My drive across the country at the end of May was pretty fun. It was my dog and I in one car, and my boyfriend and another roommate in a second car (with two cats). The cats were well-behaved.
I had my dog with me because she's 11 years old and I didn't want to risk her in an airplane. She'd be all alone, in a dark room, and as I think about it, what if they lost her. I also had my PC with me because I'm paranoid and it has my life on it, and I don't trust movers. And a monitor. And other, y'know, stuff. Clothes and supplies.
Went from Maryland into West Virginia then Ohio, then stayed at a hotel in Indianapolis the first day. Second day was the rest of Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and stayed at a hotel in Kansas City. Third day was Kansas and enough of Colorado to get me to the extended stay hotel we were gonna be in until move-in day.
The hotels were great, my dog was very well-behaved and didn't bark in the rooms until the extended stay, and that was only in the hall when she saw another dog. The extended stay was great, because my boyfriend and our roommate took one room (with two queen beds), so I got the other room alone, with two queen beds. My dog was so happy, with a bed to herself. And I got to be very smug, because I convinced everyone that we should add the electric kettle to the cars as opposed to packing it. Hotel room only had a coffee maker and no kettle. Tea on constant access was great, helped with sleep.
Got really into ACNH again during the time I was in the hotel.
I can't say anything specific about the states we went through, because they were all kinda boring. Rural West Virginia was gorgeous, we went through the mountains of course. Rural Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri were all kinda dumpy and rundown. Rural Kansas was gorgeous and terrifying, it was like driving through the Windows XP default desktop. Pictures do not do the area justice; it's a gorgeous vibrant green and you can see forever.
The rest stops were just bathrooms with chained up vending machines, which was fine. My dog got good walks at those, and WE SAW A HORSE AT ONE OF THEM.