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| Shehzadi at her parking spot in New Orleans |
It was the final morning of our final planned stop. New Orleans had cast its spell on us, as she tends to do, and it was tough peeling ourselves away from the jazz-soaked streets and beignet-laced breezes (see NOLA Deep Dive - a Perfect Day in the Crescent City | New Orleans, Louisiana). But the road was calling. Again. Always.
Shehzadi, our faithful Toyota Tundra, was rested and ready. We gave one last glance to the streetcar gliding past our BNB on St. Charles and Euterpe, loaded up the gear, cranked up the playlist, and pointed our wheels northeast. Ahead was a 1,098-mile familiar home stretch from the Crescent City to our little corner of the world in Hyattsville, Maryland. We had been on most of this route many times over the last 25 years of living in Maryland.
Trans-America Overland Part 23: New Orleans to Hyattsville via Birmingham, Great Smoky Mountains and Shenandoah Valley — Post Summary
The final episode of our 2024 Trans-America overland loop follows Shehzadi from New Orleans back to Hyattsville, Maryland. We cross Lake Pontchartrain, run through Mississippi and Alabama, stop for boiled peanuts near Birmingham, pass through Chattanooga, Knoxville, Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg and Dandridge, then follow the Appalachians through Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley before reaching home. The odometer closes the loop at 8,939 miles.
| What's Covered | |
| 🌊 | Louisiana to Mississippi: Lake Pontchartrain and the Gulf Coast — I-10 Twin Span, Gulfport, Biloxi, Hattiesburg |
| 🥜 | Alabama: Hot Boiled Peanuts and Birmingham — Trussville fuel stop, roadside peanuts, Birmingham history |
| ⛰️ | Tennessee: Chattanooga, the Smokies and Dandridge — Chattanooga, Knoxville, Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, Bojangles |
| 🛣️ | Virginia: Roanoke, Shenandoah Valley and I-66 — Appalachian roads, Staunton, northern valley, I-66 |
| 🏠 | Northern Virginia to Hyattsville: Home — Capital Beltway, rooftop garage, final odometer |
| 🧭 | Next Stop: The Complete 2024 Trans-America Series Hub — full 23-part expedition index |
We drove from New Orleans to Hyattsville through Mississippi, Alabama, a short corner of Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia, with Birmingham, the Great Smoky Mountains and the Shenandoah Valley marking the final arc home. Shehzadi began this last leg at 14,255 miles, exactly 7,860 miles beyond our Hyattsville flag-off for Dublin, Ohio. The truck had one job left—get us, our bags and several weeks of road dust home.
Method: Overland by truck
Distance / Time: Approx. 1,098 miles / final homebound leg
Themes: Gulf Coast · Southern road food · Appalachians · homecoming
Vehicle: Shehzadi (2024 Toyota Tundra)
Route at a Glance
- New Orleans → Lake Pontchartrain → Gulfport and Biloxi → Hattiesburg
- Mississippi → Trussville → Birmingham
- Birmingham → Chattanooga → Knoxville → Pigeon Forge → Gatlinburg → Dandridge
- Tennessee → Roanoke → Staunton → Shenandoah Valley → I-66
- Northern Virginia → Capital Beltway → Hyattsville
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| Departure dashboard in New Orleans before the final drive home |
Louisiana to Mississippi: Lake Pontchartrain and the Gulf Coast
Leaving New Orleans, we crossed the I-10 Twin Span over Lake Pontchartrain, with broad water and marshes stretching away from the bridge. Soon enough, we dipped into Mississippi, skirting Gulfport and Biloxi—coastal towns with long seafood and shrimping histories and barrier islands offshore.
We bypassed Hattiesburg and caught the scent of pine trees and barbecue smoke drifting from roadside diners. This leg was about the road itself—watching the scenery change, the towns shift, and the rhythm of the country evolve mile by mile.
Alabama: Hot Boiled Peanuts and Birmingham
Crossing into Alabama, we found ourselves in the Trussville suburb of Birmingham around mid-afternoon. It was hot. Southern-hot. We stopped at a gas station to refuel Shehzadi and grab cold drinks—and that’s when we spotted them: hot boiled peanuts.
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| Hot boiled peanuts at a gas station in Alabama |
If you’ve never had spicy hot boiled peanuts, you might raise an eyebrow at the sight of wet legumes floating in briny tubs. But trust us, once you pop a few into your mouth and bite into the tender, Cajun-spiced goodness, you're a convert. They're salty, savory, and just the right amount of messy. It’s like Southern soul in a shell. We devoured a bag sitting on the truck bed tailgate, watching the Alabama sun beat down and feeling grateful for small roadside surprises.
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| Cajun-seasoned boiled peanuts from our Trussville gas-station stop |
“Green” peanuts are fresh, undried peanuts rather than green-colored ones. Boiling them in salted water softens them into the texture that makes the Southern snack so gloriously unlike a roasted peanut.
Birmingham flew by with two major chapters of its past just off our route, neither of which we stopped to visit. Sloss Furnaces made iron from 1882 until 1971 and now preserves Birmingham’s industrial history. At 16th Street Baptist Church, the September 15, 1963 Klan bombing killed four girls and became a major turning point in the Civil Rights Movement. Then the highway pulled us onward.
Tennessee: Chattanooga, the Smokies and Dandridge
After a puny few miles across a corner of Georgia, Tennessee welcomed us with sweeping ridgelines. Chattanooga came first. Farther northeast, Knoxville came and went before we reached Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, where the Great Smoky Mountains came into view.
The drive through Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg felt like rolling through a postcard and a theme park at the same time. Misty peaks rose on one side while roadside attractions competed on the other. In Gatlinburg, mountain lodges and pancake houses sat below Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Pigeon Forge supplied the full dose of Americana, including Dollywood, car attractions and dinner theaters.
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| Bojangles in Dandridge, Tennessee |
It was a joy to be back in Bojangles country, and we stopped for some of our favorite Cajun-spiced fried chicken at their Dandridge restaurant.
Once the commercial buzz fell away, the mountains took over. Layered ridges faded into blue-gray haze, cool air came through the open windows, and the road became quieter. Dense vegetation releases natural volatile organic compounds; reactions in sunlight and moisture create fine particles that help produce the Smokies’ famous blue haze. We rolled the windows down and let the mountains handle the air-conditioning.
Virginia: Roanoke, Shenandoah Valley and I-66
Crossing into Virginia, the road climbed and dipped through the Appalachians. It felt quieter here—peaceful. Small farms, rolling pastures and dense forests took over. It was the kind of road that invited long silences and soft conversations.
Roanoke came first, then Staunton farther north as we moved through the Shenandoah Valley. For part of this stretch, the Blue Ridge Parkway ran through nearby mountains rather than under our tires, a familiar ribbon we were leaving behind.
Eventually I-66 turned east toward Northern Virginia. I-66 links the northern Shenandoah Valley with the Washington suburbs. Mountain road was becoming home road again; interstates are excellent at removing suspense from geography.
Northern Virginia to Hyattsville: Home
As we passed through Northern Virginia, the familiar D.C. traffic tension returned. I-66 carried us through the Washington suburbs, and the Capital Beltway swung us around the city toward Maryland. The finish was gloriously unceremonious: traffic, signs we knew and the last few miles.
And then—at last—Hyattsville. Home.
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| Shehzadi parked at her rooftop home spot in Hyattsville, Maryland |
Shehzadi rolled into her rooftop parking spot as if she'd never left, though the odometer now read 15,334 miles and the truck wore the dust of the full loop. Against the 6,395-mile flag-off reading, that made the completed roundtrip 8,939 miles; the series title rounds it to 9,000 because odometers have no sense of drama. The route had run from Colorado's Rockies to Moab and Utah's red-rock country, across the Mojave and Death Valley, and through the Sierra Nevada into Arizona. Later came the Chihuahuan Desert country of west Texas and our Rio Grande crossing at Boquillas, followed by the long eastbound run through Texas to the Mississippi River in Louisiana. The food had been just as geographically ambitious: fry bread and roast mutton in Navajo Nation, tacos in Boquillas, boudin in Lafayette and boiled peanuts in Alabama.
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| The dashboard after the loop closed in Hyattsville |
We unloaded the last of our bags, stood back, and gave each other a look that needed no words. What a journey it had been. We were home. The road had come back with us.
The final thousand miles mattered because they were ordinary. No border crossing or canyon road waited at the end—just familiar interstates, roadside food and Appalachian ridges. After a month of pointing Shehzadi at the next thing on the map, the road stopped being new and started becoming ours again. A transcontinental loop needs an ending, and ours arrived without fanfare. That was exactly right.
Next Stop: The Complete 2024 Trans-America Series Hub
This Part 23 drive closes our 2024 USA-and-Mexico Trans-America series. The full 23-part route is collected in our complete 2024 Trans-America expedition hub, where the 9,000-mile loop runs from our Hyattsville flag-off to this final return.
If one transcontinental North America drive is not enough trouble, our earlier 2018 journey from Maryland to Alberta's Canadian Rockies—including the Columbia Icefield and Jasper National Park—starts with Ice, Fire & Mountains Transcontinental North America USA & Canada Overland Trip | Part 1 | Germantown, Maryland to Wall, South Dakota.
Until the next adventure,
- The Vagabond Couple and Shehzadi
