Planning the trip of a lifetime

If you've read my first blog entry you'll have learned that the United States of America has been a life-long travel dream. I've been to Hawaii, but now it's time to venture to the mainland.

Ideally I'd love to travel from east coast to west, traversing through the southern most states. But where to start? This will be my first overseas trip travelling solo, where I'm not being chauffeured around by a local guide. Essentially out in the big world, all on my own.

The annual Travel Expo was held here in Melbourne last weekend, and I went in with the idea that I'd like to head over during August. While the airlines offered some tempting deals (with Air NZ being the most competitive) I found I wasn't quite in a position to lock in the dates just yet.

The "perfect road trip", care of Shareably.net

I looked at the group tour offers too - from companies such as Contiki and Top Deck. But they don't seem to offer the kind of experience I'm hoping for. I think my desire to see so many places across such a wide area (coupled with my total disinterest in lapping the streets of Vegas in a limousine strapped with other 30-somethings, drinking copious amounts of alcohol) have driven me towards mapping out my own adventure.

So tonight I'm spending my time ripping out pictures and studying itineraries from the travel brochures I picked up to try and narrow down the places I'd like to visit.

From there I hope to plot everything out on a map (a great way to learn all about geography, kids ;)).

I guess the next step after this is to then explore on a level deeper, researching local tour operators, hotels, the most economical ways to get from A to B, and most importantly - how much is this whole thing gonna cost me?!

Anyone else have experience in plotting their first solo trip overseas? What are you tips?