I can only remember three cars that were a problem in the entire trip. In the 491 miles travelled, we climbed about 50,000 feet. I feel much stronger on hill climbing now. If you take it easy and don't try to push too hard, you can ride the Blue Ridge Parkway without a whole lot of hill training, but it would certainly help. Pack less food given riding with a group that likes to eat out at every opportunity.
Potable water can be difficult to find on the parkway.
One day, I actually stopped a couple of cars asking for water. I finally managed to get some watered down ice-water from a soda they had from lunch. Copyright Stephen Whetstone, 1998. All rights reserved.