If I remember correctly, you were grabbed by an oddly-dressed fellow, scooped up and taken to godknowswhere. Only later learning that he was a Mountie helping re-unite you with family. That doesn't count as a good vacation/road trip.
I'm half teasing. It was just that the list of destinations was less than envy-worthy.
I knew you were teasing.
But seriously, yes, if it were a choice between seeing the Everglades down in Florida, or seeing someone of interest in inner-city Detroit, I'd go for the latter.
One shouldn't underrate northeastern Pennsylvania, especially in autumn and early winter. I've been there, of course, and to New England during the same season-and-a-half. New England in autumn can't hold a candle to Pennsylvania in autumn; but then and again, perhaps Connecticut has a better advertising agency than Pennsylvania does.
As for spring break in Anaconda, Montana, this roommate and I wanted to go somewhere "different" that week, and after he came to supper the preceding Thursday evening and announced, "I was just reading today that Anaconda, Montana, has the world's tallest smokestack--" at which I interrupted, "Okay, let's go there."
We left the following morning.....but forgetting that late March in Nebraska is not the same thing as late March in Montana, we neglected to take any winter clothes; nylon windbreakers were about the heaviest outfits we had when we went through the continental divide in a raging blizzard.
This was in 1981; it was a cheap trip, other than for the gasoline for the gas-hog of a motor vehicle he had, which we used. I recall setting aside $100 for non-gasoline purposes, and when we came back, I still had a $20 bill and change.