It looks like we’re going on a road trip this summer. A real one. The kind where you pack your bags and head out, usually west, and don’t come back for weeks.

We used to take trips like this when I was little, and they were awesome. Yellowstone. The Tetons. The Badlands. Bryce Canyon. The Redwoods. The Rockies. The Grand Canyon. I think we went to a rodeo in Wyoming once. There was a clamshell storage thingie on the top of the car, and its top flew off on the highway. We camped sometimes. I pretended I was Laura Ingalls Wilder.

So, now that I’ve secured work’s go-ahead to take some time off in July, it’s starting to look like we’re actually going to do this thing. Of course, the flexibility of a road trip is a blessing and curse. Without the looming deadline of having to buy plane tickets, we’ve probably put off the planning far longer than we should have. And for choice-averse people, giving ourselves the pick of EVERY STATE IN AMERICA is probably a little overwhelming.

Most likely destinations include the Badlands, Yellowstone, Portland, and northern California. But every couple of days we toy with heading east instead and hitting Toronto, Montreal, Vermont, Maine. Or, perhaps we’ll drive down the Mississippi to New Orleans and back.

I spent some time on Google Maps the other night mapping out possible routes and itineraries. But there’s something so old fashioned about planning a road trip and online maps just didn’t cut it. Tomorrow I’m going to try to track down a road atlas and a highlighter.

Suggestions for must-sees on a 17-day road trip to some part of America and/or Canada?