Yesterday my wife and I (and our two chihuahuas) took a road trip up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. For all of you Jag fans living in other parts of the world, the Blue Ridge Parkway is national park... but it's a road. I could spend a couple of minutes trying to explain it, but it's easier to just go to the Wikipedia and read about it. Here's a link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Ridge_Parkway

Anyway, the Blue Ridge Parkway is a few hours from me, so yesterday my wife and I hit the road in the XKR to take a drive on the BRP. The whole drive was about 700 miles round trip. We also took a short detour up to Mt. Mitchell. It's not officially a part of the Blue Ridge Parkway. It's a North Carolina state park that's adjacent to the BRP. The only way to get to Mt. Mitchell is to drive there on the BRP, or hike there on the Appalachian Trail. I'm too old for that, so we just drove there.

As I told the dogs, Mt. Mitchell is THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN IN THE WORLD!!! (east of the Mississippi River in North America). I always mumbled the "(east of the Mississippi River in North America)" part of that statement, and I think the dogs were impressed. They climbed to the top of THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN IN THE WORLD!!! (east of the Mississippi River in North America).

This is where I would post a pic of the dogs at the top of Mt. Mitchell, but I know you people, and you're bored already. So I'll just post a pic of my XKR at the Mt. Mitchell base camp (also known as the "parking lot"). Here's the pic:

 

After the arduous climb up to the base camp, my wife and the dogs and I climbed the last 300 meters up to the summit.

I just need to clarify... it's not 300 vertical meters. The trail is about 300 meters long. I think it's about 30 meters of elevation gain. But I didn't tell the dogs. Here we are at the top:

 

Wow.... And you did it without oxygen tanks! Impressive!

 

The weather was super-foggy, which kinda limited the pics I could take This is leaf-changing season, so we were expecting lots of fall colors. We mostly saw white fog. I did get a few good pics. Here's one coming out of a tunnel on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It's not centered because I was trying to snap pics and steer at the same time. :-(

 

Trust me... after the final push to the summit I really needed supplemental oxygen. My little chihuahuas had to drag me the final few feet to the top. It's a short trail, but it's steep.

 

Driving down from Mt. Mitchell we finally got below the clouds, but the leaves weren't quite as colorful as they were up in the clouds.

 

LOL no doubt! Your wife is truly a brave soul to follow you up such a treacherous path! (Put twisty roads in the mix, and my passenger would be screaming in fear!)

I take it those were your Sherpas in the background...

 

At the edge of the cloud layer the trees were turning colors, and you could actually SEE the colors. Twenty feet higher and it was nothing but fog.

 

Here's another superfluous picture of the Jaguar below the cloud layer. The camera is level. The car is on a hill.

 

Yep, this drive's on my bucket list Rev Sam.

 

On the long drive home this afternoon we stopped at a rest area to let the dogs potty. I turned around and saw that my wife had PUT HER TRASH ON THE HOOD OF MY CAR!!!!!!!!! We had a brief discussion about that. I'm pretty sure it won't happen again.

 

Here we are coming out of another one of the Blue Ridge Parkway's many tunnels. My wife took this pic, so it's actually centered.

 

Hey! You got up about 900 feet higher elevation than my house!

The average elevation of Utah stands at 6,100 feet (1,860 meters).
-- World Atlas

 

lol Yup!
Where are you at? Park City?
The Great Salt flats are what.... 4200ft, right?

 

Sam bring my dog home...

 

If I ever move from North Carolina, I'm moving to Utah. I love it there.

Anyway... if you're wondering where the dogs rode, we piled up a bunch of pillows and blankets in the back seat until the blankets almost came up to the top of the seats. That way the dogs could see out. They love to look out the windows.

 

I'm not actually quite as high is insinuated, it's about 4700 feet where I am, partly up the WF hillside.

 

Also, Sam;
Awhile ago you stated something like "This car is a total piece of s**t since day one".

Do ya still feel that way?

 

I've worked out all of the major issues, but it cost me a few thousand dollars and a lot of time. Now there's a slight tick in the engine when it's idling, and I think I have a bad engine mount or two.

But the power is like a drug.

 

Ah...

I loved riding up in the hills near Park City, Logan and such while I was there in the Air Force. Awesome places that were in stark contrast to the desert flats.

V