One of the objectives of this trip was to travel the beautiful parkways run by the National Park Service. The Natchez Trace Parkway runs 444 miles from Natchez, MS to Nashville,TN. The park roads in Great Smokies and Shenandoah National Parks provide another 150 miles of parkway, and the Blue Ridge Parkway, which connects those two national parks, runs for 470 miles. Going in, I knew that we would need to omit some of that 1,000 miles of parkway. Although we have done some of each section, we have bypassed a lot of it. The Natchez is nice, but not worth driving the whole thing under any circumstances. We did all of the Great Smokies, and had a good day driving through there as noted earlier.

As for the 470 mile Blue Ridge Parkway, we have the focal point of a return trip. We were too early, by at least a month, to see the rhododendrons in bloom over much of that distance. Moreover, the last two days have been foggy and rainy, so we have only seen the potential of what this road has to offer. But, it is enough to spark great interest in a return.