New Member Looking for Help from Experienced Road Trippers

[lakehood]

This site looks like exactly what I'm looking for. I'm so glad to have stumbled on it. My husband and I are in our early 60s and recently retired. We live in Tallahassee, Florida; our daughter and grandchildren live in Los Angeles, CA. Usually we fly out to visit, but we're thinking, since we now have the time, that a road trip to CA and back would be fun. We are thinking of driving 4-5 hours a day, maybe more some days, maybe less. We would like to return by a different route than the one we go out by. We would like to visit some fun, interesting and hopefully new, to us, places.

We did take the station wagon trip with the kids out west twice during the late 1980s. Those were great trips. We've been to the Grand Canyon (hiked down, camped overnight, hiked out - in July!! That was not great timing; it nearly killed us!!) ,North Rim of the Grand Canyon Yellowstone, Bryce and Zion, the Badlands, Mt Rushmore, the Grand Tetons, Yosemite, an extremely cool place in Montana called Big Sandy that was way off the beaten track. You get the picture. We've seen the big highlights; not that they're not worth another look, but we're wondering what we've missed. Smaller, but still worth seeing, locations.

I'm hoping that you folks have some ideas, some "Oh, you really ought to see.." places that you can suggest. Maybe some insider info. Thanks you in advance for any ideas you'll share with us. This trip will probably take place early 2014 so we have plenty of time to plan. Oh, our camping days are behind us, hot shower and soft bed at the end of the day, please.

Patty

PS This is my first forum post ever. My husband says there's etiquette. Hope I'm being properly polite.