We're moving back to Texas and need to drive ourselves and our stuff back from Boston, looking to turn the drive into a road trip 7-10 days.
When we drove up to Boston we did: Natchez parkway, Memphis, Nashville, Great Smokey mts, Ashville NC, Blue ridge Parkway, Shenandoah, D.C., Philly, Amish country, NYC.
As you can see, we like cities and nature/hiking. Would appreciate help in planning the way back.

I've done this (NE <-> TX) multiple times, but never spent that long on the road. Some of the places I enjoyed visiting:

Blue Grass Parkway in Kentucky; Louisville Kentucky
Memphis
Little Rock AK
Hope AK (to see Bill Clinton's childhood home)

You can also stop in Pittsburgh and/or Cincinnati at the beginning of your trip.

Another time we stayed south passing thru Mississippi and Alabama, then thru Atlanta (we didn't have time to stop), up to S and N Carolina (Asheville and Charlotte would be cool towns to stop, I think).

We loved the Arbor House in Black Mountain, NC. It's right on a pretty little lake, great food, nice rooms.

thanks for the ideas, we'll be working on a plan...

Pick a different route than your other trip, if you haven't visited those parts of the country.

You can go further south to go through Richmond, Atlanta, Montgomery, Mobile, the MS coast and New Orleans.

Or take a more northern route through Upstate NY; Cleveland, Indianapolis, St Louis; then cut through the Ozarks and get down to Texas.