While it is obvious you can't drive the AT, you can certainly get a map and plot the nearest roads along it and drive as close proximity to it as possible. It would be a very scenic and exciting trip! Be forewarned however that many of the roads in the vicinity of the AT tend to be narrow two lane ones in the mountains with turns so tight you can read the license tag on the back of your rig. While it does follow the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline drive for a good distance, the trail itself is around 2000 miles long, which is not as the crow flies of course, but up and down countless mountains and valleys.
Give it a shot. Sounds like fun if you have the time.
And if you decide to walk it, most hikers start in early spring at the southern end in Georgia so they can hopefully finish before the first snow in Maine.
