Greenville to Robbinsville can be just a 3-hour drive, but checking ‘Avoid Highways’ turns it into three and a half. I managed to increase that to 5 hours. While bombing around on a backroad, if I came upon a group of slow-moving vehicles, at the next possible chance I would turn onto a road that was heading in the general direction I wanted to go, east or north. Worked like a charm 3 out of 4 times, but even going in the wrong direction on a clear, swoopy road beats going slowly in the right direction.
The road to the beginning of Deals Gap, AKA The Tail of The Dragon, is fun in and of itself. When I got to the intersection at the start, no one was coming my way, so I blasted off. I told myself that I would go as far as I could until I came upon a slow-moving vehicle. There are dozens of spots where they have paved turnouts for slow movers, but some people refuse to use them because they might lose ten seconds of travel time. About the time I caught up with someone, they were catching someone even slower. The odds of one car turning out to let you by are small to begin with, but with two, forget it.
I had gone about 5 miles of the eleven, so I just whipped a U-turn and drove back to Robbinsville. At least I got a few of the famed turns in. Luckily I had also already been by two of the many photographers who park in a spot and snap photos of every car that passes by. They all have a website that you can visit and look for your car and hopefully buy one or more high-resolution images of you driving. I have purchased several of the previous 2 Miatas, and one time I drove the 2010 Hyundai Sonata through the Gap and I bought a photo or two of that car as well.
Here are today’s proofs from the 2 photographers that I passed:
