My wife and I have been waiting for the right age to take our 3 girls on a cross country trip to see this beautiful country. I've just come to realize that time is slipping away (our oldest is 15 and the youngest is 8) so it's now or never. Problem is, I don't where to start planning. Questions I have are:

- car/motels or RV (RVs seem to be quite expensive to rent)?
- how much time (is 4 weeks or so a reasonable amount of time)?
- what to see (there is so much, but i don't really know what's out there)?
- where to stay (do i need to prebook motels, how is that even possible)?
- can i bring my dog (well behaved black lab)?

I'm sure there are a million other questions. Any advice is welcome.

--stephen