No trip to Deal’s Gap is complete without a souvenir. At fist your only option was a sticker from the Crossroads of Time a gas station/motorcycle campground where NC28 joined US129, the “official” starting point of the 11 mile trip.
As word of the very curvy stretch with no entries spread, attendance at the Tail of the Dragon grew. Now they have expanded the store to accommodate all manner of stickers, t-shirts, videos, mugs, etc. and to go along with the campground they have added a small motel for motorcyclists. Then a lot of other places jumped on the bandwagon and started selling Dragon merchandise too.
Nowadays there is another option for a memento from your trip through the Gap, just like most thrill rides at amusement parks, you can now purchase a photo of yourself & vehicle “slaying the dragon.” It all started back in 2001 with a fellow called Killboy, when he would go out on weekends and snap photos of the traffic, then he would sell a high resolution copy to you off the internet.
There is obviously money to be made at this endeavor, because where there was once just one, there are now at least three. On our drive through yesterday, which occurred on a random weekday in the middle of September, we passed by 4 tents set up at various pullouts on the road manned by photographers. Two were from the same outfit, US 129 Photos, which is where the above photo was cribbed from. Killboy & 129 Slayer haven’t uploaded their photos yet.
Depending on what the other’s photos look like I may buy an image of the Purple Whale driving the Gap. And I may even buy one of the 300C that was right behind me that was loaded with the Canadian Cousins.