You bring up a very good point. I think the plan to do quadrants is a good one although I would allow 8 weeks per trip. Moving to "tennessee-ish" area? OK....I live in East Tennessee just east of Knoxville and I can be in Myrtle beach in a day. I can be in New Orleans in a day... long days, granted that. BUT the point is TN is very centrally located. For going out west yeah, that will take 3-4 overnights to get to the Grand Canyon and the National parks in Utah.
Traveling is about seeing the country. RVing is far different than flying to somewhere and renting a car for a few days and then flying back home. RVing you get to see every little town you pass through and stay a few days if you like. You are correct in that you don't want to just drive all the time, that's no fun. I do 6 hours max driving and that is between the hours of 9am and 3 pm. I miss all the rush hour traffic. I am not rushed breaking down to leave in the dark AM. I am not dog tired pulling into the next stop at 10 PM and trying to set up in the dark. The objective is to enjoy the journey.
When on the road we use the RVPARKY app to find parks along our route. It gives you all the info you need to see if it sounds like an acceptable park to stay at. We start looking about 1 in the afternoon to find a park 2 hours ahead of us. We call to see if they have a site and then secure it for our overnight if available. We have never been shut out and were forced to stay in a Walmart parking lot. We only made reservations at our destinations where we were staying more than 3 days to a week.
Flexibility is the key. The RV has wheels so you can go anywhere you want to.
