Originally Posted by FBinNY

There's no best route, it boils down to what you like and places you want to visit.

If I were doing it, I'd let my northerner bias rule and take a northern route, starting in Portland or Seattle, crossing through Idaho and Montana, then swinging southwaed to avoid Minneapolis, and angle south through Wisconsin, looping below Chicago, and coming across \central Indiana and Ohio.

Finally there's a decision whether to continue drifting south and crossing through Maryland, or staying a bit more north and riding New York's southern tier plateau.

Besides my northerner's bias, I prefer the northern route because it avoids the southwest's deserts, and the long drawn out central plains, but it's just me.