Miami is a great starting place--lots of great stuff to see (try and miss the hurricanes). The drive to New Orleans (especially off the interstates) will delight and surprise you with rural areas, cities, tourists areas, and small towns--just about anything you could imagine seeing. The gulf coast is a beautiful area with sugar white sand, loads of accomodations from sky-rise hotels, road-side motels, beach side condos, river boats, cabins on rivers. Then New Orleans and Louisiana is an entirely new and different world. GREAT food all along the way!