It's an October Dragon
10-16-2014, 02:54 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Six Metro stops short of insanity.
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It's an October Dragon
Typical (for me anyway) trip to the Dragon... boring I-66, boring and tedious I-81 and boring and slow I-40 and rush hour in Knoxville. Rush hour in Knoxville is amateur hour compared to DC's rush hour. Anyway, no excitement on the drive, nothing interesting, just turn off the brain, hook the eyes to the hands and drive. However, once on Rt 129, a slightly different story. New potholes before Tabcat Bridge, slippery roads, lots of trees that apparently were felled by the heavy storms we've had in the last couple of weeks. Got stuck behind some really slow local traffic but that happens. Got to the bridge, two local sheriffs parked before Tabcat, busy talking to each other, didn't even have the radar units on. Coming up the first hill was a nice new adventure. All those leaves that were there over the Summer? They're now busy making sliding boards out of the road. The haze and mist doesn't help much either. I had a biker ahead of me but when he got to a pull-off, he did. Didn't make a lot of difference though, it was still wet and slippery. Ended up following a bunch of HD riders the last mile or two. Not much to complain about, they didn't pull over and I didn't particularly care. Hellbender was a different story, Stuck behind two bikers who thought the yellow line was there to ride on (or cross, or ignore depending on the curve). That wasn't so nice. I almost followed them just so I could say something about the lousy riding. Anyway, safe and secure at Fontana. Denny, they're putting more coffee supplies in the rooms, they've changed to electronic locks, the wi-fi works and it's time to start thinking abouit dinnner.
My GoPro 4 came yesterday, so tomorrow is it's break in. I'll let you know how well (or not) it works.
My GoPro 4 came yesterday, so tomorrow is it's break in. I'll let you know how well (or not) it works.
of the colors.
10-17-2014, 05:49 AM
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Every time I come to Fontana, I am always amazed at the number of people who drive across the "infamous" Dragon in their Buicks and BMW's and never give one moment of thought to the road they're driving. Well, maybe to complain about all the turns and "why do those stupid people in sports cars and motorcycles keep flashing their lights and yell at us?" There is a thundering (clogging?) group of cloggers here at the moment. Other than Grover, not a single sports car in the parking lot. However, there are lots of Fords and Toyotas and yep, a Buick or two. I wonder how many of the people here know (or care) that this is one of the finest driving roads in the Eastern (and maybe the entire) US?
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10-17-2014, 12:43 PM
#9
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Once again I got lucky and had to follow some jerkwad from Vermont riding a bike and practically stopping at every turn (there are a lot of turns, you know how excited I was), Flashed the lights and pointed to 245 CLEARLY MARKED Pull-offs but he was way too busy waving to other organic speedbumps coming the other way to pay attention to the slowly building group of cars behind him. I used to ride and I used to use my mirrors to know when to get out of the way of someone who wanted to go fast,
Speaking of which, I've seen two Chrysler Prowlers on the Dragon and neither one of them could manage to stay in their own lane, Both were either riding the line or crossing it with impunity. Is there something in a Prowler owners DNA that prevents them from staying on the correct side of the road? Why do people speed up when you come up behind them and show signs that you might want to pass? I passed a SUV, 4 motorcycles and some old dude in a Buick on 28 coming back from Robbinsville, What ever made the Buick think he could go fast enough to keep me from passing (and I just wanted to go the speed limit which is 55. Apparently that's too fast for some peoplel)
Speaking of which, I've seen two Chrysler Prowlers on the Dragon and neither one of them could manage to stay in their own lane, Both were either riding the line or crossing it with impunity. Is there something in a Prowler owners DNA that prevents them from staying on the correct side of the road? Why do people speed up when you come up behind them and show signs that you might want to pass? I passed a SUV, 4 motorcycles and some old dude in a Buick on 28 coming back from Robbinsville, What ever made the Buick think he could go fast enough to keep me from passing (and I just wanted to go the speed limit which is 55. Apparently that's too fast for some peoplel)