Got home this evening from a fantastic week-end trip to Wheels Through Time Museum in Maggie Valley, NC. Those of you planning to ride Tail of the Dragon or the Blue Ridge Parkway MUST stop and visit this awesome museum and spend some time with its owner, Dale; former owner of Dale's Harley Davidson in Mt. Vernon, Il.

While you are in the area, also ride NC Hwy 209 from I-40, exit 24 (?), North to Hot Spring, NC. It's about 30 miles of great twistys with tall rock walls on one side, valleys and streams on the other. Have a cool one at the Paddlers Pub, then go back down 209 and experience this great road travelling in the opposite direction. The scenery is great, but you will be too busy riding the curves to pay much attention to it. Best safety feature of 209--Trucks are PROHIBITED on the road.

As for the Museum, Dale, the owner is unbelieveable. For instance, he loves to do burn outs down the aisle of the museum on a $300,000.00 Hocker (sp.?) bike. He does this on request, often. Before I saw him do this, I noticedskid-type marks of about 100' in lengthon the floor of one aisle in the museum (I'll post pics of the rubber he's laid down tomorrow) and suspected that perhaps he did burn outs. But the aisle isn't very wide; maybe six feet; with lots of exhibits on both sides. So he jumps on this bike, kick starts it, cruises around the museum floor to his start point, revs the bike and takes off. UN-f'ing-believeable.

The exhibit space is about the size of a grocery store with a mezzanine level--it is loaded with well organized displays of military bikes, trikes, every motorcycle imagineable, some cool cars, etc. (Again, I will post some pics tomorrow).

And Dale loves to talk to his visitors and all the bikes run. He fired up a 1928 Harley outside the entrance and it has external pushrods, tappets, and springs--so a neophyte like me can see how this machine operates.

He also has outside the museum a super-sized chopper; I parked my EG next to it and took a pic this a.m. and my bike looks like a child's toy. And the thing runs--one of my friends was invited to sit on it and Dale fired the engine up on it--don't know what it is--I was too busy taking pics of my friend and his cheek-hurting grin to ask.

I could go on and on about WheelsThrough Time and what a unique and unforgettable experience it was; and how amazing it was to actually get to have a couple of conversations with the owner, see his burnouts, etc. But, if you go to Deal's Gap, the Blue Ridge Parkway west of Charlotte, the Cherohalla Skyway, etc., you owe it to yourself to visit this incredible museum and ride NC 209 to Hot Springs.

We stayed at Smoky Falls Lodge in Maggie Valley; terrific accommodations; very biker friendly(providing covered motorcycle parking); excellent all you can eat dinnerbuffet for $10 and breakfast for $7; extremely friendly folks running it. We even hadthe Ride Like A Pro IVDVD with us and watched it on theDVD equipped TV after dinner last night. But there are a ton of other accommodations along NC 19 in Maggie Valley to choose from.

You can visit Wheels Through Time Museums at their webite: wheelsthroughtime.com; and you can Mapquest it by putting Maggie Valley, NC as the destination. It's only about an hour, maybe, from Deal's Gap. I am going to Mapquest Deal's Gap to Maggie Valley and edit this to include the mileage. Here's the Mapquest directions from Deal's Gap (Tapoco, NC) to Maggie Valley: [URL=http://www.mapquest.com/directions/main.adp?go=1&do=nw&rmm=1&un=m&cl= EN&qq=1ADqpk24ofCxIV4Oehylrp61YR6zcWnRNwtO2x88 GZ%252fzcf6DgshruaNl%252bm44nfeHfxBVKv6%252foOT8kZ ySuwV3Adh%252fooEdrSRvhQvMeTOLKmvu9sggPBRvUnTlfwoG zKjh&ct=NA&r=f&rsres=1&1y=US&1 ffi=&1l=&1g=&1pl=&1v=

 

I agree Wheels Through Time Museum is a great place and Dale is a great guy...

 

We were down that way the first week of May. The bike that he did the burnouts with is called a crocker. I think there were only 80-85 of them made. I can e-mail someone with a pick if they want to post it. The Chopper outside has a seat on it that can hold 5-6 guys on it. The engine is a S+S, somewhere around 115-120 cu.in. When started, I thought it was a V-8. Dale and his son were riding two Harleys that had the suicide shifters and I think a heel toe clutch. "Toe to go" and passed us up on a mountain top and across a dirt/stone semi road through the mountains which ends up in Cherokee. It was a decent atv trail to me. Both Dale and his son are really good people. Have been there twice and plan to go again. How about that inline 12 Dusenberg and all the board track racers!

 

We have not got to go to his museum in NC, but bought our first harley from Dale at his dealership in Mt.Vernon back in 2000. Dale has to be of the nicest guys you could ever meet. I remember standing there looking at a bike that day and Dale walks up to me and his salesman and said "son they are built to ride not look at, now you and your lovely lady take it for a spin" you guessed it, we bought it as soon as we got back. We just bought our second bike at Dales "now owned by Surdyke" the first of march, a 05 FLHT.

 

I agree. Been there many times. 209 is a great ride. 129 from Robbinsville up to the Dragon is another good ride. I was up there last weekend myself.

 

Been there several times and plan on more trips back. What a great group of people and the history that is in that place is amazing.