Señora and I recently returned from a week’s long road trip. First we went to Kentucky to visit my Aunt Betty, then to Asheville to visit the Biltmore and to spend the following day cruising around the Great Smokey Mountains. On the way back, we stopped in Lebanon, TN just outside Nashville to visit my Aunt Jackie. Both ladies have some physical health issues, but both are still very mentally sharp. I hope I get those Rush genes rather than the Carr genes. Five of the eight Carr sisters ended up with dementia.
I knew we would be tired after a day in the mountains, so I wanted to find a hotel just west of them rather than drive an extra two or three hours to Nashville. I started looking in Knoxville. Because there was a UT football game there that weekend, because it was fall foliage season, because it was close to Pigeon Ford, Dollywood, the rooms rates were astronomical. I expanded my circle of possibilities. We ended up in Lenoir City, TN. Yup, I never heard of it before then either.
One of the things I always hope for when I travel is serendipity. Obviously, you cannot plan for it, but if you leave a little breathing room in your schedule and have an open mind it can surprise you. Our little piece of serendipity this time was a road, US 129, also known as the Tail of the Dragon.
We had spent the first part of the day in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We did a few things there, but quickly decided it was much too crowded for us. So I picked a route that would keep us in the mountains for most of the rest of the day, then having us come out for an expended period next to a long lake, finally leading us into Lenoir City. Unbeknownst to us part of this passage would be on a piece of road that I had never heard of, but is extremely famous in that part of the world, US 129.
When we were in the national park the trees were pretty, but definitely past their prime. On US 129 they were absolutely popping. Señora was able to enjoy them, but I, on the other hand, had business to attend to. There were 318 curves in 11 miles, some of them very tight, and very rarely was there a bailout area. There was the tiniest of shoulders, generally a cliff face on one side, and a drop off on the other. In Arkansas, north of Ozark, running through the Boston Mountains, going east of Fayetteville is Arkansas Highway 23, known locally as the Pig Trail. There are probably two sources for this name. First as it is a back way to Fayetteville, home of the UA’s Razorbacks, but mainly because it is as curvy as a pig’s tail. US 129 makes that road look straight. I was so wishing we were in my MX-5 Miata rather than Señora‘s Outback.
At first I thought there was some sort of sports car rally or meet as we started seeing a superabundance of these disposable income vehicles, but I dismissed that idea due to it being such a mixture of conveyances. There were all types of sports cars from Corvettes to Miatas, but I did not see many pricey Eurpoean cars such as Ferraris or Maseratis. Plus, there were about 50 dealership’s worth of motorcycles on the road. As could be expected not everyone was driving sanely, but everyone, everyone, was very careful to stay on their side of the yellow line. The car show in itself was worth the price of admission. We both really enjoyed the scenery and the car show, and Señora was so happy that I was driving and not her.
Here is a link to more information on this road: Route US 129 – Dragon’s Tail.
Below is a video about this destination ride . Enjoy.
And so it went, very fast for some, but not so fast for the two of us.