Thanks, all! I'd been thinking west to east, and am glad for the info about the view, and good to know about the guidebook!

Motels for us. Well, for me, anyway; the other two can do what they want! (Motels, I'm sure. )

kmehrzad, thanks for the info about Amtrak; that's also good to know.

One of the husbands wants to train with his wife for this; I think he'd like to come along, too! We've also talked about making our kids come with us. (We met through our sons, who went to high school together. We each have an only child.) I suspect we'd have some difficulty talking the kids into it, and I envision that if they went, we'd be on parallel rides (as in, they'd zoom off and meet us at the end of the day). I think it'd be a great experience for everyone, though.

Assuming we all lived through it!!