If I said I wanted to see Australia and had two weeks to do so your advice would be the same as mine, pick a small area and see it.
In April the best weather will be in the southern USA as it may still be snowing and icy in the northern areas. Along the coast the weather is going to be the nicest at that includes any coastal area.
In April a trip from San Diego up to Napa in California is a comfortable trip in 2 weeks with about 600 miles of driving. Fly in to San Diego and fly back out of San Francisco.
The southwest is great but the distances are great as well so you will be driving for 8 hours a day to get around in two weeks.
In June you would have the entire USA for travel options but April is a lot more limiting if you want to be sure to have good weather.
Quote: Maryland and Wyoming are two already mentioned.
What would you recommend?
It would take you 2 weeks just to drive across Wyoming
.....but seriously, 2 weeks is an extremely short period of time to do any "drive touring" in the US.
I would suggest choosing between East or West sector, and intensely visit one or the other.
IMO, there are at least 4 must-see locales on the East coast (unfortunately, they are hundreds or several thousand miles apart!), but my favorites are: the Maine coast; and the OBX (or, Outer Banks, of North Carolina, with loads of maritime history!). Maine is a bit cold in April (but not excessively so), and North Carolina's OBX sand banks are very, very pleasant in April. This is a link to our Trip Report on the Outer Banks, entitled: Hunting Hurricane, here-->
On the West side of the USA, I'd suggest doing the "Trail of The Ancients", or TOA (i'm working on a huge TOA high-resolution map this week about 3-feet x 4-feet in size, which I'll post in my Website by early next week, along with many accompanying GPS files).
Big country, too little time. Darn difficult. Lot's of driving time. Given the time of year...
West coast: Los Angeles, Venice Beach, Norton Simon and LA County Art Museums, Tar pits, Rodeo drive. Hit the beaches and drive thru the "slums". Pop up to Vegas and the Grand Canyon. Cut up to Yosemite and Sequoia Np's. Hit San Francisco. Take a day or two trip up the coast.
East Coast: Savannah GA., Charleston SC., Washington DC, Amish Country near Lancaster PA., NYC of course, Niagra Falls (view from Canadian side).
We full-timed for 2 years. See our blog for more ideas:
....although he hasn't expressly elaborated (yet), I surmise that Terrick is probably coming to the US on business and must return rapidly to his domestic sewage treatment plants, Sales and servicing business (thus the very short stay for a very, very, veeeerrrry long return flight ratio). So he probably won't be using an RV here to do the 2-week tour (forgive me if I'm wrong, Terrick )
If so, he'll be using B & Bs and/or hotels with a rental car, so cold days/nights may not be an issue?
This is the impression I've been imprinted with from his OP (I could be wrong!!).
RIGHT, FIRST THINGS FIRST...Thank you all so much for the generous imputs so far. It has made my google searches a lot quicker and easier to plan out a trip and how much it is going to cost.
We will fly into LAX, go to the Long Beach HiPo swap meet, ( yes a car nut also - 55 Nomad), then to fly to Glenrock ,Wyoming, to visit a good friend and have a few days looking at the natural wonders in that area, work our way back thru the tours to LA and see that area as much as possible.
Then home, finish building the Underground house, save some more money and bring DW back to RV tour for a month in your summer.
Thats the rough plan at the moment.
Silver..you are spot on the money.
Again, thanks so much for the honest opinons and help.....this is a good forum.
Terrick
Hi
What a difficult question to try to help with !!!!!
IF we were going to Australia we would head for Cape York (depending on the season) but you might suggest we go to Sydney !!!!----NOT for us.
What can you hope to see in 2 weeks ?????-----that time of the year we would do Grand Canyon and San Francisco----but you are not with OH??? she will HAVE to see these two places--so you will have to go back to them.
I think, visit your friend---spend quality time there-----and share your main trip, you will enjoy it so much more. But work out what you BOTH want to see and plan around that-----things like rodeo you have in Aus. but we don't, so that was an important thing on our trip.
AS others have said, pick an area and spend time there, on our recent road trip we did 17.500 miles over 3 1/2 months---yes we did see a hell of a lot of that great Country (and Some of Canada) but we spent A LOT of time driving !!!!
I assume your main trip will be in a rental RV ????? as you asked on an RV forum
We wish you all the best wherever you decide to go
Nigel & Pamala-------Spain (at the moment)
Based on your proposed itinerary (LAX to Glenrock, WY), I would say, visit your friends in WY then FLY to another destination. There are no "natural wonders" anywhere near Glenrock. Colorado is too cold that time of year. The drive south and west along I-80 is too long and too ugly.
Consider flying to Reno NV, or Medford OR, or San Francisco. A Reno leg would let you see Tahoe, Sequoia, and Yosemite then San Francisco.
Flying to Medford, you could get a taste of Coastal Mountain country while you work your way to San Francisco along the coast (exceptionally beautiful!) or through wine country (or both).
Whatever you do, don't waste your valuable time DRIVING from Glenrock. It's a BIG country.
If one must decide between cultural or scenic emphasis, the cultural tour would have to include the Mid-Atlantic. The history of America's recent past revolves around two great social upheavals, the American Revolution and the Civil War. I can't swing a dead cat 'round here in Richmond, Va. without hitting a historical marker or battlefield monument. Washington D.C. is a wealth of fine museums and architecture. Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown are amazing colonial treasures. Philly, Boston and New York City are just astounding in all their historical and social complexity.
If I were to focus on scenic wonders I would visit the high desert and canyon country in Utah, Arizona and Colorado. Bryce, Grand Canyon, Arches, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Mesa Verde, Rocky Mt. N.P., Grand Tetons, and Yellowstone would all be on my list. Canyonlands N.P. is probably my favorite place in the universe right now because of its stark beauty and dark skies (I like astronomy).
Regardless of where you visit, be sure to take the road less traveled and get a sense of the spirit of the people. I find the rural american to be a friendly and fascinating person. In the city, not so much.
Two eateries stand out in my mind: East - Bill's Seafood Restaurant in Yorktown, Va. West - Zack's Pizza in Moab, Utah. (Maybe Zack's tastes so good because of the relative dearth of local options?). This has been fun thinking about and I wish you an outstanding trip!
Offline
