Hello All -

My wife was just transferred from her job in DC to San Francisco, and we are planning on making the road trip over 5-6 days in mid April. Unfortunately, this is mostly a "utilitarian" drive. We will be driving a rented SUV. We are mid-30's professionals, and we have done a good bit of driving all over the country, so I am not overly concerned about 10-12 hour days of driving. I have done a meandering cross-country trip over 3 months, but that was obviously a very different planning process. Because we probably won't have a ton of time for stopping, some decent window scenery would be nice! Complicating everything is that we will be bringing our 120 lb dog. So here are my questions:

1) Which route, the I-70 (Northern) or I-40 (Southern) route has better scenery? and;

2) Are there any suggestions for dog-friendly stops along the way? Motels, parks, or anything that may keep our buddy from wanting to jump out the window?

Thanks for the help already, and for future comments!

-Patrick