It's that time of year again, time to get really serious about planning my cross-country road trip with my family.
I'm going NY > CA, I plan to take a more southern route this time. I have a whole big chunk of the south-central part of the country that I haven't really been to yet (Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas & New Mexico,) I plan to remedy that somewhat over the course of this trip.
I don't really have very much of a plan yet.
I'm thinking to go NY > Great Smokey Mountains National Park > Nashville, TN and head west from there.
On the western end, I'm kinda leaning toward hitting up the four corners monument > Grand Canyon north rim > maybe a quick stop in Zion NP > LAX
My questions are:
1. Is there anything in MS, AR, MO, KS, OK or northern TX worth seeing/doing? (I'm considering possibly Crater of Diamonds State Park and/or Hot Springs National Park in AR)
2. What are the must-sees in New Mexico?
3. Other than the Grand Canyon and Sedona, what are the best sights/activities in AZ?
(for 2 & 3 I'm looking for things for which I won't need to pay a fortune to some Indian tribe...)
1. Have you been to New Orleans? Are you an Elvis fan? There are some old Jewish museums in those states, you can look up. If you drive through MS let me know as I have a good friend from there and can find out more if you'd like. (His dad runs the biggest hotel on the Gulf, but getting free rooms is a bit tricky for friends or mine.)
2. I don't think anyone will tell you there are any "must see" things in that NM. Taos is a very nice town with some nice art galleries and famous skiing(which won't help you much.) The shliach in Santa Fe is a fantastic guy and I highly suggest reaching out to him if you are in the area, shliach in Taos is also a good guy (I spent 2 weeks by him 2 or 3 years ago.) The women's mikveh in Santa Fe is the nicest mikva I've seen (mind you I haven't graced too many women's mika's in my life

) worth going if he allows you to. Albuquerque is known for hot air balloons, so that can be a fun activity.
3. I will have to look this one up to remember but there were some great caves I went though in AZ. Stalagmites and Stalactites were super cool as a kid. I remember wearing a hard hat with a light on it, was a lot of fun.
Petrified Forest is very neat.