Congrats on the mlestone. I traveled extensively for work between 1999-2012, mostly by air to the closest airport, then rental van to location as I would have my equipment shipped. I saw 46 states during my employ.
In the summer of 2007, the two other photographers with my division were both on medical leave so I had to carry the workload for the agency- I logged 17k miles in my Jeep Cherokee between June-September. The work took me as far north as Maine, Alabama to the south, and as far west as Los Angeles with week long location stops in between. I mapped the trip out well to hit all the locations there and back in a single summer.
As you said, the vistas were the most memorable part- yes I went through some horribly boring landscape (sorry Texas and Nebraska), but I vividly remember coming around a long bend at dawn, somewhere on the way to Huntsville Alabama, with the sun cresting over a small lake- it was mesmerizing and I felt like I was floating- time stopped, it took my breathe away. It's a vision that is burned into my brain.