From Michigan to Colorado to California and back

[Sherman]

Hello everyone, I'm planning on going on a road trip (that's a given) with my friends this summer. We are college students and we decided not to take summer classes so we are going to go on a road trip instead. I would really like to drive to California because the West is a great part of the country. The problem is, I don't have any idea on where to start for planning or what to do or anything. I know that it's going to cost a good amount of money. Gas will cost each of us around $400. There are three people going so we'll be able to split the cost pretty well I would think. The problem is, I just have no idea where to start. We are camping a majority of the time, but as far as attractions go, all I can think to do is just look at scenery, and that could probably get old. Anyone have any advice?

Edit: We have two weeks to do this. In theory it takes roughly a day and a half to get to California, so I was thinking if we just drove through the night with one person sleeping, one person driving and the other keeping company that we could make it through pretty well. We are going to stop in Colorado for a few days then do the same thing until we get to California and then go straight back to Michigan. Everyone I've talked to said that all we will see is road, but I tend to not listen to people very well until there's a larger majority of people telling me the same thing.