The last couple of weeks I’ve been recounting what I deemed as my first big girl ride. With little experience riding I rode the infamous Tail of the Dragon, a road with 318 curves in 11 short miles. It scared me to death, so much so that we decided to take a different route home, the Cherohola Skyway which ended up being just as challenging and took 3 hours! It was all exhilarating albeit a bit petrifying also. Now we head back to Illinois where McGyver says “11 curves in 318 miles”….I think I can handle that!
May 24, 2005
The next morning we got up, showered, packed and hit the road. This day I rode with a lot more confidence – McGyver knew it too-we rode home at 85 mph and he didn’t hesitate in anything knowing that I would be able to hang.
I had graduated from beginner to intermediate.
That’s all I wrote about the ride home, I guess I figured there wasn’t much to tell in comparison to riding the Tail of the Dragon and the Cherohola Skyway. I still have a few more pics though that I drug up out of our archives…
Love a man in leather!
Don’t look down….
I don’t know if I was saying “It was this big” or “it was this close”?
You gotta appreciate a sign like this…who cares about the next gas stop?
Finally home. McGyver’s beard is definitely wind blown!
Hey Rhonda. This is awesome!!! I live just over an hour from the Tail Of The Dragon. Awesome road!!!
After doing the dragon and exploring the area, we seriously considered moving to the area, we really liked it. But life brought us to Montana…
Yah … Intermediate 🙂
Kudos to you. We have a sport bike and are not sure if we want to take it down with us or not later this year. I know my man would love it, but I know he would be one of those people that push it a little too far (not with me on the back of course). I think your trip sounds amazing and I think its great you and Lonnie did it! It sounds like even though it was a bit scary it was an amazing event.
How interesting. We don’t live far from Joyce Kilmer Park and the Tail of the Dragon. We’ve driven it by car in the fall when the leaves had changed, never by bike. It’s one windy road and a whole lot of curves. I’m proud of you for going by bike. Go girl!
Sam
Rhonda … You have been nominated for my NEW Food Stories Award for Excellence in Storytelling. Check out my site for the details.
Thanks for sharing this story. One of the best things about blogging is we can write down and share our stories!
An interesting read and congratulations! I have read about the “Tail of the dragon” before and it certainly seems to be a daunting ride, I would love to have the opportunity to do it one day.
Keep up the good work.