From Teresa Plowright,
Your Guide to Family Vacations.
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Listen to people talk about road trips, and you'd be amazed how much emotion can be packed into a couple of syllables, like "I-5". That one little phrase can cause a flurry of exclamations: "I remember when we..." "You gotta stop at this little place..."

The reason is simple: car travel make memories.

Car Travel: find great drives

• Head over to the site of premier magazine Travel+Leisure, for Ten Great American Drives, such as The Oregon Coast, Yosemite, and Florida's Overseas Highway down to Key West --all with suggested lodgings for a family of four.

• Check GORP's Top Ten Scenic Mountain drives (in Washington, Vermont, Alberta, NH and more states.)

• Also from GORP: see National Scenic Byways and Other Recreational Drives, with a clickable map for the United States.

And GORP has it's own Top Ten U.S. Scenic Drives as well.

• Rand McNally Best of the Road: the well-known mapmaker company has an excellent web site. Click on Plan a Road Trip to make your way to editor's picks for "Best of the Road": "scenic drives with plenty of cool stuff to see and do along the way".

• Onroute magazine is another source of inspiration for great road trips, including the Grand Canyon North Rim, Colorado's Trailridge Drive, Arizona's Apache Trail, and many more.

• Road Trip USA
  Great routes, in different regions; many details and suggestions for fun stops.

• And for a quirky look at car travel, there's Roadside America: "Your travel guide to offbeat vacation fun." Viking longboats, world's largest twine ball... check any state for such must-see sights.

Once you've picked your highways, use driving directions sites for directions, distances, and estimated driving time; also check Road Trip planners sites to find sightseeing, lodging, and more.

Finally: Rand-McNally has made road maps for decades. See two classic Road Maps for the US, Canada, and Mexico: large size, vinyl covers; price comparisons.