Thanks, Midwest Michael! I'm mentally prepared for the trip to take up to two weeks since I'm not covering a whole lot of distance each day, and I may need to sit it out a day or two if bad weather hits. So I'm hoping to choose interesting cities to stop in, while also making sure these are cities with pet-friendly hotels, basically anywhere with a Motel 6 or La Quinta. It's the midwest where the weather is most likely to be bad according to the weather predictions for this year, but a southern route would indeed take much longer. But I would love to hit New Orleans and then hug the Gulf Coast down to Miami. Time to try out the Map Wizard!