Here are some suggestions for smilinize's upcoming RV-with-grandson adventure. Missouri to Washington, D.C. and back.

Smilinize, I plotted this going through Memphis on the way east, so you may want to just flip it around because I think you want to go through Memphis on your way home. It was just easier for me to do it this way because it's the way I traveled these routes. I traveled the Memphis, West Virginia and Kentucky chunks of this on the "Ribbons" journey, and those are well-treated in the book. I've traveled the other pieces in various smaller journeys over the years.

I have some recommendations of things to do in D.C., but I'll put those in a separate post so this doesn't get overly long.

From Branson, MO, Route 65 to Harrison, Arkansas is a Rand McNally "Scenic Route." At Harrison, tiny Route 7 is a scenic route that takes you all the way through two large chunks of the Ozark National Forest and delivers you to Hot Springs, an Ozark resort town with springs, high mountain vistas and lots of activities to keep your grandson busy. (I remember Hot Springs as the place I was thrown from a horse. I was on a trail ride, and something bit my horse's butt. He threw me, I hit my head on a rock and had a cut so large that the rental condo complex where we were staying barred me from the pool for the rest of my vacation.)

From Hot Springs (again, you may want to put this post in a "mirror" and reverse it...), you can swing up I-30 to take in Little Rock (which I have not visited), then I-40 to Memphis. It sounds like you know Memphis, having family in the area, but for folks who don't, things to do besides making the pilgrimage to Graceland include spending time on Mud Island, smack on the Mississippi in downtown Memphis near the Pyramid. You access it via an enclosed, suspended pedestrian bridge. There are shops and cafes, and, in the middle of the main walkway, there's a long, large scale model of the entire Mississippi River system that you can "travel" along. Great fun, especially for kids. Also, there's Beale Street (see earlier post about safety), cruises on the Mississippi Queen, the Lorraine Motel (National Civil Rights Museum) where Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot, and the Peabody Hotel, where daily at 5 pm, the pampered Peabody Ducks emerge from the lobby fountain where they loll all day and travel a red carpet to the elevator that whisks them to their hotel penthouse.

From Memphis (or to Memphis...), you could take the small Route 64 toward Chattanooga. Near Waynesboro, Route 64 crosses a piece of the Natchez Trace Parkway, which runs all the way to Mississippi. This is a beautiful, old treed road with significant history. It's a Google subject all by itself. An old Indian trail, it was used by bargemen who, after having floated their goods down the Mississippi to market, walked back to their northern homes by following the ancient Trace.

Around Savannah,Tennessee, get off 64 and pick up Route 41. You're now getting into some of the loveliest parts of Tennessee, where the mountains really begin around Sewanee. Chattanooga is nearby. Great mountain vistas from the tops of Signal and Lookout Mountains (hang-glide off Lookout, if you're game).

From Chattanooga, you could head toward Gatlinburg, a winter ski resort. You're in the Great Smoky National Park at this point. Clingman's Dome, 6650 feet, is here, Tennessee's highest point. From here, Route 321 goes through Cherokee National Forest and pieces of the Great Smokies and other parts of the Appalachian range near the TN/NC border and points you, eventually, to Bristol, TN, on the Virginia border.

At this point, the Appalachians spread ahead of you, running in a tilted north-south direction, and you have a lot of options for small, scenic mountain routes. (Note that most of this driving will be at 40 mph or so, so you'll have to judge what to do and what to skip according to how much time you have.) I'd recommend maybe shooting for Front Royal, Virginia, up in the Shenandoah River Valley. You could take I-81 from Bristol to Roanoke and get on the Blue Ridge Parkway from there. The Blue Ridge parallels the Appalachian Trail. From Front Royal, you can take I-66 into Washington.

I'll give you some Washington suggestions separately, but I wanted to mention that once in Washington, you're only a few hours from Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic. From D.C., it's a short hop to Annapolis, which Alex might like to visit, and then you're a bridge away from a whole host of historic Maryland bay towns around Easton and Cambridge. Take a look at this blog story I wrote in December: http://RibbonsofHighway.blogspot.com/2004/12/teach-your-children-what-kids-learn.html . It'll give you a flavor of the Lower Eastern Shore and has some links that might give you travel ideas. (Every one of my blog stories, by the way, is chock-full of great links for the traveler, armchair or actual. I want blog readers to be able to travel the world on their computer screens or have enough information to start dreaming about or even planning a trip of their own, so I take great care choosing the links. There are seven months' worth of almost-daily posts about places all over the world on the blog right now, and I add new content all the time: http://RibbonsofHighway.blogspot.com )

Now, how to get back to Missouri? You could head west out of D.C. and pass through Front Royal again and then enter West Virginia (via small mountain roads through the Appalachians) to Elkins, West Virgnia. At Elkins, pick up Route 219, a scenic route that rides you down through Appalachia to Lewisburg, passing through pretty, rural mountain towns like Marlinton and Snowshoe Mountain enroute. The road is high, winding, gorgeous. (Again, you won't be moving very fast, so count on all of this taking some time!)

At Lewisburg, I-64 takes you east to Beckley, passing first near New River Gorge, a phenomenally beautiful area of rushing rivers and forests and mountains and small towns. Lots of whitewater activity here for the adventurous. Then to Beckley, a sprawling small city with a coal-mining past. The Beckley Mine gives tours. You ride in old coal cars deep into the mine, and it's quite an experience. Alex would enjoy it, I'm sure.

Then head for Charleston, West Virginia's pretty, historic captial with an old cobblestoned downtown and stately mansions sitting atop bluffs that tower over the Kanawha River. From Becley to Charleston, you can take the Midland Coal Trail that parallels the beautiful but hard-working Kanawha for the whole distance. You'll see West Virginia mining towns up close, and you'll look down at full coal barges tethered to riverbank docks.

Once in Charleston, I-64 takes you into Kentucky and to Lexington bluegrass country. Well worth a visit. The Bluegrass Driving Tour takes you past the most storied of the horse farms, places like Calumet, built on a baking powder fortune. From Lexington, take the Bluegrass Parkway to Mammoth Cave National Park. Huge, mysterious, beautiful caverns. Alex will enjoy it. And, he might like to see the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky, south of Mammoth. From Bowling Green, you can pick up any number of routes back into Missouri.

I hope this gives you some ideas. I'll talk about Washington in a separate post.

Perhaps there are some forum members who can give you suggestions, too. What fun having a trip to plan!