Hi all,

Looking for some advice on a road trip my wife and I would like to make during our home leave. We have 30 days that we can take and we would b starting from the washington DC area. The thought is to head south from DC through the blue ridge mountains then on to New Orleans and Austin. We want to avoid highways. Drive on some nice twisty roads as we are planning on taking the 914. I may be buying a quieter muffler for this trip. Any music food or car events along the way would be great. Must drive see eat at advice also very helpful. We plan on doing a combo of camping and Hotels so camp site advice would also be great. Finally if there is a must go to event to the north of DC we could be convinced to reconsider our itinerary.

Nick

Check out Franklin, NC. Fantastic people, great twisty roads, whitewater rafting and ruby mines.

Plan on spending a couple of days - it's worth two days (one rafting and one mining). Also, Cherokee (the Indian town) is a short drive from there. Lots of interesting cultural stuff, including a historic village with tours!

If you want to do the racing thing PCA First Settler's Region has Virginia International Raceway booked the third weekend in September.

Further South in the NC mountains is Biltmore Estates.

If you keep going South you should check out Helena Georgia. Billed as Mountain Beauty with a Touch of Bavaria! Octoberfest starts in mid-September.

If you make it to Road Atlanta, Le Petite LeMans is October 1-4. You can check out Chateau Elan while you're there.

Heading West from there you can hit the Marshal Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL. (Taledega Motor Speedway is on the way) That would be about the right time for the Rocket City Ramble

The food network can be some excellent prep work/inspiration. Few years back, we took a family road trip just after my youngest son was born. We were going to visit some friends in Illinois and then to visit my younger brother in Houston. Almost every other stop along the way was inspired by stuff we saw on the food network.

We hit the Kentucky Horse Park and camped there for a night. My oldest was really into horses at the time, so we had a great time. The country is beautiful and weather was great.

Kentucky Horse Park

Let's see, we also hit the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. Some really neat exhibits there.
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Then we headed south to Dublin, TX (just SW of Dallas) which is the home of the oldest Dr Pepper bottler. This was another food network inspired stop. What can I say, I like Dr Pepper. They still make it with real sugar. Dublin Dr. Pepper
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After that, we drove down to Medina, TX (North-Western side of San Antonio) to Love Creek Orchards. They make a 4lb apple pie that, you guessed it, we saw on food network. We got there just after closing and I had to con my way into getting a pie. Had to tell them how I had driven 1200 miles for a pie. It was worth the drive.

I will also say that some of the country around San Antonio is amazing. Great drive and scenery.

I realize that you didn't exactly say that you were going to any of these areas, but I wanted to point out that you can find inspiration from all sorts of places. We let our stomach lead us and we ended up with a really great trip and a couple of cool stories. This country is a great place to live. We should all take the chance to see it while we are here.

-Mike

I should have mentioned more about the ruby mines in Franklin, N.C.. It's a great stop... the area has several different mines from all natural to "salted" for kids.

Last time I was there I got a 8 carat blue-black sapphire that I had cut and mounted into a tie-tack. After cutting & polishing it weighed in at about four carats.

The website below is for my favorite mine (and I've been to them all). Friendly and clean (with clean bathrooms for your wife). Check out the website. It's fun - I could spend a week there sifting through dirt looking for stones.

http://www.rosecreekmine.com/


I live in Huntsville - I agree the Space Center is worth an afternoon visit. If you decide to come this way, let me know... we'll scramble some 914 folks for dinner & libations!

As for the Rocket City Ramble - the dates on that aren't solid, but we're leaning towards mid-October. We should have something decided very soon.