Touring the Blue Ridge from Alabama to Virginia

Article by Gary Anderson

Photos by Gary Anderson and Jeff Klepac

Tour Created by Jim Roberts

The modern interstate system is the fastest way to get from Point A to Point B. But if the journey is your goal, the quickest way to get there is at 45 mph on a scenic backroad and the Blue Ridge Parkway is the very best.

That was Jim Roberts’s reasoning when he designed a five-day trip to StarFest™ from Birmingham, Alabama. Even better, Jim had laid out the route so the travelers could spend time in several historical eras. We would start with visits to the Barber Vintage Motorsport Museum in Birmingham and the Mercedes-Benz museum and ultramodern factory in Vance, Alabama. Then we would follow the Appalachian Mountain Range, the oldest in the world, through Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina into Virginia. Along the way, we’d have the options of driving the Tail of the Dragon, famous for its challenging curves, and visiting the Biltmore Estate, built at the turn of the last century by William Vanderbilt; Monticello, the residence designed by Thomas Jefferson; and Michie Tavern, a public house from the mid-1800s. At the end of our journey, we would be in equally historical Winchester, Virginia.

There is always pleasure in traveling together with a group of friends, enjoying the panorama of a cavalcade of similar cars flowing through the scenery, and the camaraderie of overnight stopovers and shared visits to historical sites. Our week on tour would knit together a group of Mercedes-Benz owners from Kansas, Florida, California, Alabama, and Georgia into a tight band of friends.

But even if we’d been on our own, this particular part of the United States would have given us enormous satisfaction. We can’t recommend it strongly enough.

If you have the opportunity to travel by car anywhere on the East Coast between northern Virginia and Alabama, budget a few extra days and swap the stress of the interstate for the rejuvenating bliss of some of the most beautiful scenery on our continent. Even better, allocate a little extra time and stop at some of the landmarks along the way. Here are the points of interest we enjoyed.

 Perhaps the best stretch of the parkway system is the portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway extending from Asheville, North Carolina, to Charlottesville, Virginia. It’s a leisurely day’s drive, with Little Switzerland, North Carolina, at milepost 334 as a convenient lunch point, and Mount Mitchell at mile marker 355, the highest point on the East Coast, as a must-see diversion.

A bit harder to find, and therefore desirable, stretch of road encircles Little River Canyon in northern Alabama. Check with the Alabama section members for directions to find the deepest canyon in the United States east of the Grand Canyon, encircled by magical two-lane roads.

If you consider yourself a real curve-carving driver, then at least once in your life you must drive the fabled Tail of the Dragon, Route 129 off the Cherohala Skyway at the North Carolina/Tennessee state line. Check with the local folks at Silver Star Restorations for advice on this adventure. 

Any Mercedes-Benz owner who wants to learn more about the history of our marque, or increase confidence in the quality of the brand, should take time to visit the Mercedes-Benz U.S. International (MBUSI) museum and manufacturing plant which produces the M-Class, R-Class, GL-Class, and soon the C-Class vehicles, for Mercedes-Benz worldwide.

To learn more about American history and culture than you ever did in high school, consider staying an extra day in Asheville and in Charlottesville on the ends of your Blue Ridge Parkway tour. In Asheville, the Biltmore Estate, modeled on a French chateau, and built by William Vanderbilt as a bachelor pad and family retreat in 1895, is unbelievable. It’s simply the largest private residence ever constructed in the United States.

Monticello, just outside Char-lottesville, is another residence designed to the tastes of its widowed owner. It is a capsule of American history from before the Revolutionary War until after the Louisiana Purchase, as beautiful now as it was innovative for its time.

From those of us who took the tour Jim Roberts designed for us, we can only say: If you want to find America, then head for the hills of the Smoky Mountains, and be prepared to relax.