Father son road trip ideas

I need to plan a road trip with my son. When he was 8 we left Knoxville on a week long trip where we went white water rafting in WV, up to the air museum at Wright Pat AFB, over to the Wright Bros house/shop, up to Kelly's island, and the last stop was the historic races at Mid-Ohio before heading home to TN.

Here are the facts for this years trip:

- That 8 yo is now a 15 and got his permit at the end of December. He has 21 hours of drive time and is doing really well. He wants a Jeep XJ. A fly and drive for an XJ also crossed my mind. 

- We watch and love all the Top Gear/Grand Tour adventures and a lot of Jeep off road videos.

- The trip should include on road, and maybe light off road via gravel/dirt roads. Nothing extreme as it will be a single vehicle trip. 

- I'm thinking camping as the main setup with the occasional hotel as needed. (If we take truck I have a camper shell we can add to sleep in and keep stuff dry)

- Fishing, preferably fly, but we have spin and bait casters too. 

- And any interesting stuff along the way. Specifically all car stuff. 

- No real direction or plans for the trip, and our online timeline is late May to early August. We have to be in town a couple weeks in July as he is signed up for a beginner welding class. 

- We would be leaving and returning to Knoxville. 

- Vehicle options are 2006 Tundra or 1950 Willys Jeep. I'm not letting him behind the wheel of the 911 just yet. If we take the Jeep that very much limits the distance we can travel. 

My first thought was the Blue Ridge parkway, as it has fishing, camping, scenery, and I know of some old gravel roads off the parkway. Second thought was backroads to AR, AL, MS, or KY. Last thought was backroads to NC or SC. We've seen a lot of NC but mostly via interstate. One of my buddies lives in central SC so we could go down there and fish for big ole river catfish, or maybe gators. I also thought about a road race at Road ATL or Petit Lemans but that race isn't until October. Or over to Skip Barber maybe. 

I'll listen to all suggestions and thoughts.

Fly out west. Buy a really old car and drive back on old roads. Camp, fish, break down, fit it.......

We ran into this guy in Yosemite and he was driving across the USA. You can see he had a ton of stuff in the back seat.
 

If he's a Jeep kid, Bantam Jeep fest in Butler, Pennsylvania (home of the first Jeep) would be a good stop if your trip points you north.  Weekend long festival in mid-June with a big show on Friday night on Main Street and activities all weekend, including trail rides (that a new XJ would be right at home on).

http://www.bantamjeepfestival.com/

Top gear drove Skyline drive and blue ridge parkway to VIR. Drive to DC or past to Philly then come back. See everything, air and space museum on the lawn and at Dulles would tie back to earlier trip. Roll up through Harper's Ferry and back down Shenandoah National Park, Skyline/blue ridge parkway. Go to the IMSA race at VIR in Aug. Then down through Ashville and tail of the dragon then home.

Alternative suggestion would be go straight over to VIR stopping at somewhere in between to off road in the mountains. Then go to outer banks of NC, if coming in from north stop by Grave Digger monster truck shop, drive and camp on the beach. Come back through Charlotte and hit up any nascar/HASS F1/Gopro motorsports complex. Then back through Ashville. 

May timing could hit Hyperfest at VIR.

octavious,

You live sort of in the center of where a lot of us want to vacation!!!

If you go into The Smoky MT Natl Park and into Cades Cove, on the South end of Cades Cove is a gravel/two rut road that goes South through the woods and comes out on the west end of the Tail of the Dragon.  I've done the road many times in street cars (some shallow creek fording).  It is a special way to be away from the maddening crowd, but really be in the wilderness. 

Do the Dragon. Get decals at Tapoco.   Wander over to the Natahala Outdoor Center and do whitewater.  Wander S.W. to Copperhill TN and do the Oconee on whitewater through the old Olympic Trials course.

Tons of off-roading and camping at Tellico Plains TN.

If you were NickD you might do the train ride at Blue Ridge Georgia.

All that and you are almost always only about 2 hours from home.

I could go on and on.... how many days you want to be on the trip?

All good ideas, thanks guys.
 

The trip can be up to a week including both weekends if need be.

We're in Smokey Mtn NP and Cherokee NF often for fishing, camping, etc. We've done the Dragon a couple times too. 

We are both F1 fans, and I forgot about Hass being in Charlotte. That's interesting. He'd love to go to a F1 race but not sure we can make that work. 

I've done BRP and Skyline, but it was on a motorcycle 10+ years ago. 

I forgot about VIR, and we have family in PA so that Jeep event may be an option too. 

I think I'd find the car then plan the adventure if you are looking to truly buy him a XJ. With the GRM crew being all over, I'm sure you could get someone to store it. 

With that said, I'm a little biased towards PA for the adventure you are seeking. Maybe because it is where I learned to drive in a CJ5 on the forest roads of North Central PA in the 80s. Go up to Watkins Glen for the 6Hr Imsa race up there then or Mid-Ohio for the Indy race. Spend a little time in the finger lakes and work your way back through the Allegheny National Forest. Spend a couple days up there then slowly work your way back. You already did the white water in WV but that is awesome. I also enjoyed Kayaking in MD. Then close it out with the parkway to the Asheville area and head across on what ever is open there. 

I didn't realize there were two threads for this - I just replied in the other one. In this one, I see mention of the possibility of an XJ fly and drive. Without question, this gets my vote. Not only will you have an adventure, he'll have incredible memories attached to his first car. I'd start my shopping in low-no rust areas vs. anything in the North East.

The trans america trail? Something like that. Its coast to coast on dirt. You dont have to do rhe whole thing.

Auburn Cord Duesenberg museum in Indiana is incredible and so is the National Auto and Truck Museum directly behind it.

In reply to Datsun240ZGuy :

Oh man, I want that. It's affordable, only 5 hours from me, and I could easily trailer it home. 

However, I cannot imagine that I would fit in anything from the 1950s. Dammit. 

Note that his permit is probably only good in your home state.

That limited how much MY 15 year old could help drive on a recent trip pretty severely.

I spent a few days camping near Blanchard Springs in Arkansas last October and had a blast. The whole area is incredibly beautiful.

I camped at JoJo's Catfish Wharf. Cool place. 

Would definitely suggest researching that whole area if you guys are into fishing. 

RacerBowie said:

Note that his permit is probably only good in your home state.

That limited how much MY 15 year old could help drive on a recent trip pretty severely.

This ^

In reply to octavious :

Dang!  Was 8 on last trip, now 15!  It doesn't seem like 7 years ago that I joined you at Mid-Ohio that day and got pictures of you two out on track for touring laps.  

I see a couple of elements of your plans that I just wanted to tie together...
One vehicle option could be a 1950's Willys. 
Another option is a Jeep XJ purchase.  

How about a tie together?  What if the Willys was driven to where the XJ is and then with a Uhaul tow dolly rental the Willys is towed back by the XJ?  The Willys becomes a "recovery vehicle" if the XJ needs roadside attention.  I'm not saying a Willys will tow a XJ but if both vehicles have hitches I'm sure the Willys could get the XJ "off the highway" at low speeds.   
I think a transfer case in neutral makes these Jeeps towable via a dolly, right?

As stated before, keep your XJ search south of the Mason-Dixon.  Though it'd be nice to see you in Ohio again, you will not find a nice XJ in Ohio.  And, if it's nice, it wont be near "reasonable money."  

Do the XJ trip. My parents had an XJ they were no longer using at their place in Florida and offered it to my daughter for her 1st car. I thought there was no way she would want an old boxy Jeep, but her eyes lit up and she begged me to go get it. I flew to FL and loaded up on some supplies and tools, fully expecting issues on the way home. The Jeep ran like a top for 2 days and made it home. In retrospect, why did I not bring her along for the adventure?!?!?  

She drove that Jeep all through high school, won "best car" in the yearbook, and took it to college. I loved working on it, but never managed to get her interested in turning wrenches with me. After upgrading to Mom's old car after graduation, I eventually sold the Jeep to the nice kid pictured below. He had been saving money since he was 16 to buy an XJ, and every one he looked at in his price range was rusting in a field. Mine was freshly inspected and had a hatch full of spares, his Dad was pretty happy about that. Hopefully, he is still enjoying it somewhere. 

In reply to John Welsh :

Hard to believe it was that long, but seems like that short ago. He's also over 6' tall now!! 
 

And I really like the Willy's to pick up the XJ idea. Especially since we aren't finding much around us. I think because we live so close to Windrock the XJs here are trail rigs or being sold to turn into trail rigs. I'm finding XJs are also popular with high school kids which leads to some interesting responses to my questions. 

For XJ shopping I'd point your search to Atlanta.  I would think your dream candidate would be something that has done nothing more than traversing the miles of pavement in a major metropolitan.