Options:

1 – Ol’ Reliable – Gatlinburg / Pigeon Forge Mountain Road Retreat – Central Location

We will depart Saturday morning and head North up I75 and into South Georgia. Sunday we’d continue on up through the mountains of East Alabama (https://www.alapark.com/parks/cheaha-state-park) – (https://www.nps.gov/liri/planyourvisit/scenic-drive-little-river-canyon-rim-parkway.htm) and into Tennessee. We’d then head West over to Nashville for a few tours and a night stay. The next day travel South along the Natchez Trace Parkway (https://www.nps.gov/natr/index.htm) down to the town of Natchez. This road that is actually a national park may take two days to drive. We would continue on to stay at a converted plantation and visit both New Orleans and Avery Island (https://www.tabasco.com/visit-avery-island/) before heading home.

This would be a shortened central location trip that would cover the most distance. We would depart Miami on Saturday (possibly Friday) and travel through Florida on I-10. We would continue on through Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and head North up into Texas and Arkansas. There we would find a cabin or small hotel and explore the scenes and mountain roads in the Ozarks. These would include the Pig Trail Scenic Highway (https://ozarkrides.com/pig%20trail.htm), Arkansas Scenic Highway 7 (https://www.arkansas.com/bull-shoals/landmarks/arkansas-scenic-7-byway), Arkansas Dragon Ride (https://www.ozarkrides.com/arkansas%20dragon.htm), and more. These highways are freshly paved and amazing views. We will stop at the Arkansas Grand Canyon (https://www.arkansas.com/jasper/natural-attractions/arkansas-grand-canyon), the Oark General Store (https://www.arkansas.com/oark/landmarks/oark-general-store-cafe) and stay at the amazingly affordable Magazine Mountain Lodge with its indoor pool with glass overlook (https://www.arkansasstateparks.com/parks/mount-magazine-state-park/accommodations/lodge). This lodge is very close to Alex Taylors’ Fathers hot rod shop and other cool car centric locations.

This is another ol’reliable trip leaving Saturday morning with a drive to Savannah and overnight stay. The next day would drive into the Mountains of North Carolina, through Tennessee and into Virginia to a small town called St Paul and a hotel named the Western Front. This would be our third time staying here. This hotel is surrounded by amazing roads, most notably the Back of the Dragon (https://backofthedragon.com/), and the Snake (https://www.thesnake421.com/). This location has many other roads and lots to see, small towns with great shopping like West Jefferson, amazing vistas and wild horses like Greyson Highlands, and small coal towns with rich deep history. The Western Front also has side-by-sides that we can rent and travel off road through some amazing streams and mountains. The ride home would come on Saturday through North Carolina, Georgia, and torturous Florida.

This would be very similar to option 1 “Ol’ Reliable” except we would stay near the base of the Tail of the Dragon at the Topoco Lodge (https://www.tapoco.com/)

This trip would be similar to the trip we did back in 2019. This trip would start with a day’s drive to Sanford, FL, and we would hop onto the Autotrain around 2 pm. By 9 am the next morning we would arrive in Lorton, Va, just South of Washington DC. From there we’d drive along historic roads out through Virginia to the North Carolina coast. We’d then travel South through the narrow band of the Outer Banks islands (https://www.outerbanks.com/outer-banks-scenic-byway.html), seeing cool sights, good food, lighthouses (https://www.outerbanks.org/things-to-do/lighthouses/), museums (https://graveyardoftheatlantic.com/), and beautiful stretches of road. Several ferries will be involved in our island hopping that would eventually lead to the old coast of South Carolina and down through Georgia. This point-to-point trip would lead us all the way back home.

Similar to option 6 above with boarding the train from Sanford to Lorton, Va, except this time we’d travel on through Southern Pennsylvania, seeing Great Falls (https://www.nps.gov/grfa/index.htm), Harpers Ferry (https://wvtourism.com/company/town-of-harpers-ferry/), and on to Falling Water (https://fallingwater.org/). We may even have time for a short stint to the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Then we’d head South down Skyline Drive (https://visitskylinedrive.org/), cruising to its end and picking up Blueridge Parkway, on to Mount Mitchell (https://www.ncparks.gov/state-parks/mount-mitchell-state-park), and over through Charlotte for a tour at Nascar Hall of Fame. Then head home. As a frame of reference, the Autotrain cost roughly $312 per person one way Coach (2x+ for a private room), plus another $285 for the car. The car MUST be high enough for a 4″ high stick to pass beneath it. They will NOT let you on if any part hits the stick – ask us how we know :).

Similar to 1 and 5 above, we would have a shorter drive to the Blueridge / Ellejay area for a cabin. The roads here are similar and do include the Tail of the Dragon and the Cherahala Parkway, but would also group into there North Georgia roads that would lead us to towns like Helen, Ga (Helen, GA) and others. Apple picking is king in this area along with small towns and great shops.

Similar to number 7 above, we would travel up on the Autotain to Washington. We then hit various Revolutionary War battlefields and forts from Pennsylvania, Virginia, Delaware, all the way down South to Savannah. The drive would be a point-to-point all the way back to Florida home to Miami. As you may notice, this one has a lot less detail and it’s because I need more time to research locations and routes that tie these sites together.