1) Chowhound for advice for restaurants in various towns you might be visiting
2) Priceline app is your friend. You can basically book a hotel room just a little bit before you check in (i.e. book at dinner for a town maybe 2-3 hours away) rather than picking some dumpy motel.
From Ohio to TX,
I would visit Nashville (my town
) or Memphis (only for BBQ) or Go to St. Louis
From there, you'll get to Dallas same day (about 8-11 hour drive from all 3 of those places)
Spend the night in Dallas, do touristy Cowboys related stuff the next day, not sure if you'll head out that same day or spend the night.
It's another 11 hours to Albuquerque, you can spend some time there too. In TX, you could stop in Amarillo and do the Big Texan Challenge.
Then you are only about 10 hours from Las Vegas, so stop by the Hoover Dam, Grand canyon, etc.
On the way back from LV, you can hit Denver (12 hours), then Kansas City (11 hours, good BBQ though!), Indy/Chicago, before heading back home to OH...
You are the man. That is quite an impressive itinerary you have lined up there and should I take this trip you can bet I'll be incorporating some of that into the plans. Thank you.
