My FIL is celebrating a round birthday with a pretty large number in May, and we decided to take a car down to northern FL near the GRM headquarters via the auto train to avoid having to bomb down I-95 for a day or two. The plan is to make it a road trip back home via the Smokey Mountains NP and Blue Ridge Parkway. I'm currently planning six days for the trip back, which is admittedly a bit tight.
We don't know what vehicle we'll be taking other than it's not going to be the 997 or the Lotus because "family dynamics" ('nuff said) so this might turn into a "buy a Miata on CL, make three videos getting it ready and a fourth driving it back" type trip as I have doubts I can get the C3.2 ready in time. Not that that wouldn't trigger said family dynamics. The car acquisition part is about under control as my car buying habits are under normal circumstances.
What isn't under control is any kind of route planning between the Daytona Beach area and the Smokey Mountains NP. I guess we could make the first day a driving day and then start with the interesting stuff at the end of the first driving day. That said, any recommendations for cool places to visit on the trip through Georgia would be much appreciated.
I can't help with GA.
Depending on when your trip is (winter) some parts of the BRP may be closed.
If you stop around Little Switzerland I can recommend staying at The Big Lynn Lodge. Its not fancy but $110 a night gets you a decent place to sleep and comes with dinner, made to order breakfast and a spectacular view. I try to spend 3-4 days a summer there.
Trip is going to be in mid-May, so I'm hoping that most/all of the BRP is going to be open.
Thanks for the recommendation of Big Lynn lodge, I'll try to incorporate that into our planning.
Middle of May will be good, try to time it before school gets out and traffic won't be as bad.
Summer of 95 I broke in a new engine driving from Gainesville, FL up into the middle of SC on my way to Waynesville, NC.
I finished installing the engine on Saturday night, had to start my summer externship on Monday morning.
With the brand new engine, I needed to hold down and vary the engine speed so I did the first 500 miles on the old two lane highway. I actually really enjoyed the drive on 301, it's nice going across country like that.
Big Lynn just posted this on their FB page. The last sunset of the season as they close today and reopen Feb for Valentines day.
In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :
My wife did a quick check, it looks like it's the weekend before the Stetson graduation. Which is kinda important given that we'll either stay in Deland or Orange City.
On the BRP, Mt Mitchell isn't a bad stop (highest point east of the Mississippi), but Grandfather Mountain is a must. Note you need to buy tickets online in advance. I'd budget at least 2 hours for Grandfather Mt. but you can blow a whole day there if you want. Little Switzerland mentioned above is right between the two.
BoxheadTim said:
In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :
My wife did a quick check, it looks like it's the weekend before the Stetson graduation. Which is kinda important given that we'll either stay in Deland or Orange City.
Cool, what's the connection to Stetson? My wife's the costumer for the theater department. We live a few blocks away from the school.
In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :
No real connection other than the graduation weekend being around the same time as my FIL's birthday so that's impacted hotel/restaurant availability etc in the past when we visited.
Things are starting to slightly fall into place. My wife wants to go on a ghost tour in Savannah, GA so that'll be our first stop. From there, we're going either directly to Little Switzerland NC or to the Smoky Mountains NP first. Hopefully the latter, as we should have enough time for that and it'd put us in the park on Tuesday so hopefully it won't be as crowded.
Right, route is planned and hotels are booked. We are spending a day and a bit at the Smokey Mountains National Park, then trundle up the BRP for a few more days.
Let's just hope the weather gods smile on us and it's not tipping down the whole time, 'cos that wouldn't be fun in a convertible.
Sounds like a great trip. Have fun!
Might want to check on the BRP. Last I'd heard a section north of Roanoke VA was closed. I don't think it was extensive, but worth being prepared for and having an idea about the detour if there is a section closed.
In reply to secretariata (Forum Supporter) :
Thanks, I'll have a look. I am aware that there are roadworks on some sections, but don't recall seeing anything about closures.
Not-so-ninja-edit: Looks like there is indeed a closure near Roanoke, plus roadworks further south in NC that either are single lane traffic or have detours. I did plan enough time so hopefully we'd be OK getting around those with no impact to overall travel time.
Sounds like you're passing right through my neck of the woods - I'm in Hendersonville NC. That sounds like a great trip, there's so much beautiful scenery up here, I'm sure you'll have a great time! Just FYI, there's a lot of construction on I-40 just west of the Maggie Valley exit, bumping the interstate down to one lane in each direction, and it causes a lot of traffic if you're traveling during regular hours. So if you're planning on going from Little Switzerland to the Great smokey mountains, I would probably take 25 through Hot Springs, it's not much farther and you get to drive through more quaint mountain towns.
Actually, you'd probably get off 40 in Waynesville so you won't hit traffic anyway. Disregard my previous warning. Also, I believe the national park now requires you to buy a parking pass, but I suspect you already knew that :)
Just got back home from the trip. The X1/9 actually made a surprisingly good travel vehicle - the considerably larger luggage capacity over a Miata made a big difference, and while it's not the greatest Interstate car, it did do a pretty good job getting us from FL to Savannah GA and to Cherokee NC from there.
It really was a good vehicle for the BRP itself - it would have been extremely boooooooring in the 997, whereas it was a lot of fun in the X1/9. It also looks like the only casualty was an exhaust gasket or a pinhole in the exhaust, but hey, I was already planning to put the MWB sports exhaust and header on it.
We really liked the NC mountains, that's a really beautiful area of the country that I had never been to, and my wife hadn't been back since summer camp back in the 70s...
Oh, and of course like every time I seem to drive past Maggie Valley, we ended up picking a day when the Wheels through Time museum was closed.
