Hi Everyone,


I am a solo traveller who is coming form the UK to the USA at the end of August to travel the country for two months. I'm flying into Boston and flying out of Los Angeles and want to see as much as I can!!

I want to be in Seattle by 1st October where I am meeting my girlfriend. The 5 weeks before that are virtually completely open! I've thought about a rough route; I don't want anything too planned or structured but after reading a lot of the threads on here I though it best to at least have something in mind. My (vague) itinerary would be as follows;

Boston and surrounding area
New York City
Washington DC
Blue Ridge Parkway through Virginia and North Carolina, ending up in Great Smokey NP
Ashville, NC
Atlanta and Athens, GA
New Orleans, LA
Houston, TX
Austin, TX
Dallas, TX
Great River Road up to Memphis
Nashville
Chicago

Then from Chicago, I would probably fly to Seattle depending on people's thoughts of timing or how quickly I could make it driving across the plains and mountains!

Regarding the above, is this realistic in 5 weeks? I'd like to have a night or two in each place with more in the obvious places (NYC, DC, Austin etc). I realise many of the distances between each place are huge and have yet to decide on stopover points but definitely realise they are required. Recommendations would be very welcome!! I think I need to aim to keep my distances to around 500 miles on driving days.

You may have guessed from some of the destinations that I'm into music, especially blues. I also love scenic drives; I drove the Route 1 from San Fran to LA and it was one of the best experiences of my life so a repeat of anything close to that would be amazing. Please recommend any scenic drives, even if it means taking a day or two to do them. I'm more than happy to take the long way round!

The West Coast is pretty sown up in terms of planning but any recommendations would be great as well!

So basically - I would love your thoughts on whether the above is realistic. Are there any glaring omissions that I have foolishly left out? Things I should skip? Great places to stay (although I'll be using hostels and camping wherever possible!)?.

Thanks in advance guys!


Alex