The High Country Drive was originally billed as a leaf tour, but the weather and the trees just did not cooperate.
Not to worry, High Country resident Greg Seiz put on a drive that was well worth the drive to the north. Most of us had a minimum of a 1.5 hour drive or more so it made for a full day to get up there, drive, lunch and drive home. But, it was worth it.
The day started in fog and a light drizzle but we still had 17 of the 19 cars registered make the start. After a processional parade down the Main Street of Newland we entered the Blue Ridge Parkway for a drive up to the Linn Cove Viaduct.
What luck: the sun was breaking over the valley just as we drove over the Viaduct. We had a photographer stationed at the end attempting to capture our 17 Porsches in a epic photo snaking along the road.
At this point we did a loop back to NC-221 for an exciting drive up the twists and turns of a damp Blowing Rock Highway. Everyone was cautioned in the safety briefing to take care on this section of highway and we survived without an incident.
As we entered Blowing Rock Main Street the Police had the street cordoned off for our parade down Main.
Next Stop: Valle Crucis and the Mast General Store Annex. This was our rest stop on the tour and was apparently the rest stop for all the leaf viewers in the High Country. When we scouted this stop it was only two of us. Of course, on the day of the tour we couldn’t find parking.
I guess everything can’t go according to plan.
As a result of the mixed up parking our driving lines also got mixed up as we headed for Banner Elk. I was doing a quick count as we all pulled out and sure enough all 17 Porsches made it to the end and lunch at the Banner Elk Café where we celebrated Dick Duccini’s birthday with a raspberry cheesecake.
By venturing out of the Asheville area we drew in a lot of new faces of members and other regions who live and summer in the High Country. We had six cars new to our events by venturing north.
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Thank you Greg and Shannon Seiz for hosting us. It was a great drive and a great day.
Jim Moore
October 14, 2018