Thanks everyone for the welcome and the feedback!

I should start by saying that when we do these trips, we start at like 7am. So I am basing everything off of early start days. We are somehow very good at getting off to a military start in the morning.

So in my mind, we would be at the Grand Canyon at 8 or 8:30am and there the entire day, possibly even until sunset. It all depends on how we react to the place and the HUGE ENORMOUS MASS OF TOURISTS which is the kind of thing we get allergic to, easy (you should have seen the nervous twitches we got just walking underneath the Eiffel Tower to get to the other side!)

I was figuring we would drive as far as we could that night once we were done (whenever that is) to get us a decent jump on the long drive the next day. Flagstaff to Amarillo in one day seemed just a little too long. Winslow was on the list as a stopping point but then I wanted an option that was just a little bit further, hence Holbrook. I hear your point that Gallup might just be a little too far.

(And if you understood how much we hate and despise the Eagles you would understand why Winslow was not a stop we particularly care that much about. :) (Although, hey, the song made Jackson Browne a lot of money and we love him.))

I realize Four Corners is what it is but the kitsch part and I'm also a fan of Neil Gaiman.

I will definitely check out Mesa Verde, thank you.

Yosemite is not in this list because I have already spent a lot of time there and while I realize you could go there every year for your entire life and still have enough to see, given that this is a 'bucket list' kind of trip, it's not on my list, and if it's between driving the PCH and Yosemite, the SO prefers the PCH drive and it has been a goal of mine to see the otters at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Plus, I worry about getting National-Park'd-out, similar to what they call 'cathedral fatigue' in Europe.

I know we are running into Memorial Day weekend but that is what gives us as much time as we have between work and other commitments. I have tried to think of a routing that would avoid the crowds, like going the other way around. But then we are driving the PCH Memorial Day weekend. I kind of think I'd rather deal with the crowds at the Grand Canyon, than drive behind a minivan up the coast for four hours. :)

Thank you all again! Going to back to read some more archived trip reports! Will update on the final itinerary when we get there. :)