We drove the Porsche to Illinois to visit Dave’s family. We got great gas mileage, up to 32.4 mpg. The whole trip was 3772 miles, and we averaged 29.4 mpg overall.
We left about noon, Tuesday, September 10, 2019, arriving in Ottawa, IL on Thursday to have dinner with Dave’s cousin Julie, 2 of her boys, Patrick and Michael, and Michael’s girlfriend, Ashley. Julie looked great! We had pizza, some wine, and a great evening.
The next day, Friday, we drove to Normal, IL planning to have lunch with Dave’s sister, Anne. Unfortunately Anne was not feeling well, so we did not get to spend time with her. Before heading to LeRoy, IL to surprise Dave’s brother, Steve, we stopped at Schnuck’s, a grocery store in Bloominton, IL where Steve’s wife, Pat works. We wanted to pick up some wine for the weekend. Leaving Schnucks, we ran into Pat! She was picking up a prescription. We were able to follow her home to LeRoy. When Steve arrived home, he was surprised!
We stayed with Pat and Steve Friday through Monday and had a great visit. Pat and Steve’s kids and grandkids were there for Steve’s birthday dinner, and Stevie, Jamie and Lacy came back Sunday. We played some Mexican dominos and card games.
Monday morning we were up early to start home, but had planned several stops along the way.
Our first stop was the Jim Beam distillery in Clermont, KY. We toured the distillery and at the end of the tour, we each got to sample 3 different bourbons. Dave and I both preferred the flavored bourbons over the straight stuff. The honey flavored bourbon was probably our overall favorite.
We continued driving and stayed in Bardstown, KY. The next day was a long day driving to Front Royal, VA where we spent the night. Front Royal is the entrance to the Shenandoah National Park and the Skyline Drive.
Wednesday we drove the length of the Skyline Drive, and started the Blue Ridge Parkway. The leaves had not started turning yet, but it was a fun drive with the top down, although a bit chilly at times.
There are many stops and overlooks along both the Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway. It is a fun drive with lots of twists, turns, and “spiral” curves. Also pretty slow driving. I think the Skyline Drive was 129 miles long, and the Blue Ridge Parkway is 469 miles. We drove the whole length of the Skyline Drive, and the first 106 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway before taking a break and spending the night in Salem, VA.
Thursday morning we utilized the interstates and drove to Ashville, NC, and then Alt. 74 to Chimney Rock State Park. Chimney Rock is a 315 ft. granite monolith.
After visiting Chimney Rock, we drove back to Ashville, NC to spend the night.
Friday morning we got back on the Blue Ridge Parkway at Ashville,NC and drove the last ~100 miles to the end. The road along the Blue Ridge Parkway reaches higher elevations than the Skyline Drive. The highest point along the Skyline Drive was about 3000 feet, and the highest point on the Blue Ridge Parkway was 6053 feet.
While driving our last leg of the Blue Ridge Parkway, we saw a small bear in the road. He was bigger than a cub, but not full grown. Maybe left Mom in the spring. When he saw us, he scrambled up a tree right next to the road. Of course I stopped and we watched each other, simultaneously watching out for Mom, just in case. He tried to hide behind the tree, and then came down, still peaking from the back of the tree. He was only about 15 to 20 feet away from the car.
Leaving the Blue Ridge Parkway, we drove to Bryson City, NC where we had reservations at a B&B for the night, and Saturday tickets for a ride on the Great Smokey Mountain Railroad. The B&B was in a house built in 1906, right on the main drag and only 1 block away from the train station. Unfortunately, we only got the “B” because the proprietor, Luke, had an early morning meeting out of town. Luke was an interesting character and we had a nice stay. He did make coffee for us, so I had coffee and a breakfast bar for breakfast which was fine. Luke gave us a discount on the room since breakfast was not included.
Saturday morning we boarded the train. We were given drink cups that had free refills for the entire journey. We also had prepaid for a box lunch which was a bbq sandwich, chips and a cookie. The train ride was from 10:30am until 3:00pm. The train stopped for a 1 hour break at Nantahala Outdoor Center. We had been to the Nantahala Outdoor Center over 25 years ago with Tim and Erin, and did a raft trip on the river. The place is much bigger today than 25 years ago. We wandered around a bit and then reboarded the train for the final segment.
The train hostess said there were 800 people on the train, and they had added extra cars for our journey. They were having a wine tasting, but we could not get a reservation for the wine event because it was fully booked. I think there were about 25 cars in total.
After the train ride we drove about 200 miles to get past Atlanta, and spent Saturday night in Locust Grove, GA. Sunday morning we got up to drive the last 500 miles home, arriving late Sunday evening, September 21, 2019.