. Fun but still no Beast.

Magnum XL again. The lines were getting longer as noon approached, so I picked the rides with the shortest lines to redo. Serious bummer is that Skyhawk is down due to a technical difficulty. Then it was time to get On The Road Again my first time ever into Michigan.