Waynesville, NC

I left Birmingham two days ago and headed north to Nashville. On the way I stopped off at the Jack Daniel's distillery for a tour. Ironically, the distillery is in a dry county, so there were no samples to be had. I did lean quite a bit about the whiskey making process though. After arriving in Nashville at Justine's (sister of my previous host, Simone and #1 fan, Eli) apartment, we headed to the Loveless Inn for some fine southern food, where I promptly ordered a Jack on the rocks, which I enjoyed with a new found appreciation. After dinner we headed back to the Vanderbilt campus, where Justine is a student. Returning to the college party scene made me feel a bit old, but in all, I feel I represented well. In the morning, we had breakfast at Nashville's famous pancake restaurant, which was easily worth the 20 minutes we spent waiting on line outside. After breakfast, I got the bike all packed up. As I went to unfasten the lock that I had placed between the front wheel and the frame, the key snapped off in the lock. I was stuck! Luckily, Justine didn't have class, so I borrowed her car and drove to the tool rental store, where I rented what the man behind the counter called the ultimate universal key, a set of 30" bolt cutters! I drove the 3 miles back to campus and had the lock off with one chomp of the bolt cutters. Once I returned the cutters and the car, I was on the road within 30 minutes of breaking the key. Knoxville was in my sights that afternoon but the set back with the lock and pouring rain caused me to switch my aim to a state park just west of Knoxville. It was getting dark as I turned north off the main highway towards the park. The road took me up into the hills past a high security state prison. Prisoners, taking an evening stroll behind the barbed wire, waved enthusiastically as I passed. Just as the sun fell below the hills I reached the park gate to find it closed with a sign "park closes at sunset." I turned around, drove the 20 miles back to the highway in the dark and got a hotel room. Due to the comfort of that room, this morning I got somewhat of a late start. The goal for today was the fabled Tail Of The Dragon, a stretch of RT129 that crosses the Tennessee, N Carolina border through the smokey mountains and boasts 318 curves in 11 miles. The endless rain and a gathering of the Smart Car owners club that had the road clogged with 103 golf cart-like- vehicles limited my enjoyment of the road but it was thrilling nonetheless. At the southern end of The Dragon there is a motel/ campground/souvenir shop/rest stop that calls itself a motorcycle resort. The cafeteria had the feel of a ski lodge with riders in full rain gear swarming around for lunch and hot drinks. Outside there is a tree heavily adorned with broken motorcycle parts (pictured). It's called The Tree of Shame and the parts are off of some of the thousands of bikes that have crashed on The Dragon over the years. After drying out for an hour at the resort I continued east in the pouring rain. When the water in my boots reached my ankles I stopped and bought another hotel room. Tomorrow I head north into Virginia.