Still planning exact route but breaking road trip into several sections due to youngster. Prefer to avoid areas around the cities to avoid peaceful protests. Will be at the beach for remainder of trip.

from center of Pittsburgh pa to Wilmington, North Carolina taking i95 route is 9 hours and 24 min.

this route you could stop in Gettysburg, maybe dc if you want to see national moments etc..  than i95 you could stop at all the civil war battle sites on the way down if inclined to do so.. Could you meet protestors in dc yea maybe but there are protest every day even when trump was in office there was protest outside the white house.

taking 77 to i 40 is 10 hours and 2 min

Nothing to really see until you hit nc than a ton of sites off of i40...

Thanks for the info. I previously lived in Northern Virginia and try to avoid the i95 corridor at all costs, having experienced it in the 20 years I was there. While definitely shorter in distance, it is pretty much a parking lot most of the way till you are past Richmond, and the time you listed can easily stretch out to an additional 3-6 hours, especially if the sun comes out from or goes behind a cloud.

I'm just looking for an overnight pit stop, nothing scenic, as I like to work in historic sites on the trip, since the youngster is old enough to see how it ties into what he is learning in school (Small school district-60 kids in his grade).

I-74 isn't complete, it is just in sections. It's eastern portion mirrors US-74. There is basically nothing east of Charlotte on US-74 until you get to Wilmington. The western portion comes off I-77 at Mount Airy, and I believe follows US-220 south to maybe Hamlet?

Of the areas I can think of, Hillsville/Fancy Gap VA would be the most scenic, nice places to stop in that area. That's FIRM Virginia Tech Hokie territory; Frank Beamer is from Fancy Gap. Be careful in that area on I-77, there are some nasty wrecks through there because of fog.

Wytheville, VA wouldn't be terrible, but it may not be far enough into the trip. It's at the junction of I-81 and I-77.

Between Wytheville and Hillsville on the New River you'll see the Shot Tower, which is in a Virginia State Park. It's right off I-77 and would be an easy historical pit stop. It was an ammunition factory, where they dropped molten lead from the top of the tower into the river below, and the method made perfectly round musket balls.

Winston-Salem, NC probably has some decent places, it'll be the last "main" city on that route. The route is really weird, in that it doesn't go through any big cities at all. It cuts through the middle of nowhere. And it'll be a good 5 hours from WS to Wilmington, maybe more.

I-95 is the Devils Interstate, I absolutely hate it. Any other route is better than that.