We drove cross-country, and these were the 16 coolest places we stopped along the way, plus 3 spots we'd skip next time

• A few years ago, my partner and I drove 6,036 miles from New York to San Diego and back. • On our road trip, we stopped for regional cuisine, beautiful parks, and quirky roadside attractions. • If I drove cross-country again, I'd return to spots like the Ozark National Forest but skip others.

Driving cross-country is an ambitious journey that always sounded a bit more romantic to me in theory than in practice.

But when my partner convinced me to expand my horizons a few years ago, we started planning with the Ralph Waldo Emerson adage "it's not the destination, it's the journey," as our guiding principle.

We drove a total of 6,036 miles cross-country from New York to my hometown of San Diego and back — and I figured we might as well see as many cool and quirky things along the way