Welcome to RTA!

I too, agree that 10-11 hours on the road is about maximum in order not to wear yourselves out. Even if you split the driving, sitting in a car for long periods of time day after day is very tiring! 550-600 miles is about maximum that my husband and I will do per day, especially when we have to do several days in a row of it.

As for hotels -- unless you're traveling on a 3-day weekend (Memorial Day, Fourth of July), usually you don't need reservations. You can probably use the little coupon booklets you find at Welcome Centers and Tourist Bureaus, and occasionally truck stops, to find reasonably priced accommodations along your route. Bear in mind that the coupons won't always work on a Friday or Saturday evening in a prime holiday area.

As for splitting up the driving, it seems to me that there would be a few ways to do it. If all 4 are covered by insurance to drive a particular car, you could switch off in 2 or 3 hour increments. (Check with the insurance companies for the drivers whose cars are being driven, first. If the others own a car being left behind, they could check with their insurance company to see if they are covered when driving a friend's vehicle.)

As for best route -- I concur with Dave, above. You really could go either way -- either I-80/76/71/70/15, or I-80/76/71/70/44/40/15. It really depends on what you want out of the trip. If you take the I-70 through Denver into Utah, you'll have some gorgeous scenery when you go through Vail, Glenwood Canyon, and the San Rafael Swell (UT). It's probably the most beautiful interstate driving in the US, IMHO. Yet cutting down from St Louis on I-44 to I-40 is beautiful in its own way: from west of Albuquerque across Arizona gives you a lot of different landscapes (desert to mountain elevations). I've driven both sets of roads in the last few years and they are good interstates. (We loved I-80 across Pennsylvania!)

Go to the RTA Map Center and take a look at what's along each of these routes. If you have the time and the $$ for the extra time on the roads, there are so many places to stop. Just for starters: Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton OH (freebie museum, full of aircraft). St Louis has the Arch, the museum of the western expansion, a free zoo, and a tour of the Budweiser plant. Graham Cave along I-70 or Meramec Caverns along I-44. And so much more!


Donna