Santa Fe NM to St. Augustine FL

[Thefeenix]

I'm new to RTA and could use some help. I'm going from Santa Fe NM to St. Augustine FL in June with my 11 year old boy and 14 year old girl to see family. I'd like some ideas on places to see on our way. Fun and funky is especially good. Any ideas for better roads is good. I used Mapquest. It shows going thru Amarillo, Dallas, Shreveport, Mobile, and Tallahassee. I want it to be fun, not just a very long drive. I'm giving myself about 4 days to make the trip. This is the first road trip I've made without another adult along so I'm a little anxious (?) Any advice would be greatly appreciated :)

Thanks!

[Mark Sedenquist]

I'm going from Santa Fe NM to St. Augustine FL in June with my 11 year old boy and 14 year old girl to see family

Family road trips can be wonderful! As you know, by the most direct route, this would be a 1700 mile trip and so you would need to cover a very reasonable 425 miles each day (7.5 hours of travel per day). Here are some tips for planning family road trips.

Here are some ideas about places you could consider fitting in on such journey (not all of these would work, of course, but they might get the ideas flowing):
New Mexico; Texas; Alabama; Florida.

Mark

[AZBuck]

The route that Mapquest gave you is probably as good as you can do. The one thing I might do differently is to stay on US-287/US-82 a bit longer, staying in the Red River Valley rather than coming through Dallas/Fort Worth. You could then use US-69 to go from Sherman, TX to rejoin I-20 just north of Tyler. The Red River provides several state parks and wildlife refuges that would let the kids get some outdoor time and blow off some steam. On the funky side, you can take I-10 into New Orleans and then go north across the longest bridge(s) in the world. And Gulf Islands National Seashore just south of Pensacola offers a chance to experience the Gulf of Mexico while you're at it.

AZBuck