All Day in the Car, Part IV: We Drove the Dragon When the Dragon Wasn't Cool

I drove the 19 miles of the Foothills Parkway back to Hwy. 129. Along the way I finally got my view of the Tennessee Valley.

That blue line at the horizon is the easternmost edge of the Cumberland Plateau.

As I drove back along the Trail of the Dragon I thought about the times Lynne and I had driven the roads of East Tennessee and Western North Carolina in our 1963 Fiat 1500 Cabriolet. It was a fine roadster, and we flat wore it out.


Here's an ad from the day:

And here's our actual car:

Here I am taking my friend John Alexander on a ride through the mountains.Lynne, with a camera, was scrunched behind the seats.

Here Lynne and I encounter a bear. I'm not sure who took the picture-- John, probably, taking his turn in the back seat.

That's Taffy between us, no doubt wonder why the hell we're not driving away from the bear. Our black poodle, Peppie, was certainly in the car also, but isn't visible.

We drove the 11 winding miles of the Tail of the Dragon Dragon in our Fiat a number of times-- and it's possible we negotiated it on our Honda 350 motorcycle as well!

Before it WAS the Dragon!

Next: All Day in the Car, Part V: The Fat Buddy's Run