Hi RTA world!

I am a 100% newbie to all of this so please bear with me if I ask stupid questions or if this post is just entirely silly, but I have to start somewhere!

Let's see... I am finishing a job down in Disney World in January and will be moving back to New York. Before I move, I have the month of January to see the country, and since I have a car down here and have never done a "road trip" so to speak before, I figure that this is the perfect opportunity! :) Ideally, I thought this would be the perfect time to go see Disneyland for the first time. So, I'm trying to figure out the best way to drive there from Orlando and then back to New York, seeing as much of the country as I can, for as little money as possible haha

Time frame is about 3 and 1/2 to 4 weeks in January. I know the weather will be bad so I assume I should stay south if I can. Regardless, I have searched this forum and done a lot of research, but there just seem to be a large amount of options and I don't really know where to start. I also would like to utilize couchsurfing as much as possible as I've done that in the past in Europe and enjoy it much more than hotels/hostels when I'm by myself traveling. Therefore, I am trying to get a general timeframe of when I will be where to help plan couchsurfing visits.

So, RTA world, where do I start?

Again, my apologies if this post is incredibly general and vague, but I'm just looking for a starting point and then I can go from there, I think!

Thank you!