Dallas to San Francisco, in Sept 2015

Hi folks,
I've just started planning a road trip from dallas to san francisco with some two other friends. One of them is new to the US and I'm hoping to show him some of the gems along the way - Carlsbad Canyons, Santa Fe, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Death Valley, Yosemite, to name a few!
I want to spend 2-2.5 weeks on the road (driving an old sedan and leaving it with a friend in sf). It's probably impossible to hit all the above destinations on the trip... but are there any recommendations? Must see places, especially for that time of the year?

I've never done such a long trip before, so any comments from the seasoned folks here will be much appreciated. The critical constraint for the trip is the time (in september, about 2.5 weeks). So, if there are are alternate trips that will be better (from dallas), feel free to point them out.

cheers

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

Even before your planning proceeds much further, you need to take care of a couple of things. Probably the first is to sit down with your friends one evening, take this quiz and make sure that you are all on the same page, or at least understand the differences in what each of you wants out of this trip. Far better to work out at least what the kinks are or may be now rather than once you're on the road and realize that you're all stuck together 24/7 for two and a half weeks with no recourse.

The next thing you'll need to do, and on this there's a trade-off between doing it early or later, is to get your "old sedan" thoroughly checked by a competent mechanic to make sure that it's up to a journey that will most likely exceed 2000 miles, much of it through deserts and over mountains. Having this done early will make it more likely that you can have any necessary work done before your departure. Having it done later will mean that there's less chance of something new going wrong in the meantime.

Once you have at least the first portion taken care of and you know what you want, we can help you find roads and attractions that will help you fulfill those desires. But I can tell you that September is a generally good time to be on the road. Things have cooled down, if only a bit, from summer highs. Monsoon season in the southwest will be coming to an end. Schools will be back in session meaning that most families will be done with their summer RoadTrips. But again, the next steps are up to you.

AZBuck