The roads south of the Mason Dixon line!

So I’ve just returned from a family vacation south of the Mason Dixon line where we stayed in Northern VA in the mountains near a place called Mount Jackson. And man oh man do you have some nice roads down there! It all started last Saturday while still in civilization (well, PA), instead of taking the GPS fastest route after a night in Pittsburgh, we decided to take the ‘shortest’ route cross country as we had time, and boy am I glad we did. Instead of 210miles of I 76, I70 and I81 we did 160 miles cross country in motoring nirvana. Curve after curve after glorious corner, 1st, 2nd 3,rd gear corners, wide open sweepers, on camber, off camber, hairpins, climbs, descents. I was in heaven. You could have put time controls as you entered and left each little village or town and run the route as the most glorious tarmac (with some gravel) rally in the world. I thought life couldn’t get any better, but then it did, every road we drove during the week that wasn’t an interstate was the same. The roads across the appellations around the Shenandoah national park area were all just as glorious. The only down side to the whole thing was because my Mother and Niece were with us from England I couldn’t take the Mustang or the Volvo so swapped cars with a friend and had their Flex instead. Now I’m not going to pretend that the Flex is a sports car in disguise, but I was very happy with how well it handled the roads for 2 plus tons of behemoth. It allowed me to get much closer to the edge of the envelope than I could have in one of our cars without the passengers having any clue except the occasional squeal of tires It made this adopted Yankee happy to have ventured into ‘the south’.

We keep promoting The Tail of the Dragon to keep the Yankees off the good roads.

DoctorBlade wrote: We keep promoting The Tail of the Dragon to keep the Yankees off the good roads.

That was the thing, everyone knows of the dragon, but the stories of overcrowding and cops mean I have no interest in going. These roads were deserted, mile after mile of empty roads, and when I did come up behinds someone they would normaly let me past or a passing lane would open up on the next uphill section. I did get some odd looks as I went round the outside of some people in the uphill passing lane on the outside of a bend in a Flex though

The Mason-Dixon line is where you switch from anti-seize to Loctite.

I was born and raised in Joisey, and man do the roads up there suck! I have yet to see anything to rival Route 1-9 in NE Jersey. It was (and I presume still is) a continuous series of badly filled potholes, punctuated every few feet by several un-patched potholes. Absolutely, horrifically, impressive.

I've lived in VA since the late 80's, and I do appreciate the nice roads. Only exception might be the city of Richmond. They've got some pretty nasty pieces of pavement in the downtown area.

Roads are pretty fun down here, especially in the mountain areas like North Georgia. Years ago I sold a F2T to a guy from Indiana who picked it up. First words he said when he got to my house was "Do you have any straight roads around here?"

In the south, road conditions are usually pretty good. We don't have frost heaves, all the damage from freeze/ thaw. Makes road maintenance a lot easier. My only complaint is that where I am, SoFla, the roads are almost all straight as an arrow. No wonderful sweeping curves, off camber thrills, just super boring flat, straight roads. Check out I-75 from Ft. Lauderdale to Tampa. A grand total of ONE curve in 275 miles.

Woody wrote: The Mason-Dixon line is where you switch from anti-seize to Loctite.

Magazine worthy for sure.
I do miss the roads in the south. There are good ones here in Vermont, but conditions vary from poor to bad on many.

Hopefully you spent some time on 119 south out of the Pittsburgh area, Rt 50 in VA, and RT9 in WV/VA. If you didn't you need to do the trip again.

Yep... I agree with the epicness of the roads in Va and W.Va

From my trip down there last month. Motorcycle Nirvana

Yep, the roads in the mountains and foothills of Appalachia are incredible. I drive some really fun ones every day.

I'm a heel toe and rev match master, never seen a race track.

When I was still living back home in Cincy I would travel out to Hocking county to just drive the roads.

I'm so glad I moved to Knoxville because I don't have to travel 2hrs to find a good road.

VA has great roads. Been there a few times and loved it. Doing the blue ridge highway is on my bucket list.

As far as the tail of the dragon goes, go during the week to avoid all the traffic and cops. The weekend is when that place is crowded. I make an annual trip down there with some of my fellow autocrossers here in KY. Usually saturday through Tuesday or Wednesday. We use the weekend for sight seeing/cruising, the the weekdays for the hard driving. It's funny how the place place goes from packed on Sunday, to nearly deserted on Monday.

i wish i would have seen some of those fun southern roads when i went to Texas in June.. it's not the same, but once i crossed the border from Iowa into Missouri the roads turned to crap and i had to do a lot of swerving to avoid all the bumps, potholes, and sudden elevation changes.. Arkansas was the same way.. and this was all on 4 lane divided highways- and a good chunk of the road i was on in Missouri (whatever the main road is from St Louis to Memphis) was brand new pavement.

I've been south plenty of times before, but usualy down I75 to Florida (The deep North) or across to Texas etc. I've never seen roads like I just experienced last week anywhere else on this continent.

I've been on the Blue Ridge parkway. It's great.

Take the drive from Cherokee to Hickory sometime. Beautiful scenery, tons of curves, road's in decent shape and the traffic is almost nil. I had the ex all bound up in the corner of the car a couple of times before I backed off.

On second thought, naw. The roads down here suck. It's too hot. Tons of mosquitoes. 'Deliverance' was a documentary.

when ever I go down to N. Georgia to see family, I usually disappear for an afternoon to play on the local 2-lanes. Oddly no one ever wants to ride along.....

DoctorBlade wrote: I've been on the Blue Ridge parkway. It's great.

be VERY careful ... the Parkway Po-Po will flat out ticket you ... no way to talk your way out of it .... and it's a federal charge ... ( re. expensive )

wbjones is truthy. The Feds up there don't see the value in pushing the envelope and they WILL slam you HARD. I understand that's because there's a lot more paperwork when they have to clean up a wreck than the state guys have to do.

Honestly, as crowded as it gets, I'd rather not try to do any canyon carving there anyway.

yeah, there are just way too many GREAT roads in Western Va, Eastern Tn, and Western NC to fool with the Parkway and their 35/45 mph limit

Just google the BRP, and then find roads around it.

I live 20 minutes from the BRP, lots of fun, deserted roads to enjoy. Just watch out for the cyclists who also like to enjoy these shoulderless, narrow, blind-turn roads.

Lots of great roads in North Arkansas in good repair in the Ozarks. BIg biker destination area.