My nephew was given an early medical discharge from the Marines last week and has been stationed near Ft. Worth, TX. So rode here to my place in N. Georgia on his was to northern KY to visit his 2 kids (living with his Ex).
He's got a beautiful, copper colored recent Vrod. Thats likely the Harley I would want.
Rode some roads around the area Saturday, most of which were visited during the Vogel rally and wound up in Helen for supper.
Sunday he wanted to ride the Dragon. We took the ride up US129 past Vogel and straight up 129 to Deals Gap, got there just before noon and had lunch.
I turned him loose to ride the Dragon and on his way to Knoxville and north while I tried a new road.
The Fontana Road is the 'other' road which runs north of US129 coming to a junction at Deals Gap. I haven't ridden it before.
What a treat. Its NC28 and runs all the way to Franklin, a 2 hour ride of mostly narrow 2 lane twisty slow road. There were a couple spots where it was 4 lane or improved, but not too many miles of that. A lot of NC28 overlooks the Little Tennessee River.
At Franklin there are lots of good riding roads to jump to, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Stay on NC28 to The Highlands and US64 east, north on 441 to Maggie Valley or Gatlinburg, or US64 back towards Murphy, NC.