When you come out of the Autotrain facility you'll be on Lorton Road. If you're in a huge hurry to get out west, I-95 is right up the road. But I'm going to hazard a guess and say you won't be in a huge hurry. There's a few different ways you could from here to cut out to Shenendoah area. I'll throw out one off the top of my head. Make a right onto Lorton Road. Right after the exits for 95 is Silverbrook Road. Make a right onto that and follow it up to Ox Road (Rt 123). Make a right onto Ox and follow that for a little bit. You'll see signs for the Fairfax County Parkway (Rt 7100). Exit onto that heading north toward Herndon. You'll only be on this for a little bit. Take US-29 south toward Centreville. This road may be a little congested for a litltle bit depending on what time it is. You can stay on this and pick-up 211 in the Warrenton area. This will run you through sections of Civil War Battefield area. 211 has some fun sections of curves in it. If you decide to do this just beware of the police that patrol it. It's a popular riding road so it's become a good place for the police to write tickets. Your other option is to pick up Rt 55 in Gainesville. This road picks up off of 29 from the right. This a great road for getting to Front Royal and getting on Skyline Drive. It parallels I-66, but without the traffic. If you wanted to skip Skyline and just head to the north head of the BRP I *believe* you can follow 11. It's been a while since I've done this so you'd have to check a map to make sure. 11 parallels I-81 and is similar in a lot of ways to 55.
If you want my number PM me and I'd be happy to give it to you. That way if you run into trouble you have someone you can get a hold of. I've done the entire BRP twice and it's beautiful ride. I've always stopped in Blowing Rock which is about 100 miles north of Asheville. I always seem to reach my limit about there. There's a small white motel there that I've stayed at. It's pretty nice and the owners are really nice (at leat they were eight years ago).
Have a safe trip!
We didnt know how much time we needed. We get on the train monday at 2 and off at 9:30am tuesday. We are looking to be home either saturday or sunday and was planning 1 night in helen Ga.