has anyone been this way before?

They constantly help one another.
Right of Way is not an ego thing withem.
If it helps the bigger vehicle, give way rather than insist on the proper traffic law being adherred to. (Likely most do not even know the laws. They do what is practical for the situation.)

The fatalities on US129 need not happen.
If you can't see far enough ahead to avoid a possible obstacle, SLOW to where you can evade or stop before hitting it.

If th.is a short-cut for truckers, they should be allowed to use it.

 

Looks like if every one did the 35 mph speed limit , there would not be an issue . You run around a blind corner at 80 and find road blocked , whos at fault? It may be a truck or a 60 foot tree that has fell. Next the bikers would want to ban trees! And yes there are local del that need to go , few but... In one pic there was a day cab lowboy, He knew where he was , He had a job to go do ! so he toke a legal road to go do it.

 

They should just go to wal mart and borrow some of those fancy clearance bars.

 

I went down there for a few days when I went home last weekend. It is tons of fun on a bike. I had enough trouble with my pickup and trailer. I wouldn't even think of doing it in a Semi.

As far as it being a restricted route, it is. On the North Carolina side. NC finally passed laws prohibiting trucks with trailers longer than 30 ft. I came across a local guy with small day cab and a 28ft pup and he was keeping it on his side of the road.

TN only has warning signs up. There are turn arounds all the way up to beginning of the 11 miles. Problem is that trucks can run all the way to the TN/NC border before hitting the signs saying they are prohibited. There isn't room at the border to turn around though. So the driver is then forced to run illegally on the NC side.

 

Colombia has one call the "highway of death".