My friend and I decided to take a roadtrip during our last summer in college out to Colorado to do some campaing and hiking and generally roadtripping. We're from Ohio so the goal was to spend a week on the road starting in Missouri and ending up in Colorado. We made this trip in 2010, but learned a lot about roadtripping out west and the Rockies.
St Louis Missouri
First stop was in St Louis Missouri. It felt fitting to start at the classic Archway to the West as we were going out west.
The arch itself allows you to go up and see over Missouri. Getting up there is easy and the view is nice. Supporting the Archway is a museum about westward travel, The Museum of Westward Expansion. It features a lot of American pioneer history and tells the "wagontrail" story. It's more of family type attraction with all of the usual "old-timey" merchandise and candy.
Before we left we made it a point to try some St. Louis Barbecue. We stopped at a joint hear our hotel. St. Louis Barbecue unlike other regional styles is supposed to be more "vinegary" in the taste. The place we stopped by did not disappoint.
Loved this trip @Erik. Want to take a great American cross country trip one day as well. :)