dgoodwin10
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2014
- Location
- Birmingham, AL
It’s road trip time!
After all the work I’d put into the TJ to get to this trip I was beyond excited. Maybe even a little giddy. My wife and I got loaded up and headed out about 2pm, dropped the dog off for boarding and hopped on I-459 headed east at (roughly) 70mph with the A/C going. It was in the 60s outside, so not that hot but warm enough to want some conditioned air. It was peak leaf season and we wanted to take the backroads route, so we chose to drive I-59 to Gadsden, AL and cut over to Blue Ridge, GA with Maggie Valley, NC being the final destination to meet up with some close friends to spend a weekend together. Did I mention that I was beside myself since this trip was actually happening?
About 20 miles in the temperature gauge starts creeping up again and eventually pegs at 260. Crap. I pull over at the next exit, let it idle for a few minutes until the temperature gauge slammed back to 210, hop back on the interstate and keep rolling.
Only for the TJ to overheat again in a few miles.
I find a gas station to pull into and let it cool down. Again. This time, I’m pretty frustrated and starting to feel defeated. We were far enough into the trip that I needed to make the call to either turn around and head home to get another vehicle or turn the A/C off, hope that fixes the problem, and send it. At this point, I'd come too far and put in too much work to call it quits so I made the call to run with the A/C off and deal with a little butt sweat.
We merge onto I-59 headed toward Gadsen and clicked off 120+/- trouble free miles until our first stop in northern Georgia. Bucees.
In Blue Ridge we spotted this rad VW suv turned rock crawler.
We rolled into (I’m guessing – don't remember exactly) Murphy, NC well after dark and came into 30+ miles of 2 lane mountain roads and heavy rainfall. The added weight in the back of the Jeep had apparently aimed my headlights directly at oncoming traffic and I was getting constantly flashed by making already poor visibility even worse. I hate being THAT guy, but that was an issue to deal with later. Add to that a little (okay, lot) of hanger, the little bit of drama earlier in the day, ZERO phone service and my nerves were SHOT. I’d never been happier to see a 4 lane road in my life.
The remainder of the drive went without issue and we pulled into the cabin at 9pm where our friends were already there waiting on us. We proceeded to stay up until well after 1am catching up on life. The next 2 days were spent exploring the area.
We rolled out Monday morning headed to the Biltmore house then to an AirBnB in Knoxville via Tail of the Dragon, a popular road among the sports car / bike crowd with 318 turns in 11 miles. I’m a bit of a construction nerd and really enjoyed BIltmore and would highly recommend that anyone go at least once.
The route from Asheville to Knoxville was almost entirely on backroads and man were the views worth it! The route took us through winding 2 lane backroads and spent a lot of time along the Little Tennessee River. The Jeep didn’t miss a beat and cruised the backroads like a champ.
We completed the Tail of the Dragon as the sun was setting and pulled up to our AirBnB in Knoxville at dinner time.
After all the work I’d put into the TJ to get to this trip I was beyond excited. Maybe even a little giddy. My wife and I got loaded up and headed out about 2pm, dropped the dog off for boarding and hopped on I-459 headed east at (roughly) 70mph with the A/C going. It was in the 60s outside, so not that hot but warm enough to want some conditioned air. It was peak leaf season and we wanted to take the backroads route, so we chose to drive I-59 to Gadsden, AL and cut over to Blue Ridge, GA with Maggie Valley, NC being the final destination to meet up with some close friends to spend a weekend together. Did I mention that I was beside myself since this trip was actually happening?
About 20 miles in the temperature gauge starts creeping up again and eventually pegs at 260. Crap. I pull over at the next exit, let it idle for a few minutes until the temperature gauge slammed back to 210, hop back on the interstate and keep rolling.
Only for the TJ to overheat again in a few miles.
I find a gas station to pull into and let it cool down. Again. This time, I’m pretty frustrated and starting to feel defeated. We were far enough into the trip that I needed to make the call to either turn around and head home to get another vehicle or turn the A/C off, hope that fixes the problem, and send it. At this point, I'd come too far and put in too much work to call it quits so I made the call to run with the A/C off and deal with a little butt sweat.
We merge onto I-59 headed toward Gadsen and clicked off 120+/- trouble free miles until our first stop in northern Georgia. Bucees.
In Blue Ridge we spotted this rad VW suv turned rock crawler.
We rolled into (I’m guessing – don't remember exactly) Murphy, NC well after dark and came into 30+ miles of 2 lane mountain roads and heavy rainfall. The added weight in the back of the Jeep had apparently aimed my headlights directly at oncoming traffic and I was getting constantly flashed by making already poor visibility even worse. I hate being THAT guy, but that was an issue to deal with later. Add to that a little (okay, lot) of hanger, the little bit of drama earlier in the day, ZERO phone service and my nerves were SHOT. I’d never been happier to see a 4 lane road in my life.
The remainder of the drive went without issue and we pulled into the cabin at 9pm where our friends were already there waiting on us. We proceeded to stay up until well after 1am catching up on life. The next 2 days were spent exploring the area.
We rolled out Monday morning headed to the Biltmore house then to an AirBnB in Knoxville via Tail of the Dragon, a popular road among the sports car / bike crowd with 318 turns in 11 miles. I’m a bit of a construction nerd and really enjoyed BIltmore and would highly recommend that anyone go at least once.
The route from Asheville to Knoxville was almost entirely on backroads and man were the views worth it! The route took us through winding 2 lane backroads and spent a lot of time along the Little Tennessee River. The Jeep didn’t miss a beat and cruised the backroads like a champ.
We completed the Tail of the Dragon as the sun was setting and pulled up to our AirBnB in Knoxville at dinner time.