Route from FL to CA??

A week from now, along with two friends, I will be heading out on a road trip from Florida (Satellite Beach, along the I-95 corridor) to California (Vallejo, off I-80 in the Bay Area). I've come across a couple of options for our routing and was wondering if anyone had advice. The southern route would mostly be I-10 to I-5, the intermediate route would be a combination of interstates and state roads that the online AAA TripTik spat out (I forget the exact route, but it goes through Amarillo), and the northern route would take us up through GA, TN, etc. and use I-70/I-80 which would go through MO, NE, CO, etc. to CA.

I'm personally favoring the northern route because it passes by more major cities and goes through the Rockies, etc. while I imagine the southern route would contain a whole lot of desert and flat stretches through TX/NM/AZ. (We would likely take the southern route on our way back in August to vary things up. I don't like the intermediate route at all. Too many road changes.)

Any pros and cons to either route or alternatives? We can't afford to take smaller back routes because we basically have slightly under a week to get there. Thanks in advance for any help!

(edited to correct my Interstate numbers gaffe!)

Quick - get a refund for your map! I-80 does not go from Denver to Vail (or Denver to anywhere else for that matter). I-80 goes further north, through Cheyenne, Wyoming into Salt Lake City. I-70 is the route from Denver through the mountains and I highly recommend it.You can take I-70 to I-15, north to Salt Lake, then I-80 into the Bay area.

I have been I-10 Alabama to LA, i highliy reccomend going through GA and TN, very beatuiful. Not much to do I-10 west, except for Houston, and San Antonio and Phoenix.

Oops...wasn't looking at the map at the time!! That's the route I meant...I-70 through Denver, then turning up towards Salt Lake City and on towards San Francisco. My mistake.