So, the last leg of my trip was from Pigeon Forge TN, heading north by north-east on the Blue Ridge Parkway some 700 miles from southern North Carolina to well into Virginia. Here's a few pics.
View of the Appalachians looking to the east from main street in Pigeon Forge the night before I hit the Blue Ridge.
This is the sort of view one usually gets from Calgary looking west at the rockies... Was my first time grasping how tall the Appalachians are.