Thanks for the reply, AZBuck.

In terms of what I'd like to see, I really don't have a lot of preference. If there is a scenic route or a historical place or an art museum or a fun amusement park, if I have time, I'd like to see it. I guess that's a hard thing to explain, but I guess it means I'll have to do most of the planning of where I'm going myself. I was hoping to get some input on, if its your first time on a road trip, you can skip X place and go to Y place instead. Hopefully I'll find some more input on the internet.

In terms of gas, my car is great with gas mileage so according to my calculations, with side trips and driving through cities, it should be under $1500 for gas. While I do plan on buying my friends a bottle of wine for their troubles. Most of them haven't seen me in ages, they understand my budget and have been hosted at my house for free many a time. I apologize if that makes me a moocher, but they know I'd do the same for them. That gives me about $80 a day to spend. I'm a light eater. Most of the hostels and motels I'm looking at offer free breakfast, and my friends will provide me when I'm at their houses. For lunch and dinner when I'm on the road, I normally spend a little more than necessary for lunch and have the leftovers for dinner, or spend more for dinner and have the leftovers for lunch the next day. That still leaves me with about $50 a day to spend on seeing things.

Since some days I will just be driving and not paying for anything, that allows me for greater expenses on other days. But larger expenses - theme parks, I have friends that work at those places and are able to get me in.

Anyway, thank you for the budget advice, but really, I'm looking more for where I should go advice. As you said, I have a lot of zig-zagging, which I'm fine with if it means seeing more, but if the other places are not worth seeing because I need another day or two in other places, that would be worth taking into consideration. Can anyone offer general input on what THEY would do (even if its not what you think I would do) or what they have done in the past? It would help a ton.

Thanks much!