Tail of the Dragon

[simbob]

Western NC and southwest VA and over into TN is just crawling with that kind of road with a lot less traffic and law enforcement attention.

Exactly.

The Dragon is now a nightmare of families in minivans being treated as moving chicanes by imitation Rossis and Schumacher wannabes with no training, experience or ability. You may know what you're doing, but that doesn't matter when somebody coming the other way overcooks a corner and swings wide into you or somebody behind you decides to pinch you into the rocks with a combination outside pass and late apex transitioning into a lowside with a shower of parts and sparks.

And then there are the people who pull over to watch the fun, pull out to join the mayhem and crowd the verge. It's like driving the old Chimney Rock Hillclimb with audience participation.

No thanks.

The bad news is that the publicity has ruined the Dragon on all but rare off-season occasions. The good news is that the marketing of the Dragon has made it an idiot magnet which has cleared some of the fools off of the other good roads -- at least those which don't lead directly to the Dragon. It's also a target-rich environment which now draws the police to generate revenue and to clean up the mess as the herd is thinned.

I think of the Dragon in Yogi Berra terms.