Durty Gurl (Spring, '13 Dragon Run)

This what the car looked like in the parking lot of the hotel on Monday morning.  For Tuesday morning's look, add 5
inches of fresh snow.

I've never thought of my cars as gendered, but Durty Gurl came to mind after two days on the Dragon. It resulted in more salt, sand, and just plain crud than "she" had seen in one place at one time before.  A plow went through early Monday morning and left coils of road salt mid-corner on the tightest bends.  Monday's four passes were crunchy.

My fellow Dragoneer for this trip was Hotshoe Wannabe, as he was a year ago (when the weather was mild and sunny).  We arrived Sunday evening just before the snow.  On Monday morning, we checked the Tail of the Dragon Store's on-line cameras: wet, but not slushy.  "Let's take a shot..."  The Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort was closed, so we drove into Robbinsville for gas.  The stretch of U.S. 129 between the dam and Robbinsville winds along the Cheoah River--gorgeous.  It was the discovery of this trip.

We decided to go to Franklin on NC 28 on Monday afternoon, hoping that the Dragon would be dry on Tuesday.  NC 28 is great fun at each end--almost Dragon-like.  The history of Franklin is worth exploring, from an Indian burial mound to the last surrender of Confederate forces east of the Mississippi (a month after Appomattox).  The town's Historical Museum has good artifacts and maps. Monday evening, in the hotel lobby, I heard something I hope never to hear again.  A young man with a melodic tenor voice, playing a ukelele, did a rendition of "The Weight."  Dude!  You're covering Levon Helm's reedy tenor and The Band's powerful descending chords?!?!?  Simply awful.

Tuesday morning, Durty Gurl had 5 inches of fresh snow on her and the Dragon Store's camera showed a snow-covered road.  We waited it out.  By lunchtime, the Dragon was just wet.  But the DGMR now had a sign taped to the door saying "Closed Due To Inclement Weather."  So much for Hotshoe's souvenir baseball cap.  Wusses!  ;-)

Needless to say, we had the road almost to ourselves for eight passes.  A crew was clearing small trees (and sawing them up in the road) around Mile Marker 3.  The worksite was well-marked with temporary signs a few bends before.  At the Overlook we talked to a guy driving a Saturn crossover SUV with Virginia plates.  He was just passing through.  He'd heard about the Dragon and wanted to see it. We also chatted with a couple of guys from Michigan driving a Subie WRX who where there for serious passes.  A Honda S-2000 with Florida plates made a couple of passes.  We saw one cruiser motorcycle make a single careful through-pass on his way north.  The rider deserves an award for something: the ambient temperature was right at freezing.  

It turns out you can have almost as much fun on the Dragon when it's wet.  Our passes were at about 80-85% of dry pass speed (as measured by speedo readings mid-corner).  So if a dry pass is at 8/10's, these passes were at 6/10's+.  While you can't bear down, the sense of rhythm is still there.  You can have plenty of fun on a Damp Dragon.

Although this pic does not show it as well as I'd hoped, the front wheels and tires are encrusted with completely dry
road salt.  The rears are wet.  Of course, in a front-driver, the rears are just along for the ride.  The pic was taken after
a 6/10's pass with moderate braking at 32 degrees ambient.  After an 8/10's pass in 70 degrees ambient last fall, the
front spokes were too hot to touch.   The Dragon pumps a lot of heat through the brakes, hubs, wheels and tires of a
street car.  I like to let my wheels cool down to "warm to the touch" before making another hard pass.  And as the end
of a pass nears, I slow down to let the airstream cool the brake rotors (a Killboy tip that works well).