Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Road Trip Recap!

Pin It Over Memorial Day weekend, we ventured to Dobson, NC to attend Vintage at the Vineyards.  This was an amazing car show featuring vintage BMWs, held at a beautiful vineyard in the heart of wine country in North Carolina.  Over 300 cars were present, and it was my mission to capture a piece of this event for my husband and his business, Reggie's Motorworks.  After the event ended, we decided to take a historic route, the Blue Ridge Parkway, to Asheville, NC, before heading home.  If you want a beautifully scenic and fun drive, I highly recommend the Blue Ridge Parkway!  There are tons of points of interest, scenic overlooks, parks, and wildlife along the winding roadway.  We even saw a few turkeys!  We would have also loved to spend some more time in Asheville.  What a neat city!  We found a cute sidewalk cafe called Mayfel's, where we had the best brunch ever.  I could go on and on, but let's get right to some of my favorite images from the event and our road trip.  Enjoy!

Once we arrived at the meeting spot for the event, where they provided a free car wash, a huge thunderstorm rolled through...luckily, the golf ball size hail that was predicted did not 
accompany the rain!  Imagine over 300 vintage automobiles sitting out in a hailstorm...yikes!  
This is our 1984 318i Baur TC covered in rain drops.  Love it!




The next day was just perfect and started off with a morning drive.  There's just something I love about this image...yes, it's a bit of motion blur. I was the passenger as my husband drove through the twisty roads.  So I'm moving, my camera's moving, and the other cars are moving...
all moving at a fair rate of speed! 



The drive led us to this cool turn-around point where people stopped to take photos with these old-timey gas pumps.  I added a bit of vintage to it.  Love this one!



And thank you to one of our new friends, the owner of the cool vintage red 2002 (the one with the roof rack above), for taking our photo!



I loved seeing people photographing their cars...I could tell that this gentleman really loved his automobile.  It did look pretty cool parked on the side of the road here.



Then we arrived at the event.  Say hello to beautiful Shelton Vineyards!














I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful place to photograph awesome cars! 




So happy to be buzzing through the vineyard in their Isetta!  
Yes, like the car that Steve Urkel drove on Family Matters!


Of course I had to sneak in some photos of the vineyard! This is one of my favorites!





Reggie won a prize for correctly guessing the most parts for the e30 division!  Yay!  
Another fave!! Of course! :)


I would love to photograph this car again...it's just so cool!


Here's the rear view...and it's a photo of me and my hubby!  See me?








We couldn't have asked for a better day for such a great event!


And the same beautiful weather followed us along the Blue Ridge Parkway...well, most of the time!




I was trying to get a really cool shot, when I saw myself in the mirror...Hi!


We didn't realize just how many stopping points there are along the way.  We'd see a cool spot and say "Oooh! We have to stop here!  Oh wait, let's stop here too!"  Well, at this stop, we saw a family and their pet taking a hike to yet another overlook.  He liked having his photo taken! 
And they said he can talk!





Remember when I said I was going for a cool shot...well, here's the result!  
That's our friend Kyle following us...Hi Kyle!



We saw some crazy road signs!  I've never seen either of these before!


It turns out that they also make a matching sticker!  
Reggie found it at a gift shop at one of our many stops. Perfect!


I loved being a passenger with a camera...just look at this cool bridge/tunnel! 


I also wanted a "mountains in the distance" photo...this will do!


Due to speed limits and our multiple stops, we finally ate lunch...well, an early dinner, really, at Mount Mitchell, the highest point along the Blue Ridge Parkway!  They said it's foggy 8 out of 10 days here.  This day was no exception!  And their climate is actually closer to that of New England and Canada.  


Before we drove up to the highest point, we had been drenched in sunshine, blue skys, white puffy clouds, and temps in the upper 70s...totally different story up here at 6,684 feet!  The highest point east of the Mississippi River!


We parked near this cool, mossy tree. 


Closeup of the moss...prettiest moss I've ever seen!


I wish I could have brought back this gorgeous wall with me...




Another tunnel!


Almost to Asheville...one last stop!


I loved seeing this tree growing right out of the side of a mountain!



If you've read all of this post and looked at every image, I applaud you! And you should leave your name in the comments!  :)
Thank you for spending some time here on the blog!
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cars and scenery are just FABULOUS!!! Great job!!!

Marcie

Unknown said...

A-mazing!!! Beautiful scenery. Gorgeous photography!!! Great job. Love them all!!!

Unknown said...

Wow Stephanie....you have talent! I went thru the several of your archives. i especially liked Mom's yard and the road trip to asheville. you could work for some advertising firm...you have a good eye and creative flair. cant wait to show this to sally. now i know why she keeps wanting to take me there. cant wait to go there now!

uncle mike

ps. i'll bet Reggie really loved that trip. that photo of him with you in the rearview mirror really captured his pleasure.

thanks for coming last week. i had a great time.