7/5/07

I made it to the Tail of the Dragon! We’ve even made the run once already. Well, we made the run in the tow rig. Here’s the poop. We left Meridian and headed east on I-20. We turned north-ish on, um, ok I just realized I left the directions in the truck so I can’t give the play by play of the drive. We stopped for lunch in Fort Payne, Alabama. From there we continued north-ish on whatever that was. At some point we all got split up again and rolled independent of each other. No, wait. We got split up before lunch. Ok, so we were split up and rolling along by ourselves. We were under the impression that we were at the end of the line. Someone called to say that we were stopping in Fort Payne. They gave us an exit and a restaurant name just as I passed it. Apparently, we were the front of the line somehow. By the time we got turned around and back to the restaurant, half of the group was there. We sat down and waited for the rest to show up. They did and we ate. After lunch we headed north-ish again. Somehow the two rigs going to Tapoco got separated from the three of us going to Fontana Lodge. We rolled along following Phil’s directions and wound up in a town called Cleveland Tennessee where we turned east again. We began to follow Tony Calvert since he had a GPS system. It gave really simple directions straight to the lodge. When we stopped to gas up the rigs and the Sevens, we looked at a map on the wall. Someone noticed that the road the GPS was sending us down was… the Tail of the Dragon! Tony and his wife Dawn, seriously that’s their names, were mortified! I thought it was funny. We rolled on. We got on US 129 and headed towards the lodge. I was not really impressed, at first. Of course once we hit the Tail itself it was truly impressive. That “300 turns in ten miles” claim doesn’t seem so optimistic after all. It is going to be interesting in the Seven. We got to the point where the road splits to go to either Fontana or Tapoco and headed toward Fontana. It was quite a bit further than expected and the GPS directions “gave out” about half a mile before we found the place. I say that because we turned and it said something to the effect of “500 feet to go.” We did finally find the place and checked in. Unfortunately, there is no phone signal so I can’t use my air card. There is wireless in the lobby but none in the room. We unloaded the car from the trailer and parked both. Now I'm here making a quick report before we go try to find some dinner. I haven’t taken any pictures yet so deal. I'll have more tomorrow. Toodles.