This past Saturday we got up just before dawn so we could have a really good chance of running through the entire 318 turns in 11 miles that is Deals Gap unimpeded. And our planned worked to perfection. I got to drive both from south to north and back from north to south without having to slow down for anything except my fear of driving off the mountainside.
After the first trip through, at the north end, we pulled into what used to be a gravel lot, but is now paved and took a brief break. We only stayed for a minute or so for fear of some slug of a vehicle getting in ahead of us. Just as we hopped back in the Emperor a car did go by heading south, but I wasn’t too worried about it slowing me down as it was a 2-door BMW 3 series. To be sure he would be no trouble we took another brief break after about a mile at the Calderwood Dam overlook at the top of the hill.
In the 15-20 minutes since we passed the approximate mid-point of the Gap, one of the intrepid “Tail of the Dragon” photographers had set up shop. This resulted in the photo above, 1 of 5 he took on my way by,which is now become the Emperor’s new Royal Portrait. As it turns out we probably didn’t need the break, because when I went to find that morning’s photos, the set right in front of ours was of that white BMW and it had M badges on it, so if the driver was there like me, to “drive” the road, I couldn’t have kept up with him if I tried.