So include the wife!
My husband's and my favorite type of road trip is the kind where he gets up early and gets on his bike; I sleep in, have a leisurely morning, pack up the car; once he has about a 3-4 hour head start it takes me 1-1.5 hours to catch him. He hops in the car, we continue to our day's destination, hang out and do stuff, get up the next morning and start again!
We've toured much of the Western states that way, as well as having him ride large chunks of our route between Ohio and Montana and between Ohio and Colorado.