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Getting There - Aneel's Travelogue

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Tail of the Dragon Lexington, KY, Sunday, 06 November 2011 5:59pm

Today's goal was to ride US 129, "The Tail of the Dragon" (AMA Favorite #3). It's reputed to have more than 300 turns in the space of 11 miles. I didn't count, but I can believe it. These are not the wide, sweeping turns of a road like the Cherohala Skyway, but tight switchbacks. I scraped my footpegs more than once going around them. After finishing the route, I stopped at a souvenir shop (it's kind of funny how many of the roads out here have souvenir shops dedicated to the road) to pick up a sticker, and headed back along the Tail the other way.

The rest of the day's riding was less twisty, but still fun. The roads to and from the Tail were fast, with sweeping curves. I took the Foothills Parkway up to the Interstate. When I got bored of the Interstate, I found a "Scenic Byway" that paralleled it for most of the way and took that instead.