All of the above, give or take a few comments on rude people. I can find them next door, or not see one for months. You are going to find a variety.
Here's what I'd do, in response to your original questions.
Don't plan on any timeline, even New York. Go with your head and be free.
Rent a car. There are plans that will give you lower than the day rate, and check for a national company in case you need to swap a car because something breaks. You may be able to get a month rate with unlimited miles?
Get two US maps = NOW, get some guide books and start drawing all over one of them. Circle places you want to see. Soon you'll find which ones you can get to by traveling a zig zag route and which are just way off the main roads or your final route.
You could spend the whole time from Maine to Florida and not see everything in a month.
You could go East to West through the Northern states, catch Chicago, St Louis, the Mississippi, parts of old Rt 66 and national parks, and still not see it all. (ps I hear Mt Rushmore is quite impressive, even though I've never been there.)
You can head South, see some of the coast, some of the mountains. Go West and see many interesting cities. Then head back North for your farms and fields and some really interesting land formations. Go West, see the National Monuments, go South again into Texas. Go West and up that coast so you can see California to Oregon, which is beautiful. Make a side trip from LA to Las Vegas. Find something between there and Reno (and it's a long way with not too much) go through the mountains from Reno to Lake Tahoe, via Silver City and Carson City, which is exceptional, then head to San Francisco, which is another fantastic city. Go North...
All too complicated?
Go back and circle places you want to see. Go point to point. But by all means, take the Interstate, transit from A to B and then before you get there, head for state roads or even scenic county highways, near everything you choose, don't just go A to B. Exit from sites on back roads and catch the highway for transit sections again.
Back roads and small towns are really interesting while the Interstate and the tourist traps are all pretty much a ribbon of highway and car parks. Like someone else said, you can find turn of the century cities in the North that have loads of character.
Good Maps! Start driving. Have some limited goals and destinations, and just figure out how to get to them on the fly.
If you try to plan a trip, you'll be locked into a schedule and can't be flexible. Not only that, if you run late once, everything from there on is under stress.
I remember a trip to Scotland where we'd make 28-50 miles in a good day, and that meant loads of stopping, gawking and walking, then I'd go about 150 miles after dark. Next day, slow ride, take time to wander and walk, 150 miles after dark to the next zone of interest.
With that, you can go any direction from where you land and not run out of things to see and photograph.
All of the above includes anything people add after this.
This country has a little bit of everything. The only problem is picking what to include, because there's so much that's good. :lmao:
so NY still remains very attractive to me, same that country side in U.S.
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