I need tips for a cross country roadtrip

Hello! This will be my first major roadtrip strictly for enjoyment and only with my girlfriend.. We want to go from Wilmington North Carolina to Portland Oregon. We are on a time limit of two weeks what with work and rent to pay. I am 20 and need to also convince mom that no big bad monsters are going to get me. If anyone has any suggestions as to what the fastest route would be, if anyone has ever completed this trip and would like to share their experience, or if anyone has any basic must know tips for a long distance trip I would love to hear from you. We have thought about taking train routes, so if anyone has done that, again, please feel free to respond. We want to just get to Portland as fast as possible and then see how much time we have left to spend there and sight see on the way back. Camping is definitely a possibility. I am pretty much open to any suggestions at all and I'm sure any small tip will help tremendously. Thanks!

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

The biggest problem you've got with your current plan is that you are going to have very little time at your destination, once you factor in the fastest possible time to get across country and back.

You're looking at a 3000 mile drive, each way and that is very much a 5-6 full day drive (at least 10 hours a day on the road) and that's leaves very little room left over to see anything along the way. With just 2 weeks, you're going to have a maximum of about 3 days in Oregon before you have to start heading for home - and that's if you don't plan to spend anytime seeing things in the middle.

The fastest routes would involve taking I-40/I-77/I-64 to St. Louis, then I-70 across to either KC or Denver, heading up to I-80, and then heading up I-84. If you're looking for another route to add some variety to your trip back, you could head up to Washington and take I-90 (and/or I-94) across to Chicago and then work your way south back to NC. That alternative adds less than 100 miles to your overall trip.

that only adds about 100 miles, you could