Cross Country Drive

[PricklyPete]

One of my best friends is moving across the country to Santa Cruz (both of us currently live in SC). We're going to take about a week to do the drive...just taking our time. We are heading to Chicago first (I have a friend up there), then we're heading west. We were planning on doing a "northern" route and ending up in Oregon...and then down the coast to Santa Cruz.

Anyone have any suggestions of cool towns to go to or places to see along the way? We are quite flexible on our route.

Thanks