I enjoy your trip too. Thanks for sharing

quote:

Originally posted by dsiets:
Wow, I really enjoyed your post. But I'm somewhat ashamed now. I could have taken part of the BRP from sister's place in NC, on the way home north to Michigan, but I was too eager to get home by the end of our time there.

Michigan is beautiful, but NC sure caught my eye while I was there. The people too. Thank you NC.

The BRP is a colossal time suck. 35 and 45 mph with park rangers running radar up the wazzu. To put it in perspective in wa,or,ct we would do day trips at 500 miles round trip. Overnighters i could easily rate up to 800 miles one way. I drove portland or to pheonix az in one hitch. Last year orlando to richmond in one. Skyline drive, the Crooked Road, Blue Ridge Parkway, and the Great Smokies 6 days. Yeah, and that is condensed down to what i could have done it in, our trip was 9 days. Minimal hikes and stops for tourist trap crap.

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:
Very nice travelogue (maybe too much of the car...). I went through there in 2014 and also took some photos of the Puckett Cabin.

DSC_7100.jpg by David Casteel, on Flickr

You look better clean-shaven.

flashguy

I am the president of the anti beard and shaving club.

Beautiful pictures and a very scenic drive. Hope you had your bug spray with you.

Nice pics, thanks for sharing. I've driven BRP and spent some time in the Smokies (e.g. first time I drove a car was on a family vacation in the Smokies) and your pics brought back some memories.

quote:

Originally posted by DSgrouse:

The BRP is a colossal time suck. 35 and 45 mph with park rangers running radar up the wazzu. To put it in perspective in wa,or,ct we would do day trips at 500 miles round trip. Overnighters i could easily rate up to 800 miles one way. I drove portland or to pheonix az in one hitch. Last year orlando to richmond in one. Skyline drive, the Crooked Road, Blue Ridge Parkway, and the Great Smokies 6 days. Yeah, and that is condensed down to what i could have done it in, our trip was 9 days. Minimal hikes and stops for tourist trap crap.

If your purpose is to race through the countryside, then the BRP is a pain. But if you want to go slow and sighsee, then it is beautiful.

Nice trip. It looks like you enjoyed it. My wife & I took the trip on the motorcycle about ten years ago, from the Skyline Drive to Great Smokey Mountain NP. It was a nice ride, but since we live way back in the mountains of PA, all the scenic overlooks just looked kinda like home.

Great pictures, nice car, lovely wife, and yeh other half. Reminds me of the old saying that a vacation is where you drive thousands of miles to have your picture taken beside the car.
Rod

Thanks all, this is about 1 out of 7 photos for me, my wife has another 400 pictures. Our goal was to hit the music spots, hit the pottery galleries and just enjoy the drive. As Jhe said, if you need to get somewhere the 4 roads we went on are not the roads to take. If you have the time, well then other than the road to the sun in glacier national park you will be hard pressed to find a better route.

Very cool. Next trip, Tail of the Dragon?

Peaks of Otter Lodge has an all you can eat seafood buffet that is amazing. Glad you enjoyed the trip, I enjoyed your pics.

Wife is cute, good job my man.

I haven't been to Clingman's Dome since I was a teenager.

The start of the Appalachian trail is literally up the street from me in Amicalola.

I'm thinking of getting rid of one of my STI's for the Ford. Loved the photos but really let's spend some time on how is the car?

quote:

Originally posted by ScreamingCockatoo:
I haven't been to Clingman's Dome since I was a teenager.

The start of the Appalachian trail is literally up the street from me in Amicalola.

It was well worth the climb.

quote:

Originally posted by hrcjon:
I'm thinking of getting rid of one of my STI's for the Ford. Loved the photos but really let's spend some time on how is the car?

The car is great. Tune, plugs and air filter it should be 320whp and 340wtq at sea level on 93. With the logged tune, mechanical waste gate and new FMIC it should be 350 to 360whp and 400wtq.

The trip was a blast in the car. The roads were not high speed, but just driving it 9 days on those curves was a blast.

Beautiful country.
I've been near there several times, but never spent any time checking it out, just going across I-70 back and forth, between Baltimore/DC to Western Maryland.

The car looks nice. I've been in a co-workers Focus once. Had to visit the chiro later that week. Seats were far too narrow for me

You two make a cute couple, and glad you enjoyed yourselves. Thanks for the pix...I'll definitely have to take some time to explore the area when I get out that way again.

Was in the Floyd Country Store 2 weekends ago, visited Stuart. Late July, visited Meadows of Dan , returning from Johnson City, TN.

Years ago, I rambled the corridor from Stuart, Va to Abingdon, Va a lot going to the Virginia Creeper bike trail

I enjoyed all your photos and appreciate you taking the time to post them for all of us.
Frankly, you could have been driving an old Ford pickup and I would have enjoyed seeing the scenery just as much.

But you wouldn't have enjoyed the driving as much..hehe.

Floyd Store was outstanding. Blackberry Bread Pudding is oooooh so good. The music was something to behold. One of the best highlights of our trip.

Today's incremental work on the car, Installation of the new FMIC and Skidplate. Tomorrow I will be working on the wastegate, and the shifting linkage bushings.


Here is the stock intercooler on, with the plastic blocking plate on it. The replacement is significantly wider, Taller and deeper.



The new FMIC.


So the reason for removing the stock horse hair skid plate is that i live on 1 mile of gravel road. When i took it off today, i dumped 3lbs of gravel into the driveway. it had sucked up that much crap in just over 3 weeks. The second problem is that the hair skid plate gets soaked and sags. With 3lbs of rocks on it failure would happen soon.




Here it is on, less chance for it to suck up gravel.


Up next a few of my wifes photos from the trip.

Well, I got the Blackberry Bread Pudding also, with coffee. Bought 2 lbs of old tme candy from the candy barrels to take home.

The Republic of Floyd. No place else like it.

Did you check out the yurts just outside of town?

No we did not, aand we now have 1 more reason to return to Floyd.