I like the picture of MM riding b!tch with zuk.

See if anyone is like one state over from you who is going and maybe you could ride there and catch a ride that way....

Art Webb

I looked into renting a bike when I was down in that area last fall.  I drove down in a car with my wife, and we thought about renting a bike for a day and took riding gear - but the week ended up cold and often rainy so we never rented anything.  Rentals run from a daily rate of $ 124 for something like a KLR 650 to nearly $ 200 for a full dressed Harley.  There are lots of places in the area and one or two even deliver the bikes to the place you are staying.  This is the one closest to the Blue Ridge Motorycle Campground and the one that we had considered renting from.
http://www.smokymountainsteelhorses.com/miscpage_005.asp

I am sure by the time you add in their insurance the cost goes up.  When we rented a Harley in Florida the price was $ 80 for a 9-5 day and the insurance was another $ 40.

I'll be traveling with the wife in my truck and towing the bikes in a trailer (can't do the ramp thing with my truck because of health).

We are heading to west ten/ken border for a day (clean up moms burial site) then heading to mmr's on the 19th.

Hmmm, Lancer I'd love to share a ride / gas / driving duties, not sure I can stretch it to 10+ days, I have the vacation / holiday time but not sure the boss could cover me for that long
there aren't many there who are trained for my job, and while it's simple, it's also demanding

Old rider did you mean I-10? Columbus Tx is at the juncture of 10 and 71, about 70 miles outside houston headed for San Antonio
not sure how big a trailer you're pulling though, nor weather 3 in the truck would work (depends on the truck of course

ooooh Dave renting a KLR sounsd like a blast, I've wanted to try one of those forever  

Lancer if someone else asks, go ahead with that, I am not at all certain I'll be able to do the dragon run at all, and I'd rather someone who can, does, if going with you makes or breaks it for them
as much as I'd like to ride the dragon, it might be more a 'bucket list' thing for me, or even a 'pipe dream' thing
don't put any takers off on my account

How bad do I want it? Not bad enough to quit (or lose) my job over it

there's what you want, and there's the reality of your life, and you gotta know where to draw the line
I've yet to do the 3 sisters or the Devils back bone, either, and they're both in my state, in fact the 3 sisters are about 100 miles away from where I live, according to mapquest

I'm in columbus, Texas, about 80 miles outside Houston, and I was wrong, the three sisters are more like 200 miles away in medina, tx

http://www.motorcycleroads.com/75/555/Texas/The-Three-Sisters-(AKA-The-Twiste...

suppossed to be 100 miles of nice snakey roads

also, i went for a longer highway speed ride on my bike today, and didn't like it much, thinking I might need to modify some, see this thread
http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1396321125/0#0