Get the AAA travel books for all the states along your route. As you go along, read the briefs about the various communities - you'll learn some history. Buy a Golden Eagle pass to the US Parks for $25 at the first park you get to. Only one pass is needed per car load. (Free if you are over 63.)

The following assumes that you will be leaving from Virginia:

Go south on I-81 to meet I-40 in eastern Tennessee. From here to southern California you will mainly be centered on I-40 as there are many interesting sights along the way.

In TN, time yourself to miss rush hour traffic in Knoxville and Nashville. After Nashville, try to overnight at exit 143 (Hurricane Mills). (Take note of Bucksnort at exit 148. It has been the scene of several of Dr V's Mary Lou stories.) The food at the Log Cabin is very good - perhaps the best along the whole route. (Loretta Lynn's restaurant is not bad, but not as good.) You might want to move on to Jackson TN, and get off at the exit for Casey Jones' Village. Stay at one of the motels there. But don't miss the curio shop at Casey Jones' Village.

Go to Memphis and see Graceland. (TN will take you much of a day to drive its diagonal; Graceland itself will take about 3 hours.) You might also want to drive south a few miles just over the border into Mississippi to visit some of the Riverboat Casinos.

Cross the Mississippi River over into Arkansas. (As you know, while it may not be the biggest, Old Man Ribber drains the largest watershed in the world; you see half a continent's water flowing by. Note the huge flat flood plain on the ARK side. Lots of rice paddies in the flood plain.)

Halfway across Arkansas you will begin to see (a) evidence of American Indians, and (b) that you are running along the southern portion of the Ozark Mts. (Ft. Smith, on the west side of ARK, used to be the frontier: wild Indians were beyond!)

Enter Indian Territory - Oklahoma! After a few more miles of rolling forest, soon you will be entering the Great Plains of North America. But as the trees thin out, remember that the first person to see a pumping oil well has the others pay for the meals for that day! Soon you will pass Sallisaw, the home of Baby Face Nelson and Chief (?), who first put an Indian language into writing. The prairies: a 1000 miles to the north and 500 miles each to the west and to the south there is nothing but prairie - the world's largest breadbasket. Oklahoma City is the site of many aircraft firsts. About an hour west of OK City (exit 108) there is an Indian Trading Post that is better than any other you'll see along the whole way. There is also an ostrich farm on the north side of the road at milepost 22. Once giraffs were seen looking over the fence!

Enter Texas. This will be the shortest state you'll traverse - TN was the longest. Your drive will be taking you to ever higher elevation. There is only one city in TX on this route: Amarillo is the site of Indian buffalo kills (run 'em over a cliff), cowboys and the railhead, and one of the two world sites for helium. During WWII, Amarillo was one of the two main POW camps for German Officers - about 10,000 were here - so much for escaping on coastal submarines! The Golden Coral and surrounding motels are not bad places at which to eat and stay on the west side of town (Wolflin Street?).

Keep your eyes open near the TX/NM border - watch for the sudden change in terrain. Wow!

Stop at Tumcumcari NM, a one street town a couple of miles long. Stop at its Chamber of Commerce and get info on its history. Denny's is the town's main watering hole. Main Street is part of Old Route 66: Part of the even older Santa Fé Trail.

Get off I-40 at Santa Rosa, and drive the length of the town. Stop at the bridge over the little Pecos River. This was the border of the USA for a long time. Being that there was no official law west of the Pecos, lots of banditos hung out in saloons on the west side of this stream. A few miles to the south is the town of Pecos, where a teamster anmed Roy Bean once entered town. Gangs of cowboys were having a shootout so as to determine which team of ranch-hands were the best. Roy suggested they not kill each other but have contests of roping, riding, etc. Thus began the rodeo. The populace thought Roy so wise, they made him judge - the only Law west of the Pecos River. Once back on I-40, you will see signs to Las Vegas a few miles further on from Santa Rosa. This is NOT Las Vegas Nevada, but instead is one of the main junctures of the old Santa Fé Railroad - the first RR to penetrate this area on the way to the Pacific. So the RR will be be running parallel to I-40. Why do you think the RR came this way? How was this RR importantly involved with the history of women in America? Women, keep your eyes open for a book called "The Harvey Girls."

Next go to Santa Fé via US-285, and stay a day. "End of the Santa Fé Trail" Buy more Indian goods. At the SE corner of the plaza is a fancy hotel. Find out what Teddy Roosevelt, as President, did in its lobby in a showdown with a cowboy. Find the oldest church in America; ring its bell. Note size of the stream that runs through town - what's its name? What famous university is sited here?

Go south on I-25 from Santa Fé. Get off at the Santo Domingo Pueblo, and take a 10 minute slow drive through that little nation's dirt road and see how impoverished "Amerinds" live.

Back on I-25, pick up I-40 again, and immediately exit to Old Town. See a bit of history that predates anything in the northeastern US. Continue back on I-40 and go through Albuquerque, over the Rio Grande and onwards past a volcano and over its lava flows. Soon to the north of the highway will be a continuous line of red cliffs. Stay here over night in Gallop, the capital of the N. Amer. Indian Nations. Stay overnight because tomorrow you have a very big day. Buy more Indian goods in Gallop.

Now comes the biggest, most sight-filled day of the trip!

Cross the border through a slot in the cliff into Arizona. You will drive across the Painted Desert, and the major nations of the Navajo (previously hunters; now live isolated) and the Hopi (previous pueblo builders, now live in villages).

Stop at the Petrified Forest National Park a mile off the highway. Spend a couple of hours. See movie. Drive around to see some of the petrified trees. Lunch; buy rocks and bits of trees. Get back onto I-40. Pretend your are a pioneer on the lookout for the San Francisco Mts, your landmark to the west. Your elevation will slowly be increasing. Note how the desert diminishes, prairies start. When do you first see the mts?

Stop at Meteor Crater Natural Monument a couple of miles off the highway. Pay the steep price - afterall it's the only place like this in the world! Snack. Buy a piece of the meteor. The San Francisco Mts should be very visible to the west. Flagstaff is at the southern base. That's where you will soon be headed. Get back on I-40. The elevation will continue to increase to the highest point in your trip at Flagstaff. Note the presence of ever larger ponderosa pines.

Go through Flagstaff; do not take US180, but stay on I-40 until you see a sign: "Route 64: Grand Canyon National Park (South Rim)." US180 is circuitous and 2-lanes; Rt 64 is quite straight and easy to pass slower cars and trucks. Flagstaff is considered to be one of the healthiest places in the USA to live. Stay a day at The Canyon. Campgrounds are quite good. Motels rooms are steep. Splurg: eat at the main lodge - built by Teddy Roosevelt. Ask about the Harvey Girls: it'll suddenly reveal a lot of history. Also ask ranger to tell you the story of the first encounter of the canyon by the Spanish. Go back to I-40. The town of Williams was once one of the main stops on the Santa Fé RR - much bigger than Flagstaff.

At Kingman, get off I-40, & go to Laughlin Nevada for a cheap night and near-free food. At Kingman, take US93 north for a few miles, and then go west on AR68. You will not go to sleep as the scenery will soon become EXTREMELY spectacular as you drop down into the Colorado River canyon. Laughlin, despite being only 12 years old, is now the world's #2 gambling capital. #1 is about 2 hours to the northwest. Oh, what the heck! Drive north to Boulder City on US95 past Searchlight NV (an old west town - stop in its casino to see a vestage of the old west). Go see Hoover Dam (2 hrs).

Spend a cheap night in Las Vegas if you arrive Sun thru Thurs (rooms are cheap then). Don't spend/lose your money! Cheaper rooms are at Circus Circus, Stardust, Stratosphere. Go to Stardust desk and ask for buffet coupons. Eat buffet, get $2 back, for a total cost of less than $3. Circus has cheap eating. Before leaving Las Vegas, fill with gas - your last cheap chance in 200 miles. Don't eat!

Head SW on I-15 for 20+ miles to Whiskey Pete's Casino. Eat there! See Bonny and Clyde's, and Hitler's cars there. Cheap rooms here also, and across the Highway (both owned by same person). Buffalo Bill's has one of the tallest roller coaster drops in the world.

Go to Barstow on I-15. You will be driving through the Mohavé Desert. You'll find I-40 ends at Barstow, which is the juncture of the Santa Fé RR and the Union Pacific RR, and now both go with you. Barstow once was the railhead for Death Valley borax and the 20-mule teams. For lunch, drive through town and continue for a few miles to its western edge. Get off at the Linwood Exit and eat at the blue roofed Harvey House. Gas is steep here. You should still have enough to get you to San Bernadino, near L.A.

Continue on I-15, go past LA and take:

I-5 or I-15 or I-215 to San Diego.

On to Tijuana (buy lots of leather goods at 25% USA cost!). The most interesting way to get to the border is to take the Tijuana Trolley from San Diego's downtown station - the end of the Santa Fé RR! You must have driver's licenses to get back into USA. Don't bother with passports. Don't bother with pesos as Tijuana uses only US$. Eat at Caesar's Restaurant - the home of the Caesar Salad! Its buffet style and doesn't cost too much. Gets you upstairs and out of the hustle and bustle of the street for awhile. Booze is cheap. You can take back 2 liters per person (1 liter for Californians).

Get on I-5 and go north to L.A. See the smog! See the sprawl! See if you can find Hollywood! You are going to continue northward rather than stop into Death Valley. Summer is not the safe time to wander out onto one of the hottest places on earth. From here to Salt Lake City, Dr. V has not traveled.

Drive up to San Francisco area using I-5. You will be driving along the San Andreas Fault. You will have to figure out what you want to do, if anything, in S.F. You might want to drive straight east of S.F. to Yosemite NP. Not only would you see the nation's most crowded NP, but you'd also get to see some sequoia trees.

Using I-80, drive to Reno over Donner Pass and past lots of silver mining history. Learn about what happened to the Donner Expedition. You might want to camp at Lake Tahoe. There should be more cheap living in Reno.

Continue on to Salt Lake City. Put your feet in the Lake; see the Temple; get out of town. The plan now is to loop south into Utah to see the richest concentration of National Parks in the USA. Later you'll go north to catch the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. You may wonder why we didn't stop over to see some of the following sights when you were going westward. There was one 400-mile long problem called the great chasm of the Grand Canyon.

Take I-15 south to Zion NP. This road runs through 90% of Utah's vegetation. As you drive, there will be a mountain range a couple of miles to the east of you. On it drops the rain, behind it are some of the driest places on earth. You'll visit them in a couple of days.

Take UT9 + US89 + UT12 to Bryce Canyon NP. About a 2-hr drive. Wander around Bryce Canyon's formations for a couple of hours.

Take UT12 eastward to Torrey and then UT24 eastward to camp at Fruita, in Capitol Reef NP (an oasis of fruit trees). This might be your first time traversing desert one minute and then climbing into a high plateau where it is cool and forests of quaking aspen grow. Always be alert here as this is open range - watch out for cattle on the road. In Torrey, buy grub, and gasoline. There is nowhere to buy anything closer than this to Capitol Reef NP. Most people Dr. V has met consider Capitol Reef NP their favorite park - beautiful, massive, lots of history re the westward movement, good botany/zoology talks by the rangers, great camp grounds, lots of water, AND very out-of-the-way.

Go east on UT24 to Goblin Valley State Park - pick up some jasper (once a precious stone until this very place was discovered!). Before getting to Goblin Valley, you will have gone through what is said to be THE driest place on earth - the San Rafael Desert. Pick up some gypsum flakes. Goblin Valley has good toilet facilities - but I think you'll like Capitol Reef NP better.

Up UT24 to Green River, go east on I-70 to US191 and go south to the Moab area, where Arches NP, Canyonlands NP and the Little Grand Canyon are. Get a full tank of gas.Your prime target is Dead Horse Point, which is at the Canyonlands NP exit. DHPt will be one of the most spectacular sights you'll see on the trip. Dead Horse Pt has good camping area. Go here first! Then take the short drive to DHPt itself. I will tell you no more.

Go back to the Canyonlands NP turn-off and go to its small info center. Get a map. Get your 4-wheel drive going and take the Shafer Trail down 4000 feet to the River and then along the river back to Moab. Get gasoline. (1 day of the most spectacular driving you'll ever do in your life!)

Drive over to Arches NP. Perhaps camp at the Firey Furnace area. Drive around this hugh park. See the Ranch. From the ranch hike the 3 miles to see the prototypic arch.

Go through Price UT to Dinosaur NP in NE Utah.

Find the Flaming Gorge National Recreation area. Go there and stay overnight in one of the high southern campgrounds. Wonderful coolness!

Go north through Dutch John WY to I-80. (I-80 = Oregon Trail). Notice the high fences along the highway to keep the wild horses off the roadway.

Find your way to Grand Teton NP and Yellowstone. (DrV has not been here.)

Get back to I-80 for your 2000 mile trek home. I-80 runs parallel to the northern border of Colorado. If you have never been there, take US395 for a few miles southward into COL and then jump out to put feet on COL. Get back in car and drive two miles north and get back on I-80 in NEB. At this point, look at your NEB map. To the north lies the largest county in the USA: Cherry County. It was the area of James A. Michener's book "Centenial."

Near Kearney NEB turn south off of I-80, cross the Platt River, to see Pioneer Village. Take note of historical markers along the road. (It is said that the Platt River is too thin to plow and too thick to drink.)

Very soon now you will be running into more humid air, and the scenery will change from desert scrub to ranches and farmland.

Take I-80 home. Tell family about the trip of your life.

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