I live in western North Carolina about 40 miles east of Asheville in a small town named Marion. It is located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It's about a 15 mile drive up to the Blue Ridge Pkwy. Today my wife and I drove the Z up to Mt. Pisgah, which is about a 90 mile drive. When we left home it was 85 degrees at 10 a.m. and when arrived at the Pisgah Inn for lunch it was 67! The elevation there is about a mile up.

For those of you who are into mapping routes we picked up Rt. 80 at Rt. 70 ten miles west of Marion, NC. Heading up to the Pkwy. on Rt. 80 is similar to driving the Tail of the Dragon over in Tennessee. Once on the Blue Ridge Pkwy it's about 65 miles of driving on the Pkwy. to reach Mt. Pisgah. On the way home we came back on Rt. 151 to 19/23 to I-40 east back to Marion. The trip home was only about 60 miles on the highway. The 12 miles stretch on Rt. 151 was again like driving the Dragon. It's amazing what a mile of elevation gain can do to cool things down! Even with all this climbing the Z still got 26 mpg for the entire trip.

 

 

 

That was my 2nd choice

 

driving blue ridge is pretty nice, I've got a bunch of family in the Hickory area so we were just in those parts a few months ago. Too bad I was in the wife's altima sedan instead of my z :/