Bob,
If one stays VFR, avoids Tower Controlled Airports, listens to ATIS and other Automated Weather sources, and files a flight plan.....as not having any flight following resource would be a very big NO NO in my book, the need to chat to someone gets rather insignificant. A Radio call each hour to make a position report is not very burdensome and a phone call during each refueling stop is simple enough to do.
A bit of creative thought....and a quelling of an internal need to get all formal and complex in a cross country trip....call it thinking outside the box if you will....grants one a rare opportunity to enjoy that sheer pleasure of flying much as it was done in the old days back when there was very little but Topographical data and some VOR/NDB or LF Airway data on the map along with the Airport data.
Now the VFR Sectional Maps are so cluttered it takes a Philadelphia Lawyer to figure it all out properly. When you get out West where things are far apart....and the Map starts getting less cluttered is where you can begin to revert to basic helicopter flying.
Why would you want to fly IFR and look at the same ol' thing when all that beauty lies below you?