Dear RTA Forums members,

My wife and I are currently planning a road trip from Philadelphia to San Diego (job relocation). We have about 9 days (max) to complete the trip. It will be just us and the car. For this trip, we’d like to take a more southern route; it’s a part of the country and culture that neither of us have much experience with. In general, I’m thinking a route through Appalachia, the deep south, New Orleans and then west.

As we don’t have a ton of time to complete this trip, we’re obviously only going to be getting only a cursory feel for the areas we travel through, but I’d still like to make it a memorable and novel experience.

From research I’ve been doing here and elsewhere, here’s what I’ve been thinking for a route: From Philly down through Appalachia via the Skyline Drive (at Font Royal) through Shenandoah Natl Park and on to the Blue Ridge Parkway to the end. From here, I’m puzzled: we plan on visiting some friends in NO, so that is a definite destination. It would be fun to visit Memphis, and take in the blues culture there (and Graceland), but it seems like Memphis is quite the diversion west. On the other hand, I think it’d also be really interesting to visit import civil rights era sights in the south, such as the Selma to Montgomery march (which we’d do in reverse). We’ll probably only spend a full day and night in NO. From here, as we head west I’d like to do the Creole Nature Trail and wind up in Austin for a night (and day, if time allows). I’ve seen plenty of the southwest, so I don’t mind blazing through it. (Although west Texas will be new – if there’s something I must see, let me know.)

So, taking in to account that travel will be on some of these slower byways, is this a reasonable 8-9 day trip?

If you have ANY recommendations on what to see, where to stop for the night, where to eat (we like to eat!), I’m more than open to hearing them. We’re both very open minded, money won’t be too much of an issue; we’re just interested in getting a novel and scenically and culturally rich experience.

Thanks in advance!