Starting point, New York City

[Dutchguy]

Hi all, I just registered but I have been visiting this forum from time to time since I decided I wanted to do a road trip in the USA 2 years ago. However, due to financial problems I didnt go through with it, until now.

I have never been to the USA, and never really done a roadtrip either. So I thought I would ask the professionals here ;).

I want to do a roadtip, starting from New York city. I have been looking for a place to end the roadtrip, but it looks like it's easiest to also end it at New York city. (because we have to fly back to amsterdam afterwards). It's just going to be me with a friend = 2 people. We decided we're going for 21 days, possibly a week longer if that would make awesome stuff possible.

We want to hit the following cities:
New york (max 5 days)
Philadelphia (? days)
Washington DC (? days)

But thats where my imagination kind of stops. I guess I would love to see a bit of nature as well. Maybe even get some action? (like rafting, climbing, shooting range, etc) But what's good in the area? No idea.

We are comfortable driving for 6 hours a day, but not much longer. I realize thats not a lot, considering America is really big. But Holland is supersmall so we're just not used to drive for long. On the flipside, we are prepared to stop and rest for the night in small towns, etc. As long as we'll eventually get to the destination we don't mind taking it a bit longer to get there.

We have a budget of 2500 euro's each (3400 dollars?) to do this, but we're willing to go over that budget if deemed necessary/awesome. The flight from and back to Amsterdam is not part of the budget. So the budget is meant for car rental, gas, food, hostels/motels, fun/interesting things.

Like I said, i have no experience with the USA or Roadtrips. So I'm looking for some help picking places to go to and the route to take.

I hope the information I gave will help you help me ;). If more information is needed please ask. In any case, thank you all for taking the time to read this and hopefully help me.


PS: Is it even allowed for a foreign tourist to use a weapon at a shooting range?