Long term planning: USA Road Trip, 2015

[Pedrito]

Ok, so the kids are becoming annoying in their "will you take us to Disneyland puhlease? and will you take us to see the redwoods, and the Grand Canyon? and New York City?", and I've decided the following:

In summer 2015 I'll take a two months leave (and a half-lifetime of savings  ) and bring them to the USA for a big road trip.

Why 2015? Because the youngest will be 6 1/2 years old, and will enjoy the trip instead of being trolleyed around; and the oldest will be 12, and hopefully she won't yet be all adulescent and emo and will enjoy the trip, too. I hope.

Two months would be enough time to wander through the country (and perhaps take a stray tour towards Canada or Mexico), and I'm looking for suggestions about almost everything: places to visit, modes of transportation, hidden gems, Languishite caves, everything you've visited, or would love to visit in the whole continent.

Remember: it will be a family trip, so places like Las Vegas (except for the exterior of the crazy casinos), or that strip club with the hottest dancers in town, will be forbidden 

And yes, this comes up in April 2010 because it's a slow day at work 

A very first draft of notable places I'd love to visit:
Yosemite National Park
Yellowstone National Park
Grand Canyon
New York City
Niagara Falls
Chicago
San Francisco
Disneyland (California)
the Great Salt Lake
Volcano National Park, Hawaii
Boston
Grand Tetons Nat'l Park
Some scenic road in the Rockies or everywhere else
Texas
The Great Vagina Wall
Cal's Burner (it's said it can roast a whole beef in a couple hours)
New Orleans, Charleston
do some whalewatching, in either of the oceans
redwoods
highway to Alaska (short detour to Whitehorse) (Barrister)
Florida (theme parks, snorkeling in the Keys, gators) (Zanza)
Rochester, NY (Berkut)
Disneyland Paris (the Larch  )
L.

Edit: updated with suggestions

[Barrister]

Cities aren't all that great for a big road trip - NYC in particular.

Visiting Hawai'i would be awfully difficult on a road trip as well.

Might I recommend driving the Alaska Highway through northern BC, Yukon, and ending up in Anchorage?

[Zanza]

I've done most some of those things as a tourist and I would skip Chicago and Boston and consider Florida as part of your trip instead as it has much more to offer for kids (theme parks, Kennedy Space Center, alligators, snorkeling in the Florida Keys etc.).

[Pedrito]

Cities aren't all that great for a big road trip - NYC in particular.

Visiting Hawai'i would be awfully difficult on a road trip as well.

Might I recommend driving the Alaska Highway through northern BC, Yukon, and ending up in Anchorage?

Effin' lawyers, with your attention to words   
It will be a road trip with city stops and maybe some plane flight, ok? 

L.

[Berkut]

That is a pretty nice list right there.

If you do make it to upstate New York and the Niagara Falls region, you better come and visit Rochester!

[Barrister]

Cities aren't all that great for a big road trip - NYC in particular.

Visiting Hawai'i would be awfully difficult on a road trip as well.

Might I recommend driving the Alaska Highway through northern BC, Yukon, and ending up in Anchorage?

Effin' lawyers, with your attention to words   
It will be a road trip with city stops and maybe some plane flight, ok? 

L.

One thing to consider - car rental companies make you pay through the nose if you return a car in a different city than where you rented it.

Also are you looking at a car, or renting a camper/RV?

[The Larch]

Take them to Euro Disney in Paris and save yourself lots of anguish. 

[Sahib]

There won't be any oil left by 2015 IIRC

[Pedrito]

One thing to consider - car rental companies make you pay through the nose if you return a car in a different city than where you rented it.

Also are you looking at a car, or renting a camper/RV?

This is the kind of info i'm looking for: It could force me to plan a round trip, 

i'm not really a motorhome guy (I want to shower properly!), but i'll take my time to evaluate it; 5 years, to be precise

L.

[The Larch]

Now seriously, I'm not really sure if it's a good idea. My parents also took me and my brother abroad when we were young, and it's a mixed bag.
When I was 10 and my brother 7, they took us to London, and it was mostly OK, I think. We went back in January because my brother basically didn't remember anything at all, though.
A couple of years later (with me being 12 and my brother 9) we went on a road trip to France, and it wasn't really a good idea. A small kid's patience to long trips trapped in a car is looooooooow. I only remember suffocating in the car because of the heat (we went in the summer), and arguments about having taken the wrong turn to go to the hotel.

[Barrister]

One thing to consider - car rental companies make you pay through the nose if you return a car in a different city than where you rented it.

Also are you looking at a car, or renting a camper/RV?

This is the kind of info i'm looking for: It could force me to plan a round trip, 

i'm not really a motorhome guy (I want to shower properly!), but i'll take my time to evaluate it; 5 years, to be precise

L.

Last year, did you ever wonder why we drove from Frankfurt down to Rome, then drove all the way back?

If you do the motorhome thing, when staying in RV parks most of them have showers.  But it's a very different way of travelling.  Lots of people love it, but it's not for other people.

One other consideration would be to try and arrange to buy a car on, say, the east coast, then sell it dirt cheap on the west coast.

[Pedrito]

Take them to Euro Disney in Paris and save yourself lots of anguish. 

This is planned for 2011.

About your last post, you point two major issues: at 6 1/2 y.o., the girl will be too young to remember, not to say enjoy, the trip; and yes, children's patience run dangerously low after a couple hours in the car; this is why I'm considering the idea of a motorhome, or driving short spans (and finding a lot of interesting places not so far one from the other, that's the problem)

L.

[Zanza]

One thing to consider - car rental companies make you pay through the nose if you return a car in a different city than where you rented it.

Not necessarily. I did oneway trips from Orlando to Key West and from San Francisco to Phoenix and didn't have to pay oneway fees. But you really have to look for that as each rental car company has different airports where they don't charge you a oneway fee.

E.g. Avis wants 98 USD if you rent a car at JFK for one day on Wednesday and return it there but only 85 if you rent a car at JFK and return it at IAD.

[The Larch]

Take them to Euro Disney in Paris and save yourself lots of anguish. 

This is planned for 2011.

About your last post, you point two major issues: at 6 1/2 y.o., the girl will be too young to remember, not to say enjoy, the trip; and yes, children's patience run dangerously low after a couple hours in the car; this is why I'm considering the idea of a motorhome, or driving short spans (and finding a lot of interesting places not so far one from the other, that's the problem)

L.

What about long plane trips? Have your kids already travelled by plane?

[Grey Fox]

You're going to need more then 2 months.

Why not just go to Disney like they want for a 1 or 2 week trip in Florida & visit the US when the youngest can stay home alone in 10-15 years with your home & actually enjoy the thing.