Driving from Atlanta area to Chapel Hill
 

My 17-year-old daughter and I will have a day and a half to drive from Atlanta to Chapel Hill, NC. Any suggestions of places to visit, restaurants, or hotels along the way?

Through the mountains? Atlanta-Gainesville-Clayton-Dillard-Highlands-Brevard-Asheville. This is about 6.5 or so hours of driving, and you can make a nice stop in Highlands for some shopping.

If you wanted time to visit Biltmore in Asheville, you would have to take I-85 and I-26.

Spend the night in Asheville, then blast east on I-40 to CH next day, arriving just in time for lunch.

I-85 from Atlanta to CH is pretty horrible, and there isn't much you want to see on either side of it. It is tolerable from Atlanta to I-26.

Another option on the same side trip is the Chimney Rock area. Exit route 64 toward Chimney Rock and you pass scenic lakes with a couple nice restaurants with excellent views.

I believe I would just get myself onto Chapel Hill and spend your time looking around that area. I assume this might be a college visit. If you wanted to do something fun and love pottery, go to Seagrove and Jugtown just south of Asheboro. Up around Chapel Hill go over and enjoy lunch in Hillsborough in the little historic district. Again if you like to shop, go to the Vietri outlet there also. In Chapel Hill spend some time in A Southern Season for a kitchen store on steroids.

With a 17 year old daughter, I would skip the long, out of the way, drive to Asheville and head straight to Chapel Hill. Most 17 year olds would get bored with Seagrove as well, so I'd skip that too. There will be plenty to see and do in Chapel Hill alone. A Southern Season is a very cool kitchen store/food items. If it is in fact a college visit, spend your time walking through campus and wandering down Franklin Street. Chapel Hill is gorgeous this time of year and it is the epitome of college towns (I did my undergrad there- Go Heels!).

I agree with a direct drive to Chapel Hill - even though the area Ackislander describes is my favorite area. If you had more time to stop and really enjoy the area, I'd go that route. But not as a route on the way to Chapel Hill.

I agree with Gretchen that a couple of the Jugtown potteries would be interesting stops. A friend was just talking (yesterday afternoon) about playing "in the mud" in NC growing up, but saying the "mud" wasn't like mud at all. She said it was greenish, like clay, and they made little bowls and plates out of it. :-) I think a road trip to the Seagrove area is in order.

I agree, Seagrove is a great place for pottery. I grew up in Randolph County, not too far from Seagrove. However, with a 17 year old, I wouldn't make Seagrove a destination on the way to Chapel Hill. Unless, your 17 year old daughter has a large interest in pottery...

You may enjoy stopping in Greenville SC for lunch. Go downtown and enjoy one of the shops there.

Stretch your legs, stroll around and look for the bronze mice - from the story Goodnight Moon.

See more at this link - http://www.greenvillesc.gov/visitors/mice.asp

Take a look at this downtown Greenville link -
http://www.greenvillesc.gov/development/dt_shop.asp

To the poster talking about "playing in the clay". I have a wonderful little bit of "that". The reason the area around Jugtown became such a pottery mecca was because of the clay in the area. It was even exported to England to the Wedgwood factory for their jasperware.
Anyway, I was browsing at a pottery and saw a perfect "dirt dauber's nest", but it was like porcelain. The wasps had made it from local clay, and one of the potters had fired it. It is beautiful.
There are probably 80 potteries in the area. But Jugtown and Ben Owen Pottery are worthy destinations, even for a teen ager--IF there is any interest in pottery in the family.
Starrs, you really need to do it!!

Gretchen, I've done it! Several times. I love puttering around the area and just stopping at the smallest little potteries. I think it's a cool thing to do EVEN IF the 17yo doesn't have the slightest interest in pottery. The images of an afternoon stopping here and there along a country road are some of my favorites.

It DID inspire me to take lessons later on. We had three options of clay to start with and I chose the "chocolate" clay. We were told that it was the hardest to work with, but the softest clay imaginable. It was really like working with (cool) molten chocolate on the wheel. Some really bizarre things happened during those classes, including running into an old friend I'd not seen in twenty years. Both of us spent the first two weeks of class just letting the "chocolate" clay spin in our hands while we relaxed.

My neighbor just finished building a kiln in his barn and has the potter's wheel ready. I've got my little toolkit and will wander up to the barn some day - and pretend I'm in the Jugtown area. :-)

We export a lot of kaolin from around here, but our mud is just mud - not the wonderful "mud" of NC!

The gallery in the mountains used to carry some of Owens' red glazed pieces. I've held back from ordering because I want to go there to buy it.

For those who have no idea what we are talking about, here is one of the more famous potteries -
http://www.originalowenspottery.com/

And, here's a map of the many little potteries just waiting for a visit -
http://00009zn.dev.radiant.net/se_map_p2.html

The potteries no longer use local clay actually. It is "imported", I know not from where.