DAY 3 - Tail of the Dragon

Reuben's always on call.

Ken treading slowly over the rocks in the stream.

Our first discovery of leaves changing.

The sunrise view from our balcony in Chattanooga.DAY 3 – Chattanooga, TN

Woke up to another beautiful day, about 60 degrees as the sun began to melt the low hanging clouds away. The view from our room’s balcony was sky brushed with a myriad of colors. We were all eager to head out towards North Carolina and to try a run of the Tail of the Dragon. This trail is a motorcyclist’s love because is contains 300 curves within an 11 miles ride. We thought it might be fun for Mustangs too.

As we made our way through Tellico Plains and the Cherokee National Forest we discovered a plethora of scenery turnouts where we could literally watch the color changes of nature as we ascended through the Cherohala Skyway.

We took a break for lunch in the quaint little village of Robbinsville. Ken had already blazed this trail and knew about a local café, Lynn’s Place. After lunch we all shared in the dessert special, fried cheesecake with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. We had enough calories in that one dessert to maintain us through winter hibernation.

After lunch we found our way to Deals Gap where we made a beeline to purchase a t-shirt for ourselves as well as for a couple of grandchildren.

Now we were ready to meet the challenge of the 300 curves. But a damper was thrown at us as we approach mile 2. A gathering of cyclists was hovering close to the road’s edge in one of the larger curves. One rider was waving us to slow down. That’s when we noticed a body on the side of the road and several men tugging desperately to lift the bike off of the person. Another person had stopped a rider approaching from the opposite direction and asked them to go down to call the EMS. I believe at that time we all said a little prayer for that person and the good Samaritans. By the time we reached the end of the Tail of the Dragon a young lady came running up to our cars. She asked us if we had seen a bike go down, one of the members of her group of ladies was missing. We told her that the young lady was being taken care of several people and that they had sent for help. At this point I believe we had all had enough of the curvaceous highway. Back tracking back to our starting point we could hear faint sounds of an approaching ambulance as we passed the young lady again. By this time she was awake and communicating with the people surrounding her. Relieve that she was responsive, we headed back down towards our evening’s destination of the Hemlock Inn in Bryson City, NC. This place is a throw back to the 1950’s. If you are looking for modern facilities with all the newest gadgets including TV, this place is not for you.

We meandered up the winding narrow road ready to end the day at a peaceful beautiful place with good food and gracious hosts. The owners were waiting for us at the front door. She led us to our over-sized round table and immediately began spoiling us with one good dish of food after another. We were served broccoli salad, homemade fried chicken and rice with white gravy, barbequed meatballs, sweet peas, apricot casserole, carrot casserole, fresh hot rolls with warm diced applesauce and pumpkin sauce. Our dessert was coconut cream pie that was very tasty, and I don’t like coconut.

After dinner our host brought us to our rooms and we unpacked our cars then met in our room to discuss our course of action for day 4 and have a nightcap. All in all it was an interesting day but we were all ready to call it an early night.