new orleans to new york 6 days

Hi everyone! I`m from Brasil and I am starting my first roadtrip ever next week.
Our flight is to New Orleans and we`ll stay 3 days there.
After that the plans are:
amtrak to memphis.
Rent a car there and stop in Nashville
stop somewhere in kentucky (maybe louisville? or someplace near a national park, rivers, etc)
stop somewhere in west virginia (or ohio)
stop somewhere pennsylvania.
drop the car and get a bus to nyc where we`ll be staying one more week.

Those stops are the places where we`ll actually sleep and stay one day+night but we`ll definitely make quick stops on the road to eat and get to know small towns.
I`m going with a friends but I`m the only one driving and I do not feel comfortble driving more than 3 or 4 hours straight.
Anyone has tips of places we should go or roads or anything? we do not have much time to plan but we need to be in ny on a specific day (for work) so we cannot also just let it flow...


thanks!