touring the USA - helpful ideas appreciated!

[letthembe]

DH and I are planning on taking the children (9 and 7) to America in the Summer holidays for 3 possibly 4 weeks.

We are currently thinking of starting in New York and travelling south - Washington, Nashville, New Orleans(?) Little Rock, then back up to New York, possibly up to New England.
Or would it be better to start in say New Orleans and work our way up to New York? We have got the option of travelling further up and into Canada, as I have an aunt in Kingston, then we could fly out from Toronto.

Just wondering if anyone out there has ideas for interesting places to visit, stay and experiences of using the rail and road networks. We need to break up the travelling and cities with open spaces so the children can play/let off steam. Which National Parks would be close to?

Ideas, thoughts and suggestions are greatly welcomes.

You,d be near the Great Smokey Mountain National Park in Tennessee.

We've been on holiday there - once camping in the park, and the second time renting a big cottage in Pegeon Forge.

There is lots of family activities in the area. It's a good place to spend three or four days.

I've travelled by train and bus between NYC and Washington. The bus was far, far cheaper (about £10 or less - can get it for $1 - compared to £80) but less convenient in the sense that I went with Bolt Bus (who are v good, have posh, clean buses and are run by UK company Stagecoach) who pick up on the street as apparently in the US bus stations are seen as 'unclean' places. This means you need to be there a long time before the bus leaves to work out exactly where you need to stand to catch it (no handy timetables on the wall but they do have a rep working on the street - you get there early to spot them!).

I also went to Boston on the bus (again, Bolt Bus for $5) and that was a great city - lots of open spaces to walk and play. There's actually an article about Bolt Buses on the BBC today.