I wanted to post my findings after the trip for any who may find this thread in the future (better late than never ...right?)
Our plans changed again before the trip happened, and it wound up a business only trip. I drove over and back as quickly as I could...about 3 days each way. Now that the trip is over, I really wish I had taken more time to enjoy it. We are working on some plans to get back there again soon.
I took I-94 over, and I-80 back. In my opinion they both had their pros and cons (just like everybody said!). The biggest thing I learned (other than I need to get out of the Pacific NW more often!), is that driving as far as you can and then finding a place to stay, does not work for those of us who can drive till night time. Finding Hotel Rooms at 10-11pm was a real pain...I even had to backtrack my second night out. If your version of "driving as far as you can" gets you off the road in the afternoon, then I'm sure there wouldn't be any problems with this. Also, I suppose this being an RV Forum, this wouldn't matter to most anyway (I had no RV on the way there, and wasn't able to use it on the way back).
The other thing I wanted to mention, is that driving over the Rockies wasn't anything to worry about (at least in August anyway). In my opinion it wasn't any different or worse than any other mountain I have ever crossed. I worried WAY too much about this trip before hand. I guess that would be expected though for any who hadn't driven much outside of Oregon and California before.
Thank you to all who helped.
