Family Road Trip through Twelve US States

[PetitFrereArmada]

Road Trip across eleven US states: Texas-Louisiana-Mississippi-Alabama-Florida-Georgia-South Carolina-North Carolina-Kentucky-Indiana-Tennessee-Arkansas-Texas.

We have been planning this trip for a while now and it is finally here. We (my beautiful wife, super smart daughter and me) are on vacation and decided to take a 19 days road trip across 12 (twelve) US states. We don't plan on camping. We will sleep at hotels and bed and breakfasts. The most we will spend at one place will be at Disney World, where we already have a 6 days package that we bought that includes everything from lodging to food to access to all parks.

These are the places we plan to visit so far on our trip. It is already a pretty tight schedule, but any tips or any additional suggestion would be cool, if it is on our route and is something that we can just make a quick stop to see or experience.

Anything in Red means we have already completed that part of our trip

USS Alabama Battleship in Mobile, AL
National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, FL
Destin Beach in Destin, FL
Tallahassee Antique Car Museum
Disney World in Orlando, FL
Daytona Beach in Daytona, FL
Tybee Island in Savannah, GA
Peachoid Water Tower in Gaffney, SC
Campbells Covered Bridge Road, Landrum, SC
Smoky Mountains and other attractions in Gatlinburg, TN
(Roaring Fork, Pigeon Forge, Clingmans Dome, Cades Cove, Museum of the Cherokee Indian)
Tail of the dragon at deals gap in Robbinsville, NC
Daniel Boone National Forest in Winchester, KY
Mammoth Cave National Park in Mammoth Cave, KY
Fort Knox Army Post in Fort Knox, KY
(Gold vault, Army post, Patton Museum)
Passing through Nashville, TN
Graceland, National Civil Rights Museum and other attractions in Memphis, TN
Hot Springs National Park in Hot Springs, AR
Back home in Texas

ESTIMATED TOTAL DISTANCE: 3,300 miles

ESTIMATED TOTAL DRIVING TIME: 55 hours

Now that the journey is completed, these are my figures:

TOTAL MILES DRIVEN: 3,901 miles
TOTAL DRIVING TIME: 78 hours of driving behind the wheel
TOTAL COST OF GAS: $1,004.18
TOTAL GALLONS OF GAS USED: 288.11 gallons

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

Pics of every "Welcome to ........ (name of all the states we go through)"

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

We are leaving in 20 mins and just thought I should post some pics. Will be updating this thread along the trip.

 

[Sempertoy]

I can't remember if the Johnny cash museum was in Nashville if Memphis... Probably Nashville, it was pretty cool. If in Nashville you have to check out this park (I think it's centennial park) they have a scale model of the Parthenon! Don't forget the oprey house! Also, outside Nashville is the loveless cafe. Best breakfast I have ever had in my life! Comes with hot biscuits and different samples of their preserves. So good!

 

[ab1985]

Johnny Cash museum is on 3rd downtown Nashville. Centennial park is midtown/west end and is nice, too.

I worked at Nissan's North American HQ in Franklin and have done the plant tour at Smyrna. Very cool.

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

Thanks for the tips guys, I will have to look about adding that to our itinerary.

Yesterday, we drove for a total of 8 hours from Houston to Pensacola, FL where we spent the night. When got to Lake Charles, LA, we made a stop for breakfast/lunch at Steamboat Bills. It is a great seafood restaurant. Make a stop there if you are passing through.

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

Next stop was USS Alabama warship.

We drove through a tunnel under water to get across to the USS Alabama

Random pictures at the USS Alabama

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

This morning, we woke up in Pensacola, FL. Had breakfast and went to the National Naval Aviation Museum. The museum was free to the public and the tour was quite informative and seeing some planes that were actually used in wars was a bonus.

The resting place of those of our heroes. May God bless you and your families. Thanks for your service. May you RIP.

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

Then we drove to Pensacola beach and Destin beach. It was great to swim in pretty clear waters on a white sandy beach.

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

Today, we went to the Tallahassee Antique Car Museum. It was a great museum full of cars from 1894 to 2004. I recommend for any antique car lover.

One of the 14 hearse that carried Abraham Lincoln's body to lay in rest

Other random pics of other cars;

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

Yesterday, we started our vacation in Disney World. Great welcome. It is definitely a destination to go to, though this place is truly pricey. We have a package that allows us to go to all parks, we have free meals and we are staying at one of their resorts on the property. It has been a great experience so far.

First park for yesterday was Animal Kingdom. Had a great time. This place is 50/50 adults/kids. Everyone is having tons of fun. It just feels different here. Quite peaceful and you can tell the kids especially are very happy being here. A great experience so far.

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

Today, we went to a different park: Disney Hollywood Studios.

We attended the Indiana Jones stunt show. Very entertaining. These guys have made Disney a true vacation destination.

Went on a couple f rides and after that, attended this extreme stunt show. This like a back pass to the making of a movie. It was great.

This was the end of the show

 

[Willman]

Looks like fun! Your covering some ground here!