DrewE wrote:
That is a rather open-ended question!
I was fortunate enough as a kid to get to take a generally similar trip with my mom, a year and a half after my father passed away. We
Some highlights (from that trip and other traveling I've done):
- The Corning Glass Museum is well worth visiting (though it may well be practically local to you)
- Niagara falls
- The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village outside of Detroit (two days would not be too much there; the place is huge)
- The Badlands--I really enjoyed that.
- Yellowstone (Huge, one could spend weeks there; also, it was very cold camping in late October when we were there; 6F in the morning in a tent is definitely chilly.)
- CA 1, the Pacific coast highway (depending on your comfort with heights and twisty roads and driving your RV, you may wish to skip that!)
- Hoover dam (take a tour if you go).
- Carlsbad Caverns
- The American Museum of Science and Energy (Oak Ridge, KY) was much better than we anticipated.
- Monticello
- Blue Ridge Parkway/Skyline Drive
I was not so impressed with Mt Rushmore (for me, it's in the category of "yep, now I've seen it" and, for some reason I can't entirely explain, the Grand Canyon. I suspect I'd have a different opinion of the latter now, or with more time to actually explore/hike it.
My family did a similar 6 week camping trip when I was about 14. 6 weeks is a very short time to do it, but its possible.
We didn't do the Henry Ford Museum or the Oak Ridge Museum. We did everything else and it was awesome. If you are over by Carlsbad Caverns, its AMAZING to see. I would also add Mesa Verde as a gorgeous and memorable place to visit.
I still remember driving up the Pacific Coast Highway, that was breathtaking as well. Big Sur is spectacular. We enjoyed our time along the coast in California. Beverly Hills was awesome, San Francisco was awesome. San Diego was awesome.
We stopped in Vegas for a couple of days. Having recently been back for training, I really like Vegas. I don't gamble, don't drink much, don't visit prostitutes or strip clubs and still find the city to be amazing. Lots of family friendly stuff to do, great architecture and incredible casinos. Its an hour to Hoover Dam from Vegas. Hoover Dam is cool to see. I didn't do the tour, because the people I was with weren't in the mood to see it. I'd like to go back and do the tour though.
I thought the Grand Canyon was cool, but it is hard to take it all in. Yellowstone is such an incredible place, again its so hard to take it all in though. Both places are well worth the time to visit.
I would have liked to go to south Texas, we skipped over much of Texas and drove through the northern part of the state.
New Orleans French Quarter is stunning. I would encourage you to spend at least a couple days there. The architecture, the history, the food, the music are all very memorable.
If you come back up the east coast, lots of beautiful cities along the water... St. Augustine, Savannah, Charleston, Myrtle Beach, etc.
Sounds like a GREAT trip.
I am looking forward to taking my family across country at some point. Too young for it now. I think I want to wait until they are old enough to enjoy/remember it and I want to make it a more leisurely trip. There were some days that we woke up and drove all day, set up camp at night, went to bed, repeated the next day, repeated the next day, etc. Those days made the trip horrible at the time. I would like to have a more relaxing trip and less planned out. We found that we liked certain places but only budgeted a day or 2 at that location, and we didn't like other places (or weather was bad) and we had arranged to stay for longer periods of time.
Enjoy the trip, take lots of pictures and be planning for your NEXT trip!!!