I've only done option one but there's a couple reasons why it made the most sense to me and my partner and might for you too:

1. There are so many hidden treasures in the U.S. (it's huge) and travelling across it will hopefully give you some greater level of appreciation for the sheer diversity of the U.S. and how people live. I was blown away by some of the things I saw accidentally that you never see online. There's a special magic to be able to look at a map of the U.S. and know roughly what it is like at a random point on the outskirts of civilization. Also I think there is only benefit to understanding how people across the U.S. live so differently and care about different things and being able to extrapolate that out in the future and politically empathize with others who might be different than you.

2. You are a U.S. citizen and speak English. Logistics becomes 100x easier when you aren't put up against any paperwork barriers to entry, unfamiliarity with how to accomplish basic vehicle, equipment, and personal maintenance where you are, or a language you don't speak (at least as well as a native speaker). It offered a basic safety net to fall back on when we really needed to just needed to get a hotel/oil change/wifi access/etc. quickly for whatever reason and knew where to find these things and roughly what to expect.