Hello everyone!

I was looking for some insight from past roadtrippers on a future road trip I've planned with my boyfriend for next year. We are planning on leaving the last week of august from the Philadelphia area. We have devoted 3 weeks for our travels/sights and our budget is tight - we would like to spend $2500 each.

What we want to see:

1. Badlands National Park
2. Mount Rushmore
3. Grand Teton National Park
4. Yellowstone National Park
5. Glacier National Park
6. Olympic National Park
7. Portland, Oregon
Then venture down the Pacific Highway in California making sure to see
8. San Francisco
9. Big Sur
10. Yosemite National Park
11. Joshua Tree
12. San Diego
We wanted to also hit these spots along the way home
13. Grand Canyon
14. Horseshoe Bend
15. Zion National Park
16. 4 Corners
17. Denver

We feel like we are being WAY too ambitious - with the amount of stops, the time frame and our budget. We plan on camping most of the trip, at national parks or camp grounds nearby to save on hotel expenses. Right now it says our travel route is about 9000 miles. I don't know the first thing about road trips, but I feel like that's a lot of miles for 3 weeks. If anyone could provide any type of insight on:

- a better itinerary (any places we could do without or should see instead)
- travel roads (most of our route is I-90, coming from Philadelphia and I heard that's not scenic)
- would it be cheaper to rent a car and fly back at our end destination?
- should we expand our trip another week?
- how much SHOULD we budget to spend throughout this whole trip (We plan to buy a national park pass and keeping a cooler stocked with water and snacks)
- also, has anyone ever road tripped in a Lancer - any insight on that?