I would drive westward, to ColdChef's house! Then I would stay there FOREVER.

Because you'd be embalmed and stuck in the deep freeze?

Visit y'all.

I think we're still on deck for Memphis sometime or other... although the person we'd go see (aside from the normal sights) now lives in Asheville.

Seriously, after driving to a crappy hockey game in Detroit and back in a 36-hour period (8 hours each way, not including the hotel stays in beautiful Highland, Indiana), I think we're ready for anything.

I've been to Memphis. My sister lives in Jonesboro, AR, so we just drove in to see Graceland and then back out. It was ok, the parts I saw were kind of sketchy, and not in a fun way. Graceland was a blast, though. Worth seeing just for the giant, ceramic, sad-eyed monkey statue. If I had had my choice, I would have gone there with more time to spend than just one day.

Sunrise on the Jornada del Muerto:

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The UFO McDonalds in Roswell, NM:

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Hanuama Bay, HI

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The Spruce Goose:

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Cadillac Ranch, Amarillo, TX:

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Coldchef!

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I took a trip from Crater Lake to Iowa avoiding Interstate as much as possible, but that was in August.

This book was very helpful, even though I didn't follow the route verbatim.

Carhenge !!

Highway 1 From San Fran south. Amazing!

Hwy 1 from SF north is pretty nice too. The Oregon Coast is amazingly pretty, big rocks on wide beaches under forested hills. Eastern Utah/Norther Arizona/New Mexico big, roadrunner-esque landscape with lots of Native American history. The area around the Tetons is gorgeous and Yellowstone is amazing.

Route 1/1A North in Maine from Portland up to Canada.

I have a plan to do Tennessee music history in depth some day - Nashville and Memphis and Bristol.

The Black Hills of South Dakota, then on through Montana and Wyoming hitting the National Parks.

Route 66! My trip to Oklahoma got me all fired up to drive the old alignments and make the whole trip end to end. It's pretty cool out there!

I love the West Coast roads, all the way down (and up.) I like to cross the country vertically, on the west edge, and keep right on going north into Canada or south into Mexico. I am a total Pacific Coast groupie.

But more in the middle . . . so much to see. If I could do my perfect trip, I'd just go from one national park to another.

Also, since I am seriously interested in the Civil War, I'd look hard at a battlefields trip. That war almost extended across the entire USA.

Seconding Maine to Canada. My husband and I spent 3 weeks this summer doing almost exactly this. We started in NJ, and hit Portsmouth, NH; Belfast, ME; Moncton, NB; Baddeck, NS; Halifax, NS; Charlottetown, PEI; Fredericton, NB; Bar Harbor, ME; and Camden, ME. Cabot Trail (Baddeck), Hopewell Rocks (Moncton) and Acadia National Park (Bar Harbor) were the natural beauty highlights of the trip. Portsmouth and Halifax were good for wandering around and shopping. Charlottetown was nice to drive around and everywhere was scenic. Rockland (near Camden) was the big surprise on the trip - lovely downtown, tasty places to eat, friendly locals and FAR less tourist-oriented than Camden. To keep it in the USA, I'd subtract Canada (it was 13 days of the trip) and add Portland, ME; Providence, RI; and more time in Bar Harbor. You can add Boston if you want a big city, and Niantic, CT if you want books. If you decide to do this, let me know - I have a ridiculously huge spreadsheet that might prove helpful.

Aw man, don't tell me the Mystery Spot was cool! We passed by there, saw that it would cost $15, and left!

TheDonF and I recently went across the States en route from London to Portland. I haven't got all my pics up on Flickr yet, but you can see some here.

We started in Washington DC, flew to Ft. Lauderdale, drove to Gainesville, FL, then to Atlanta (OMG BoringPortcards, elizarde, mygothlaundry, Arn!), took the train to Birmingham (OMG Bitter Old Punk!), flew to Albuquerque, drove to the Painted Desert, the north rim of the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, Las Vegas, Joshua Tree, LA, Big Sur, Monterey, San Jose, San Francisco, Jedidiah Smith redwoods and the Smith River, and Portland.

The Painted Desert and drive to the Grand Canyon was incredible. The Canyon itself was a bit of a let-down: there's so much pollution! Zion was amazing and we both wished we'd had more time. Our favourite was Joshua Tree. Unbelievable. Big Sur is beautiful, and although we didn't do it this trip, the Oregon coast is amazing as well.