Driving from Washington DC to Houston TX

The fuzzette wants to see the International Quilt festival in Houston this year (Nov 3-6), so we'll be heading over to the states next month and after a stopover in Santa Fe, we'll be driving from Washington down to Houston.

We are planning on driving the Shenandoah Valley on the way down and it looks like we'll be in New Orleans for Halloween (scary), but we are on the lookout for anything else that shouldn't be missed along the way. I'm not sure if the end of season thing hits the east coast the way it did last time we were in the Northern parts, when everything seemed to close up shop toward the end of September.

I'll have some time on my hands in Houston. If anybody can recommend something better than doing all the museums and galleries that weekend, I'd appreciate it. I googled Houston woodworking and found I'll miss a Lie Nielsen roadshow by a week, but not much else.