We will be going mid-August and are very open to suggestions. We have been told that driving straigh

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We are planning our first cross-country trip, beginning car rental agencies in the orlando international airport in upstate NY, toward the southwestern region of the country all in order to leave our son in college in Boulder, CO and then fly home from Denver.
We will be going mid-August and are very open to suggestions. We have been told that driving straight across the country becomes boring and that we should travel in an arc, either north or south. Would love to see the Grand Canyon but what else should we see? We have about 14 days.
I've looked into RV rentals in upstate NY before and found the price waaay too high, and that was for a local rental not a one-way. Total cost per day far exceeded driving + hotels. With an RV rental you usually pay a fee per mile, plus about 10-12mpg.
We have thought about flying but then we would want an RV for driving around car rental agencies in the orlando international airport that region for 7-9 days. This would mean airfare for 6, then an RV rental then airfare for 5 home. Also, we thought we might be saving in lodging and food with an RV. Does that make sense?
For a family of 6, perhaps the savings in lodging are there. Check out the cruiseamerica website to get an idea of pricing. They show a large RV (fits up to 7) for about $200 per night + 34c/mile. At 300 mi per day that's another $100, plus gas, campground car rental agencies in the orlando international airport fees which can be as low as $20 per night for a state park with no utilities (or free, if you park at a walmart), to $50 or so for a site with water and dump site.
Do look at the price of renting an RV and double the cost of fuel compared to driving car rental agencies in the orlando international airport a car and add the fees to use the RV park. Compare to the cost of driving the car and staying in motels along the way.
Then consider how comfortable you will be driving a large vehicle along the hwys and up and down steep grades once you get to Colorado. car rental agencies in the orlando international airport Will it be worth it to have a bit more room in the RV and a bit less room for sleeping and showers.
My favored route would be to get on the Amtrak Lake Shore Limited at 11PM in Rochester and arrive in Chicago in the morning. car rental agencies in the orlando international airport Spend about 4 hours in Chicago and then take the California Zephyr car rental agencies in the orlando international airport to Denver arriving in Denver in the morning Mountain time. If you can tolerate 2 nights sleeping in coach the fare is about $1300 for 6 people between 13 and 62.
First thing, price out the one-way car rental agencies in the orlando international airport RV rental. There is no point in trying car rental agencies in the orlando international airport to plan a route or even figure out what you may want to see until you get a cost estimate and see if the RV is realistic. J62 has a pretty good estimate but you'd need to run your own numbers and see what you come up with.
For sake of argument, I looked at a route from Rochester to Yellowstone, then to the Grand Canyon via Salt Lake City and finishing up in Boulder. (No idea where in upstate NY you are but figured Rochester is good enough for a rough idea). That route is about 3600 miles and that is not factoring in any driving car rental agencies in the orlando international airport within the parks or any side detours you may want to make. You can use that mileage as a base for figuring out a daily cost for the RV rental.
Once you get the RV from NY priced out, check out flights into Las Vegas or Phoenix (since those are the two closest and probably cheapest to see the Grand Canyon). Then do two things: price out a one-way RV rental from either of those cities to Denver AND price out a one-way mini-van or van rental from those cities to Denver plus lodging costs for however many nights.
car rental agencies in the orlando international airport Your other option is to simply price flights to Denver and then rent something there and make it a round-trip rental instead of a one-way with a drop-off fee. You can easily make it from Denver to the Grand Canyon plus other stops in your timeframe. That may very well turn out to be the cheapest option of all.
And finally, for the time of year you are looking at making this trip, I would avoid most of the southern U.S. (hot/humid) and southwest U.S. (very hot). If you wind up driving out there, take a northerly route and visit the Black Hills and Yellowstone. If you are flying you may have time to visit both of those plus the Grand Canyon. Grand Canyon (and southern car rental agencies in the orlando international airport Utah) will be hot but there's no way to avoid that if the Grand Canyon is something you must see on this trip.
Is this your sons freshmen year? How are you getting all of his "stuff" there? Train or airplane may be unrealistic unless you plan to ship everything. If it is freshmen car rental agencies in the orlando international airport year, I would just drive the family car with one parent and him. The rest can fly out to meet him. Do the two week excursion another time when his belongings don't need to be transported.