Okay, give me your must sees.

Watching Aggie football on TV with friends in Detroit, Texas on October 18. Then headed toward the Camden, SC area. Will be pulling a small 5th wheel, not in any hurry. Expect to take a couple of weeks on the road, at least.

Google Maps has pretty much equal travel times for I-40 (Little Rock, Memphis, Tupelo, Birmingham)

I-20 (Shreveport, Jackson, Tuscaloosa, Birmingham)

or US 82 (El Dorado Arkansas, Greenville MS,Columbus MS)

Note: those are the main routes, we are happy to go back roads and alternate routes

Big history buff, so Civil War stuff, would prefer to camp in State or National Parks, enjoy Presidential libraries (probably not Clinton), airplane museums, car museums, fun places to eat

What do you say?

On the I-20 route, Vicksburg makes for a good Civil War stop.

A nice airplane museum we visited is in Macon, GA. It's off your path, going south on 75 out of Atlanta.

Am editing OP to reflect that the above routes are general guidelines, will happily take back roads and alternate routes.

Sul Ross was at Vicksburg. There is a statue in the battle park for Texas and his name is on it. The also have the iron sides ship on display.

Alabama the band museum in Ft Payne AL

Chattanooga has lookout mountain civil war stuff

Clinton Library is pretty good FYI regardless of if you like him as President

Little Rock Central as well

Galvan Gardens in Arkansas and quite a few state parks of Arkansas are pretty good for hiking and the best weather at that time either on way or way back as well

The Civil Rights museum and Lorraine Motel in Memphis was very good... if you do stop some decent recsfor food can be given

As you go thru Tennessee you can take both a northern route and southern route but I wouldnt miss the Smokies or if a Civil War buff Lookout Mountain and Shiloh area and cities of Asheville and Greenville on the way down

Huntsville Alabama Space Museum also if you take a more southern route

Eat and see the sunset at Grove Park Inn in Asheville


If you are a golfer keep checking to see if spots open in Sweeten's Cove in Tennessee and if you get a spot plan the trip accordingly

Do not miss.

Barber Motorsports Park and Vintage Museum

barbermuseum.org

Barber is awesome.
If you have time to dogleg, the Corvette museum is cool. Even better (if it's still there) is a museum just down the street with antique/classic/muscle cars. About 150 or so in the building.


Like baseball? Shoeless Joe Jackson museum in Greenville, Ty Cobb museum in Royston, GA.


Lake Hartwell is only 1' below full pool, and has some nice camping areas. My favorite is Watsadler. P

if you are talking Bowling Green Ky it is still there across the street but that is a wide detour

Talladega is on I-20 and they have a museum of motor sports.

Wicked Good Ag said:

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if you are talking Bowling Green Ky it is still there across the street but that is a wide detour

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Yep. I enjoyed that one more than the Vette museum.

I30/40 to Memphis and I22 to Birmingham is a way better route as far as stuff to do. I recommend Tannehill State Park outside Birmingham if you want to camp/RV there. It's right off I20/59 but if time isn't too much of a factor, it's worth it. Also if time isnt a factor...highly recommend the Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville. Have heard great things about the Barber Motorsports museum as well. In my opinion Birmingham area/Huntsville is worth a day or two on their own.

Vicksburg is the best thing on the I20 route. Hit that on your way back? I20 is a pretty boring drive (to me) and there's some construction between Vicksburg and Jackson that could be a major pain,might want to check on that.

I can concur that the only thing to see on I-20 is Vicksburg. It's a great site, but the the northern route probably has more to see and do.

Do not consider for a second taking US 82. Boring drive on a pieced together route (they just hung the US 82 sign on a bunch of roads connecting small towns, rather than building a purpose built east/west highway) through southern Arkansas, and the Mississippi Delta is nothing to see once you cross the river.

We live just south of Knoxville so we've done the northern route (I-40) as well as the southern route (I-20).

This past July, we picked up a puppy from AgVet at her home in Blanco, then headed east on our way home. We purposely chose the southern route because Nashville has become such a traffic jam. I've heard horror stories of two to three hour slowdowns. If you're not in a hurry, probably no big deal, but we wanted to get home so we went I-20.

As others have said, the southern route will take you through Vicksburg and Lookout Mountain. We've been to both and are a must see. What amazes me about Lookout is that Grant was able to take it given where his army started. And then of course there's Chickamauga, which was the second bloodiest battle of the Civil War.

One other thing about the southern route. AgVet's husband told us the roads would be terrible in Louisiana. He was right. Also, if you are traveling through Birmingham, don't stop on the west side. We did to potty the puppy and was greeted by a rough crowd.

Good luck!