Tail Of The Dragon & EOM

[dragon1300]

Left home at 4:00am and headed west on I-10 to I-75 north on thursday the 15th, checked in at the Two Wheel Inn (in Robbinsville) at about 3:30pm thursday afternoon. My main goal was to get through Atlanta before noon to miss the lunchtime traffic, I hit I-285 (around Atlanta) at 10:45 and breezed through in about 25 minutes, FINALLY, now I can relax and enjoy the ride to Robbinsville, NC. Highway 129 starts at Gainesville, GA. (the south end) and goes across the the foothills from NC to TENN as the Tail of the Dragon. For those of you who have'nt been there, it is a beautiful area to visit. Lots of nice biker friendly people and lots of great riding. Riding the Dragon is best during the week as Saturday & Sunday get quite crowded. Stopped at Deal's Gap Motorcycle Resort to check out the crowd , eat and fill the tank before continuing on. Great riding, lots of fun and FJR's everywhere as the EOM was the same weekend in Townsend, Tenn. (about 30 miles from the Dragon). The "Dragon" was all all its cracked up to be, its fun and challenging and great scenery to boot. Met a lot of Great people at the EOM but could'nt make the dinner on Sunday night as I left on Sunday morning to head back to Jacksonville. I did ride the Cherohala Skyway from Robbinsville to Telico Plaines which is about 55 miles mostly in the mountains with spectacular scenery and several areas over 5000 feet. The FJR never missed a beat the whole trip. Borrowed my daughters tiny digital video camera and strapped it to the tankbag while riding the Dragon and the results were not half bad, not professional but better than expected. After the EOM gathering on Saturday night I had to ride back to Robbinsville to my hotel which meant riding the Foothills Parkway and the Dragon at night, that was eerie experience as it was also a full moon. :dribble: Am trying to post some pictures but the USB ports are crashing so I need to reboot and try again, will post as soon as possible, Had a great time, recommend it to all who can make it.

Chris

 

[dragon1300]

Maybe these images will actually come up!

Rainy but having fun

Still wet from the rain

Me and Toophast on the Foothills Parkway

FJR's everywhere ( at the gap)

Some of the FJR's at EOM (the fast blue ones)

On the Cherohala Skyway

Mile High riding, what a view!

Looking north from 1 mile up

Hope these pic's load

Chris

 

[snikr]

I've got to try to get down that way next year for sure.

 

[trinibob]

lots of blue in that parking lot!!

 

[FJRocket]

Yeah, the ratio was about 3 blue to one silver.... of all flavors.

Nice pics there, Chris. Was a great time, wasn't it?!!

 

[dragon1300]

Great time is an understatement, certainly a great place to ride if you like curves, the asphalt kind that is In fact, I had so much fun I booked the same room at the same next year! Can't wait :clap: :clap:

Chris

 

[Bounce]

Yeah, the ratio was about 3 blue to one silver.... of all flavors.

Buncha newbies, eh?

 

[wpbfjr]

no matter how long you leave a silver fjr in the sun, it will NEVER ripen to blue!!!!

bawhaaaaaaa!!! :clap:

 

[toophast]

Chris, had fun riding with you and glad to see the pics came out so nicely. Sure was a hell of a weekend

Gary

 

[dragon1300]

Gary, good to hear from you, it was great fun and the weather couldn't have been better for the EOM B) . Hope we can get togeather again sometime. Making plans to be on the Blue Ridge Parkway in May '06, maybe you can join us for a few miles? Keep in touch.

WPBFJR, sorry to hear about your scuffle with the truck! What's the status of the bike?

Chris

 

[OrangevaleFJR]

What an Awesome view!

 

[dragon1300]

O'VFJR, that is an awesome sight! Before I took my pic's the "official EOM" photos were taken and there were TWO ROWS of FJR's, about 125 FJR's in all and ONE BMW in the middle of the front row ( I think he made a wrong turn somewhere )

about 90% of the bikes there were BLUE :clap: :clap:

A good time was had by all

Chris

 

[slapnpop]

O'VFJR, that is an awesome sight! Before I took my pic's the "official EOM" photos were taken and there were TWO ROWS of FJR's, about 125 FJR's in all and ONE BMW in the middle of the front row ( I think he made a wrong turn somewhere )about 90% of the bikes there were BLUE :clap: :clap:

A good time was had by all

Chris

:blink:

I don't think so.. there were maybe 75 bikes, and somewhere between 60-75% blue.

 

[dragon1300]

Slapnpop, since you would be in a better position to tell us, just how many participants actually showed up at the EOM. The figure I kept hearing was "at least 115" and later it was said "more like 120 to 125" actually showed up, but since I didn't count the bikes I don't have an accurate tally Btw, from what I saw , I still say that over 80% of the bikes were blue, personally I like the silver ones but I didn't see that many of them

Chris

 

[Grumpy]

The picture with the 2 rows of bikes is still short something like 15 or 20 bikes.

 

[slapnpop]

I didn't see anyone else pull in after those pictures, but I know some riders were still out for the day.

Smthng would have a better idea on how many people were actually there, but 100 is a pretty good guess I would say. I don't think there were quite that many fjrs though.

 

[toophast]

Myself, Mark Bottoms and Lee (sorry don't remember last name) were just getting on the Foothills Parkway about the time the group pic was taken so you could add three more bikes (two 05's and one 04) that were there but not in the pic

 

[dragon1300]

I'm wondering if everyone signed in on the easel/sign-in board in the lobby, maybe that would give us a little better idea as to the head count? But irregardless of the actual count it was a great get-together and a lot of fun!

BTW: Slapnpop, didn't I hear you say that the FJR EOM shirts were designed by you? I just got the two shirts I ordered from Zazzle( one for me & one for the wife)

and I must say "Great Job", both the wife and I were impressed with the design & quality of the shirts, THANKS

Chris

 

[BullCBX]

Hey Chris,

The last time I remember looking at the sign-in sheet, seems there were 62 entries. Best as I can remember (it's heck getting older) this was late Sunday.

BULL