Planning a trip to Carolinas & Georgia from Maryland - 4 days

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Originally Posted by glc

Nothing else that will get you there in one day.

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I concur with glc here. MB back to I-95 and all the way up to the Balto 'burbs is a long day by any measure. I run pretty hard and stop pretty little, and about the best I can do from my north side of Raleigh, NC to Towson, MD is a shade under 6 hours, and that requires passing through the Fredericksburg, VA to Towson segment at non-rush hour times, which to the best of my knowledge is only between 1 and 4 am daily. It's a good 3 hours of hard running from MB to Raleigh, but there's a bit of time saved by staying on I-95 rather than running up to Raleigh on I-40. Any venture off to the east of I-95 involves literally dozens of small towns, hundreds of stoplights, and thousands of school buses, log trucks, and farm implements. If you were to run up US 17 to US 13, you'd have to traverse all of that, plus Tidewater, VA traffic, a DC-Balto style eternal gridlock. It would be a challenging TWO days to run from MB to Balto via that route.

If I felt REALLY good about the prospects of re-entering your home community from the west-northwest, I might look at getting out of MB and through NC on I-95, stay on I-95 through Petersburg, VA, to VA 288 bypass around the west side of Richmond, to I-64 west, to US 15 north. US 15 is a nice drive up through Gordonsville and Orange to US 29 near Culpeper, and from there you can either hit I-66 at Gainesville, VA to the DC Beltway or stay on US 15 to cross the Potomac at Point of Rocks, to Frederick and I-70 back into the Balto area. Even that's no "day at the beach" from Culpeper the rest of the way, but it's something to ponder if the mere thought of stop and roll from Fredericksburg to the Woodrow Wilson Bridge drives you mad, as it does me.

For what it's worth, I've also cut off of I-95 north of Richmond, on VA 207 to old US 301 at Bowling Green, through Dahlgren, crossed the Potomac there, and up through Waldorf, etc, to MD 3, thence to I-97 @ Millersville, all in order to reach friends homes in Towson. Yes, there are 1,000 stoplights along the stretch from about St. Charles to Millersville, but you're at least moving, for the most part, as opposed to getting mired in stop-and-roll on I-95.

If you can't tell, I'm deeply biased against I-95.

Foy

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Originally Posted by Foy

If you can't tell, I'm deeply biased against I-95.

Foy

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Haha. Well, you are not alone on internet when it comes I-95 but hey as you guys pointed out this maybe the fastest way to get back home so I will stick to it. I will use the shorter drive time to explore more of MB on Monday morning. Have a nice breakfast and do some shopping on the boardwalk.

I plan to leave for MD at around 1 pm. Monday is a Federal holiday which will dramatically lighten the traffic rush hour around the Beltway but still I have it planned so that I will hit Northern Virginia area after 6 pm and hence avoid the rush hour traffic. I hate bumper to bumper.

So this is the itinerary I have planned for the trip. As you can tell I am super excited here! A 4 day vacation after a year of daily hard work. I love the planning phase of this and will be getting back on this forum in the future. Let me know if can contribute in some way after this trip with some feedback and advise for future travelers.

These are the places I plan to visit and see on this trip:

- Lunch at Johnson City, TN
- Biltomore Estate, NC

Charleston, SC

- Fort Sumter:
- Charleston Water Taxi. Dolphin tour:
- Charleston Water front Park
- Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge
- East Battery Street

Myrtle Beach, SC:

- Boardwalk

Savannah, Ga:

- Savannah squares
- City Market
- Ft. Pulaski
- Tybee Island
- Forsyth Park
- Cathedral of St.John the Baptist:
- Bonaventure Cemetry
- Bluff Drive

The best thing about the Savannah trip is that most of the places to see on this list are on a walking distance which will make the whole day trip much more easy.

I will post the estimated distance/minutes traveled shortly.

I am considering adding in Boone, NC en route to Johnson city, TC.

What made me change was a recommendation online by user who suggests that I take US 321 for its scenery and twisty roads.

Thinking about it...

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Originally Posted by maestro96

I am considering adding in Boone, NC en route to Johnson city, TC.

What made me change was a recommendation online by user who suggests that I take US 321 for its scenery and twisty roads.

Thinking about it...

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If you were to do that, you'd probably want to drop down I-77 to US 421 to reach Boone, a place near to my heart in that my alma mater is there, Appalachian State U. You will definitely have an abundance of twisties in reaching JC from Boone. I avoid that route like the plague for exactly that reason. It's likely to take nearly 2 hours to reach JC from Boone.

An attractive alternate may be to stay on I-81 to Glade Spring, VA, thence south on VA 91 to Damascus, aka "Trail Town USA" for it is where the Appalachian Trail crosses the Virginia Creeper Trail. Staying south on 91 brings you to the TN border, where the highway #remains the same, to Mountain City, TN, From there, two routes filter southwest to Elizabethton (pronounded eliz-a-BETH-ton). The follow opposite sides of Watauga Lake, merge, and intersect US 19E just outside of Elizabethton. The whole of VA and TN 91 should satisfy one's urges for twisties without a wholesale re-routing.

You may also just take the I-81/I-26 route to JC, then south to just past Erwin on I-26, then southwest on TN 352, becoming NC 212 at the state line, thence 212 to 208, US 25/70 to Hot Springs, NC, thence NC 209 to I-40 just west of Clyde, NC, itself just west of Asheville. If 352-212-208-209 doesn't get you carsick from twisties, you're immune.

Foy

If you are going to be wandering around the Johnson City/Elizabethton area, there's a great BBQ joint in the area - Ridgewood Barbecue. Look at an online map for Bluff City, then locate the 11E/19E junction just southwest of Bluff City. Take 19E southeast about a mile and a half and turn right on the old Elizabethton Highway. The restaurant is about 1/2 mile on the right. They are noted for their pork and their beans.

Why not just spend the night in (or near) Charleston, since it's probably a couple hour drive to Savannah (you're half way there). Go to savannah in the morning (or that night and stay in savannah) Enjoy Charleston all day Sat. Enjoy Savannah all day Sun. then head back to Myrtle beach Sun. night. Seems like a waste to go half way to savannah, go back to Myrtle Beach, then back through Charleston on way to Savannah the next day.

Hi Cryptic, and Welcome to the Great American RoadTrip Forum.

Great to see you jump in with your knowledge and obvious experience. No doubt the OP will benefit from your contribution. Feel free to jump in anywhere where you feel you can make a contribution.

Lifey

Guys,

We are back after traveling nearly 2000 miles in 4 days which had us go through 5 states. Loved it!

We were able to do everything on our trip bar the drive to Savannah. Leaving it for the next time. It did turn out to be a bridge too far as someone had predicted over here :) I was a bit tired by Saturday night and also we figured that there was so much to see and experience in Myrtle beach, that going to Savannah on Sunday would not make sense.

The drive was gorgeous, especially on that little patch from Johnson city to Biltmore estate in Asheville. One of the best roads I have ever driven on with the stunning scenery and the twisty mountain road which made the drive even more fun.

We could not take the Boone route because that would have increased the drive time to about 1.5 hours and that would have cut down on our Biltmore estate visit for which we had paid $110. But it was definitely worth it and would highly recommend it for the experience.

What I loved most was Charleston, SC and its polished southern culture. The weather was great too at a nice 83 with a bright sunny day.

Can't wait for the next road trip when time allows it. Thank you to everyone who posted and advised me on this thread.

Thanks for reporting back! We're glad you had a good time, and were smart enough to remain flexible with your plans, so you were able to get the most out of your trip - even if you didn't get to everything this time. That's what next time's are for!