Places worth riding/visiting in the south east US?

[zombiphone]

Since I figure the best way to find cool things in other places is to ask the locals, I figure this might be a good place to post this.
 
Long story short, I've been planning to take my FZ cross country starting in about a month, leaving from los angeles, and turning around in the Florida keys. I want to stay a bit south for a lot of it to make sure I avoid any snow that might still be lingering from winter (which, it sounds like there's a lot of that this year), but, while I have a decent set of must visit places so far between here and texas, I'm not seeing a whole lot in the georgia/mississippi/alabama/louisiana type areas.
 
Anyone from that side of the country have any suggestions for, say, national parks/monuments/roads that must be visited/cool things that must be seen?
 
Here's my map so far- any opinions and suggestions are much appreciated:
 
http://mapq.st/1XvAa3g

[20vavant]

If you do decide to come up a little more north I would highly recommend riding US129 near Knoxville, TN/ Deals Gap, NC. Its a very popular motorcycle/car road due to its twisties.
A little further north is Natural Bridge in Slade, KY. There are some nice twisty roads here as well as some good hiking.

[zombiphone]

I'd definitely love to go a bit more north, too. It'll just be dependent on the weather. If everything is generally pretty rideable by, say, early april though, that's a definite possibility! Thanks! I'll see if I can map that in to the route back!

[Guest 2wheeler]

Here's one for you - the largest privately owned home in the country - the Biltmore Estate! You can fit 3 White Houses in there and it 50% bigger than Hearst Mansion. Unbelievable example of what extreme/obscene weath can do!
 
It's located at the end of the Blue Ridge Parkway which provides fantastic mountain riding outside of Asheville, NC.
 
Here's a link:
 
http://www.biltmore.com/
 
 

[snowdriftless]

In Florida:
 
-St. Augustine: Castillo de San Marcos it is the oldest Masonry fort in the Continental US.
-Homestead: "Robert is Here" a kick but fruit stand and shake/smoothie shop
-Key Largo: John Pennekamp State Park has a few nice places to go Snorkeling and see some sunken cannons.
 
I'll let you know if I think of more places.

[twowheeladdict]

The Natchez Trace Parkway runs from Natchez, MS to Nashville, TN without one stop sign.
The 3 sisters in the Texas Hill Country.
Drop down to Dauphin Island, AL (near Mobile) and take the ferry across Mobile Bay.
Visit Barber Motorsports Museum near Birmingham, AL
If you come through Lake Charles, LA, stop in at Steamboat Bills for a Cajun feast.
Check out the manatees at one of the parks on the west coast of Florida.
Chattanooga, TN is an amazing city with great mountain riding all around it.
Ride on the beach in Daytona Beach, FL. Met a guy who raced motorcycles professionally on the beach back in the day.

[2wheeldynoworks]

In Arizona just east of Tuscon, consider taking 191 up to Eagar and return down 180 through Silver City. In Albuquerque, make a short side trip up onto the Sandia mountains, you come up from Tijeras to San Antonito, up 536 to Sandia Crest. In Alabama/Georgia, a lotta good riding. You may wanna consider bringing some extra fuel on your trip. Plus, what all they said ^

[zombiphone]

Sorry for the delayed response! Trying to incorporate as many suggestions as possible into the route. I've updated it quite a bit with suff like barber and some of those restaurants, and I still want to incorporate that ferry. And it looks like that Robert is here place is actually on the way to John Pennecamp park, so win win. And I don't know how i forgot about Daytona. I've got tons of friends who are racers, and who have raced there, so I'd love to check that out too. Although there are still some barren areas, and I'll definitely be improvising plenty, but I think every leg is short enough so far that I should be able to find a place to sleep each night without too much torture:
 
http://mapq.st/211uXG6 (For the record, I'm only using map quest over google because they let me use more markers. I fully acknowledge that google is otherwise better in every way)
 
I did pick up a national park pass last time I went camping at Joshua tree, so the national parks are definitely what I'm really shooting for the most, but everything is very much appreciated!
 
Still gotta tweak a lot of the roads to grab some of these route and restaurant suggestions and be slightly more back roadsie, (Although I'm going alone and I'm not much of a canyon carver anymore- so I very very very strongly prefer scenic over technical or challenging when I'm riding on the street), but I think this is a great start! Thanks a lot so far guys! I've barely seen the US so far, save when visiting race tracks, so I'm pretty clueless on what all is awesome otherwise.

[wickedtwister]

I would recommend taking blue ridge mountain parkway out here in the western North Carolina area. Beautiful ride. North East Georgia has some nice places too. Gulf shores Alabama is nice.
 
 
Here are some pics from my last 2 trips to the parkway. About an hour from my house.
 

 

 
Biltmore is nice but expensive to get into.
 
For reference it's about 30 in the mornings here and 60s as a high during the day.

[doublergirl]

if you get into the tn, nc area i would recommend hitting the dragon, then going over to shady valley, tn to hit the snake (us 44), then down towards charlotte via us 181 jonas ride, and old 18. Also look up little switzerland, nc

[Beemer]

I'm going on a little trip in the south here in about a month and these are the places I have in mind so far. 
1. http://www.blueridgemountains.com/
2. http://www.ussalabama.com/
3. https://www.drytortugas.com/?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=fort%20jefferson%20dry%20tortugas&utm_campaign=All%2BDevices%2BFlorida
 
Just east of Fredericksburg and southwest of Austin, there's a very popular place called the Salt Lick http://saltlickbbq.com/ I recommend stopping at for lunch or dinner. I'm not saying it's the best bar-b-que in Texas but since you'll be in that area it's a nice place out in the hill country (nice roads) just a little off the main road with a great atmosphere. You'll love it. Also I noticed your route takes you real close to St. Petersburg, you should get off IH75 and go through there and across the Skyway Bridge, it's awesome. I took one of our forum riders across it a few days ago and he loved it. The view doesn't get much better in Florida and after you cross it the road will take you right back to IH75.
 
https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=A0LEVjDiVcZW7mAAFNIPxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTByMjB0aG5zBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw--?p=Skyway+Bridge&fr=yhs-adk-adk_sbnt&hspart=adk&hsimp=yhs-adk_sbnt
 
I may end up over in Austin, Tx. to visit my brothers and see some good blues bands at the Saxon Pub and maybe some stout Irish rock at Fado, Irish Pub there, also. Enjoy you trip!