devils tower, the badlands, the corn palace, wall drug, mt. rushmore, crazy horse memorial (in process), and just lots of beautiful scenary in wyoming, montana and idaho...to name a few.

The Corn Palace is a must-see, for tacky tourism value.

But my serious suggestion is to take 26 through Arco, Idaho and across the Craters of the Moon National Monument. It’s the most breathtakingly bleak place you’ll ever see. I’ve never felt so isolated in my life. Spend some time out of your car on the blazing hot solid lava/stone and just breath. It’s gorgeous.

I agree with hutch, those are all worthwhile places to see.. when I drove cross country after going through south dakota, I think we went south in wyoming(? could have been montana) and clipped the end of yellowstone, and then continued over to the columbia river gorge,between washington and oregon, ( it's really beautiful although nicer in nice weather) and then when you get to portland, you can visit it if you like, or just drive north to seattle. Central washington is ok too, if you just want to go I-90 straight across.. it's shorter..

You should have plenty of time, we drove from south carolina to seattle along that route in about 9 days if I remember correctly. We weren't driving the whole time, we stopped and saw stuff..

The interstate freeways across most of ND, SD, NE, westnern CO, MT & WY are all quite bleak but littered with world's largest type eyesores. Be sure to visit those things. If you head the northern route I-94 through WI, MN, ND & MT there is lots of things to see in Wisconsin and Minnesota, architecturally speaking, but things get sparse in the dakotas. That's where you start looking for things like - worlds largest oil can monument or worlds largest fiberglass buffalo.

I JUST did this trip...moved from South Carolina via Detroit (hometown) with just me and my ford focus. It was great - I took about 6 days for the drive, staying with friends in Chicago, stopping in Mitchell SD for the Corn Palace...it's so awful it's almost worth it. The trip gets much better from there. I drove through the Badlands loop, and then took back roads to Mt. Rushmore and through the Black Hills. Wyoming is gorgeous...I got off of I-90 a little west of Gillette I think and went through the mountains, then across the state to Cody and Yellowstone. I stayed in Yellowstone for 2 nights...it would be ass cold now but I'm sure still worth it. I'm sad I didn't take the detour down to the Grand Tetons...but I pretty much stayed on 90 the rest of the way, the scenery from there is still pretty amazing, especially through Montana and Idaho. One suggestion I have is to skip Wall Drug in SD. After driving through the Badlands where you leave with this incredible "the world is so beautiful" high, Wall Drug made me ashamed of humanity as a whole.

Where did your friend get a job?

yes, skip Wall Drug!

yes, skip Wall Drug!

Thanks for the advice people and keep it coming. The badlands and surrounding area is a resounding suggestion but the only think that i am apprehensive about is that the sturgis motorcycle rally is this weekend and we are planning on leaving detroit friday. that puts us right in the middle of biker heaven.

http://www.sturgis-rally.com/

on the other hand, it could be interesting in a nasty sort of way.

what suggestions do you have about seeing built work in seattle and vancouver?

freelsk- he got recruited by price waterhouse cooper to do importing or something like that.

if its sturgis weekend, don't bet on getting a hotel for hundreds of miles...literally.

I made this trip in 2001...cincinnati to seattle. its a great drive. i had to start co-op sooner than later so i think i did the drive in 4 days....pretty quick....but i still got to see all of the above attractions. also...little big horn. interesting place...great scenery. i was there in january and the bleakness of that space is so overwhelming that its beautiful.

if you want stuff to see in Seattle, make sure you just look up firms from that area and seek out their stuff...plan it all before hand if you can with the www and seek the stuff out. Miller Hull, Mithun, Olsen Sundberg, etc. lots of great local/regional modern architecture.

Sorry for the rambling:

Wall drug is a tough one to pass up...it will lure you with hundreds of signs...at first, 100 miles apart...but they eerily become closer and closer together, until they are every 250 feet...

If Wall drug is too much, you must at least stop and see the world's largest Prairie dog, just outside of the Badlands!

Corn Palace is also a must...absolutely phenomonal!

Definately stop and see Devil's tower, Rushmore was a dissapointment, but I think there is a monument to Chief Joseph near by that might be neater?

I never stopped at Craters of the Moon, but I have heard nothing but good things...

Badlands is by far the coolest thing on the trip, no question, absoulutely stunning....

You might as well stop at the Yellowstone and Grand Tetons (Get the 1year National Parks Pass) while you are at it, and stop at Cody before heading into Yellowstone...They have a suprisingly large museum worth looking at if you like period rifles and paintings of buffalo.

I drove through Sturgis on the first day, stopped at Rushmore at about 7pm heading East. We didn't find a motel until 3am and about 400 miles later...but it was worth it...quite a sight seeing all the bikers.

There are a bunch of caves in the area, the one I went to sucked, but it might be worth stopping just for the hell of it.

There is also a "Jolly Green Giant" somewhere on that trip...

That's all I can remember...