I hope everyone made it back okay. As usual I had a great time, thanks again to Raul for putting the event together and everyone for helping to make it the best one yet!!!

My trip back:
I ended up leaving at I left at 3:30AM because I just couldn't sleep, got gas and got on the Dragon for a 4:00AM run.

Let me tell you, it's scary out there at that time of night. I pulled over at the Overlook to look at the stars, turned off my headlights and was totally amazed at just how dark it is up there at night, no city lights whatsoever. It was like I walked into a closet and shut the door, I couldn't see a foot in front of me.

Like S2kJones said, it's very easy to overdrive you headlights. It's so hard to get a feel for speed at night and you get into a curve and find yourself applying more and more brake as you determine just how sharp the turn is.

I saw a possum and a deer crossing HWY129 but they were pretty far ahead so I had plenty of time to react. I only saw 3 other vehicles on The Dragon, all pickup trucks and all heading the other direction. I had the "cleanest" run ever with nobody else in front of me on either the Foothills Pkwy or The Dragon. Before I knew it I was down to the dam that's South of Deal's gap. By then it was 4:17AM so the run down the Dragon only took about 15 minutes. I went slower than I would if I had some daylight but it was a lot of fun.

By 6:00AM I was on US19 just outside of Dahlonega, really nobody on the road at that time on a Sunday morning. I pulled into my garage right at 7:00AM just as the sun was coming up, 3 1/2 hours total which is probably the quickest I've ever gotten back from Alcoa. All in all a good drive home but I was dead tired from not getting but about 3 hours sleep the past two nights.

Click here to see pics from Saturday.

 

Glad to hear you made it home ok. We were a little concerned about you heading out alone, in the dark, on the dragon.

 

Thanks Dave, I'm not happy about being the "odd man out" and heading back by myself, in the dark, on the dragon but I really felt that was the best use of the morning hours for me.

 

I would have done the same thing....but...you still get a

 

Glad you made it home safe! The night runs really are the way to go through "clean"... just need some rally style headlights

 

Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking as I was driving through, rally style headlights would have been really good to have.

 

The night run was awsome. Joe and I took it pretty easy most of the way . Only drove fast in the sections that I remembered very well. Didn't want to go over a cliff with no one to see us, except the possums and Bears. Oh yea we say one possum and one Bear, it was pretty cool. Can't wait to do it again