My first road trip from Atlanta to my parents house an hour east of Cincinnati. Took back roads up, including Cherohala Skyway (Robbinsville, NC to Tellico Plains, TN). Skipped the Tail of the Dragon as I don't particularly enjoy it. On the way back took interstate.

Stats:

Starting miles on car: around 600
Ending miles on car: around 1,700

Mileage to Knoxville: 27.4 mpg
Mileage from Knoxville to Ohio: 28.0 mpg
Mileage back home: 28.4 mpg
Mileage while in Ohio...bad enough to take the whole trip down to 27.0 mpg

Driving Notes:
Great trip car. Takes miles of roads in stride. Purs along but perks up as soon as you need it to.

On OH back roads (narrow, twisting and rolling) the car rocks

Pictures:
1. On the Skyway
2. The beast
3. Driving in the clouds at the top
4. Driving in the sun on the way down
5. Bridge from KY to OH

 

Beautiful pictures! Thanks for sharing. Great car!!

 

Thanks for sharing. Man I sure love Aqua Blue.

 

Some great looking shots and beautiful car. The tint looks dark but perfect on your car.

 

Very nice indeed. You got some incredible gas mileage...I push it too hard..getting around 18mpg on average

 

Thanks...it looks almost black in the trip pic but my avatar is more accurate representation. I requested 70% (which is almost transparent) but 35%-40% is what they put on. Dealer sent it out so not 100% sure. I like it just like it is so no complaints...I just did not want it blacked out.

 

I thought it was at first when first glanced at the picture, then I realized it has to be the way the light is hitting the window. It can get hard to see sometimes especially at night if you go to dark. Most people seem to like the the 30-40% range.

 

I'm planning some summer road tripping, how do you go about finding back roads (read: curvy windy non-highway) to travel on?

 

1 Start a post and ask for feedback on the specific area you want to travel
2 Search Amazon for road trip books
3 Search Rennlist, Planet 9, all car mag sites, and blogs like Jalopnik for “twisty roads”, “best roads”, “road trip”. Lots of patience required.

http://www.roadandtrack.com/go/trave...?click=main_sr

http://www.roadandtrack.com/special-...?click=main_sr

http://jalopnik.com/across-the-blue-...-van-483830725

http://www.planet-9.com/u-s-midwest-...tern-ohio.html

https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...ive-in-pa.html

4 Longer term, pay attention to where auto journalists are taking cars to drive. Even if they only say “Southeastern Ohio” (Car and Driver), do internet searches on the businesses that show up in the pictures.
5 Scour maps
6 I’m sure there are other methods as well.

 

Thanks for the tips Jay!. Love the aqua blue by the way

 

I've also found this website helpful for good roads

http://www.motorcycleroads.com

Wife and I just got back from Sonoma/Napa. Talk about great driving.... The road over St Helena Mt will haunt me for years to come.

 

Holy cow...I just bookmarked this. Awesome site!

 

Your picture on Th Dragon is on Kilboy.com. Great picture and you can order prints

 

I found some really great roads that ran parallel to highway 5 from near Buttonwillow up to Gilroy. I just looked around on google maps zooming in and out. In this case I had a start point and destination, so just had to find a pleasant way to connect the dots. But I was able go for two hours and passed less than 10 cars and saw some pretty nice country. Well compared to highway 5.