Where to Go in the USA?

My husband and I are leaving soon to visit relatives in San Diego, CA, San Antonio, TX, and Memphis, TN. That should take up about six days of our trip. My question is: what do we do with the other 3 to 4 months?

Here's the deal:

• we are both in our mid-60s; in reasonable health, enjoy meeting new people of all sorts and ages;
• we are traveling in an (old, not fancy) rv and taking our two active mid-size dogs;
• we like cities but prefer the countryside; we like to boondock but often buy a camp site for a few days if the location is nice;
• we are cheap, preferring to have fun admiring the scenery, getting to know a new town, and other freebies;
• that said, we are not broke and do have money for an occasional splurge;
• we are adventurous but not into intense physicality (no sky-diving, thank you); swimming and light hiking are good;
• we LOVE new cultures, ethnic food; dying to go to New Orleans, for example;
• we are Canadians who have traveled to Russia, China, Turkey, Israel, Mexico, Belize and Ecuador ; my husband's father was American but his family moved to Canada in nearly a century ago so hubby is a bit interested in exploring his roots (New York State, mostly); we are familiar with the West Coast and have seen a bit of Vermont and Boston and between; that's about it. Never been south.

Finally, we have to end up in Las Vegas at the end of February because a neice is getting married there.

Any suggestions are very welcome, both "must sees" and "off the beaten track" destinations where foreign travelers don't often go. Real America, in other words.

Thank you!

Edited by: njoy

Assuming you're taking your RV the dates you give are giving you roughly 5 months to get from BC to Vegas?

You can easily take a month getting to San Diego from which you can dawdle along I-8 to Yuma, wend your way to Tombstone to check out Boot-hill & the OK Coral, if you have been to Dawson City YT, Tombstone is similar but on a much smaller scale. If interested Roswell NM is a worthwhile detour.

You can easily spend the best part of a month getting to San Antonio, where one can easily spend 3-4 days besides the 2 you have already allotted. Then head for Memphis via New Orleans, might as well check out Austin San Antonio as well. That'll eat up 2-3 weeks.

From Memphis I would head up to St Louis MO & follow Historic Route 66 at least to Oatman AZ before heading to Las Vegas. Make sure to check out the murals in Cuba MO & possibly a night at the newly renovated Wagon Wheel Motel. Of course a side trip to Branson shouldn't be missed. Could be some snow & ice in AZ/NM at that time of year though & campgrounds may not be open, so judge for yourself. Should be in Vegas just in time for the wedding.

Keep in mind that lots of times a mile off the interstate puts you off the tourist trail.

Have a great winter exploring the back-roads of the southern US.

Thanks for the excellent ideas. It's a total of four months but we might want to return to Canada early because my granddaugher wants to attend the wedding and her dad isn't going to put a 14 year old on a plane to Vegas by herself. So, we'll see.

Luckily, our rv is good on snowy roads and we have enough furry canines to get us through at least a two dog night!

I'm starting to get excited about this trip. I feel that with the world economic (and therefore political) situation deteriorating daily it would be a mistake to put off opportunities.

Make sure your rv is winterized. We were camped in southern Arizona last January and our water lines froze and damaged the water pump. It got down to -14 deg F.

Southern Utah/Arizona are favourite places of ours in the southern US - Zion NP, Capitol Reef NP, Coral Pink Sands State Park, Monument Valley, The Arches NP. As to camping, just look for roads that take you through national forests and recreation areas. You will find lots of wilderness campsites in these forests. These are either free - you are welcome to camp anywhere as long as you are 100 feet off the road, or basic campgrounds that offer a site and a pit toilet - costing anywhere from $2 to $12.

Buy an $80 national parks pass at the first national park entrance. It will pay for itself in 4 parks or so. Then just look at the map and hit every national park or monument you can.

As to Texas, I love Bend National Park and Carlsbad Caverns are cool. Also San Antonio. In Louisiana you HAVE to go to New Orleans and in Tennessee, it's Graceland in Memphis, of course.

We spent last winter wandering around the southern US/Mexico/Ecuador/Mexico/US then back to BC across Canada. You can check out my website below for some road reports and ideas.

Thanks, living. We will try to avoid Arizona in January. I've been in a fierce snowstorm in Texas in January as well, which surprised me as it is so far south. Maybe Florida is a good place to be.

Always, before, our trips have been moving fast, going somewhere. This time will be different.

National parks in Utah, four corners area, Olympia area in Washington state. DC , Highway one up the California coast

Follow the west coast all the way down from Canada.

We just returned from a road trip from LA to Seattle - it was awesome!!!
We followed Highway 1(and 101) all the way. The scenery, wildlife and people were amazing. I would agree with lotusland2 that coming North to South would be better as you are on the coastal side of the highway and that makes it easier to pull off and stop to take in the coastal scenery. Personally, I'd be a bit scared to drive that road in an RV but there were plenty of people doing it.
I can't begin to come up with the highlight but among the most memorable would be the Redwood forests, walking across the Golden Gate Bridge and taking the ferry back across the Bay (quite a hike but worth it), the fantastic vibe of Portland, eating clam chowder on Pismo Beach, the ostentatious, bad taste self indulgence that is Hearst Castle - you have to see it to believe it, the Pacific North West Coastline, Big Sur, watching elk grazing at the side of the highway (well, I am from Australia so it was a novelty).......the list goes on and on. We stayed in all manner of accommodation from fabulous beachside B&Bs to a Super 8 motel (had to do it for one night just for the experience).
Our only regret is that we didn't have longer to really explore the area more.

That' trip is awesome, no doubt about it. I have done it several times, first when I was just a kid with my parents. Thanks for all the replies in this thread. I will have to put them in a "future file" as we have concluded such a long trip is not in the cards for this year. Too bad, I really thought it was going to happen.

Plan B is to fly to San Cristobal, Chiapas. Not such a bad second choice.

Okay, change of plans. My husband thinks 3 months in an RV with 2 big dogs sounds like more work than fun. So, we are going to leave the fur kids behind and go to San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, for a month.

I will post here and in the Mexico forum shortly. Thank you for the great responses. I will keep this thread handy for the future.