With my jet-lag gradually fading I managed to get a half decent night's sleep, well, until 5am at least. With the bikes due to arrive at 8am I was keen to get up and ready, excited about being reunited with my bike and having my own means of transportation. As we hung around outside Dan's workshop we got news that the driver had been delayed due to the a problem on the interstate. The driver was taking an alternate route – over the “Dragon's Tail”, which is a very famous road in the national park not far from Townsend which has 318 bends in just 11 miles... Unsurprisingly it's a mecca for the bikers from all over who come to ride the twisty road to the café at the top. We also got news of a fatality on the road yesterday, a sportsbike rider colliding with a trailer – the idea of the big articulated lorry with our container full of bikes trying to get down the road was surreal. It did arrive eventually, though, just after we'd finished eating our breakfast. The driver jumped from his cab and proceeded to regail us of his journey in the most animated fashion. Chris aptly described him as a “cartoon character”.

Still, he could drive his truck, though, and backed it in to the narrow driveway to GSM Motorent.

There then followed a few minutes of anxious waiting while the guys used a hacksaw to remove the customs seal before the moment of truth. As the doors were opened, revealing... all the bikes almost exactly as they had been when we loaded them in Pershore. The relief on Chris' face was palpable. As it must have been on mine.

Now we had the not insignificant task of unloading them. With no suitable ramp we improvised, using Dan's flat-bed pickup truck, onto which the bikes where lowered out of the container. The pickup was then moved forwards and the ramp we did have used to unload the bike onto terra firma.

With temperatures soaring and the inside of the container resembling an oven it was very hot and hard work, but one by one we got them out until there was a line of lovely bikes all waiting for their owners to arrive. And mine in the middle just wanting to be ridden!

After the 2^nd shower of the day I checked my messages and discovered that Aaron and Harold would be in the BMW dealership in Knoxville at 3pm to get knobbly tyres fitted to their bikes. It was now gone 1.30pm, but I would have just enough time to ride the Dragon's Tail and meet up with them before heading up to the motel in Jellico. I bid a quick farewell to Chris, Simon and Dan and loaded up my bike. It was at this point that I realised that bringing all my camping gear when riding a trail across America, on a route that stops every night at a motel, was probably not that bright. The gear weighs quite a lot and is rather bulky, not ideal when riding on dirt. But I still want to camp after the trail so decided to leave it on and get on with riding.

The Dragon's Tail is certainly an interesting road. It really does have a lot of bends, although I didn't count them to see if the official figure (which varies from 317 to 318) was accurate. It did have some surprises, though, but not caused by the road itself, which was no worse than many I've ridden in the Alps, and with a better surface than many too. First of the surprises was that I saw several professional photographers set up on some of the trickier bends, snapping away at the bikes and cars making their way up or down. Second was perhaps to be expected, and that was the relatively poor cornering skill of some of the rides I saw. Unlike in the UK, most riders lack sufficient training and this shows as they thruppeny-bit around the bends and frequently run wide into the oncoming lane on the exit as a result of turning in too early and not reading the road correctly. On the way down I got stuck for a while behind a young lad on a sportsbike who was shifting his weight right across the bike and hanging off like a racer. Would have looked cool had he been taking a good line round the corners and going a little quicker than the walking pace he was. Once I got past him I pulled away easily despite not trying simply through better positioning in the turns, something I was taught a long time ago.

But I digress. The top of the Dragon's Tail is where there is a café and fuels stop, and where they sell T-shirts proclaiming that the owner “survived the Dragon's Tail”. I bought one, wondering if it was premature, as I still had to get back down...

Which I did, and then rode up the interstate into Knoxville following my sat-nav to the BMW dealership. There was no sign of the 2 BMW F800GS' I was hoping to see, so I went inside to check if Aaron and Harold and been through and there they were! So now our little group is formed and ready to ride the trail, a full day earlier than planned. While we waited for their tyres to be fitted we chatted and I mentioned my camping gear dilemma. Aaron, owning a BMW dealership himself, had a plan. Ship the bag with their part-worn tyres to Portland and pick it up at the end of the trail. Perfect! So I transferred everything I needed into the smaller bag and sent the larger one on its way ahead of me. Hope I see it again!

We then rode the 70 or so miles to the motel at Jellico from where the trail starts. We passed through Maryville, where I was struck by the number of churches. There were more of them than shops or houses, at least on the route we took. A pizza for dinner was washed down with Sprite as there is a really odd thing going on in this part of the States. Due to liqour licencing laws (which are prohibitively difficult for most eating establishment), it is impossible to get an alcoholic drink with your meal. To buy booze you have to go to... the gas station! Yes, you can by booze whilst driving but not whilst eating...

So that's what we did, and enjoyed a couple of cold beers whilst studying the maps to work out a detour around Catooga Wildlife Park. It seems that a recent change of legislation has upset the locals. Recently, they changed the law classification for wild hogs (the animal kind, not the group of Harley riders in the film with John Travolta). They have been classed as a nuisance and are to be subject of a cull. This has angered the local wild hog hunters, who have sabotaged the trail through the park with nails and spikes and various other objects designed to puncture tyres of passing vehicles. So the trail has been closed, and we'll need to deviate on the highways round it. But that's for tomorrow...