I need some advice regarding a round US road trip from Canada.

I am a third-year university student currently living in Edmonton, Alberta....Canada (I'm sorry as I'm sure most Americans already shook their heads in disgust). A few weeks ago I came to the realization that I need to get out more and in a way discover myself. With that in mind, I decided to embark on a 1 man road trip, driving from the west coast to the east coast and back to Edmonton through southern Canada. I plan to mainly live in my car (an SUV) and camp out whenever possible (with the exception of some cities in the east coast as I don't find it likely to be able to camp out/live in my car in places such as NYC). My main questions are:

1. Is this safe? Am I going to get all my stuff stolen if I live like this?

2. What are some must see places?

3. How much will a trip like this cost me? (keep in mind that I plan on doing this trip over 6 weeks and have no intentions of eating out often, or living in fancy hotels, but I will be staying in motels in densely populated cities, maybe for a total of 4 nights throughout the whole trip)