Day 17/Indie Travel Art Project: Roadside attractions, national parks, or big cities? What’s your favorite part of traveling in the USA?

Road Trip USA!!! My 3 favorite US road trips:

1) Denver-Taos-Santa Fe-Albuquerque in Summer. Fly to Denver, pick up a rental car, drive to Taos, explore Taos and stay overnight. Next day drive to Santa Fe, stop at Harry’s Roadhouse on your way into town, explore and stay in Santa Fe a few days. Be sure to catch an opera if it’s opera season and go hiking at Tent Rocks. Drive to Albuquerque to catch your flight home, and be sure to get some tacos in town before you go to the airport.

2) San Francisco-Santa Barbara loop. Fly in/out of SFO, rent a car then choose your poison: Hwy 101 on the way down then Hwy 1 on the way back or vice-versa. Stopping points along the 101 include a a night at the Madonna Inn, photo opp at Pea Soup Anderson’s, lunch in Solvang then the beauty of Santa Barbara and perhaps a day or 2 of wine tasting. Along Hwy 1 stop to play on Pismo Beach (eat a carrot for Bugs Bunny!), walk along the old Avila Beach pier, cruise Carmel’s famed 17 Mile Drive, and pop in at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk for a roller coaster or ferris wheel ride overlooking the Pacific.

3) Athens-Chattanooga-Nashville-Memphis-St. Louis. Fly into Atlanta, rent a car and hit the road until you hit St. Louis. Spend a day in the music-rich college town  of Athens - if it’s football season tailgate a Dawgs game. Consider popping in at the Chattahoochee National Forest. Take your own sweet time cruising through Tennessee. The Hunter Museum of American Art, whisky tasting or walking around downtown area are all good aoptions in Chattanooga. Go honky-tonking along the 400-block of Broadway in Nashville and get that photo opp at the Grand Ole Opry. Hit up Sun Studios, Graceland, and Beale Street in Memphis. Go inside the arch and try to catch a Cards game if the season is right in St. Louis.