summer vacation and my bunny

Question
I have a very smart 4 year old rabbit who has been litter trained and has run of my NYC apartment for three years (about one month after i adopted him.  he's baby gated in the kitchen when i'm away and has the whole place when i'm not.  I'm also planning to take a three week trip this summer.  I'm trying to figure out how to do this in the least traumatic way for my bunny.  usually my travels only take me away for a long weekend and he is cared for by neighbors but this trip is too long to bribe my friends with free beer.  
My options are
1) a bunny sitter where he will need to live in his cage for the three weeks.  normally his cage is his bathroom (i remove the top portion and he treats it like an enormous litterbox) and he certainly seems agitated when i need to put him in there for short trips and such.  He'd be staying in a home with a dog who is harmless bu he does not find the dog harmless and gets agitated on prior meetings.  

2) take him with me on the road trip.  it will be a 1.5 day drive with a stayover in a motel somewhere.  He would ride in the same cage.   i did the drive with him at christmas and he was not a fan of the noise/vibration of highway driving and only ate and drank water in the motels, but did like the motel stay the second time and did the happy bunny leaps (i guess since motel rooms have the same layout - he felt like he'd returned to some place familiar?). This seems the better option but i'm worried about doing the drive in the summertime.  i figure i can start driving early in the day when it is cool and stop earlier in the day as well.  stops to get gas/use bathroom/buy food take about 10 minutes and its those 10 minutes in a car with the ac off that worry me.  

this has rambled so i guess to sum up my questions are -
1) is it as traumatic for a free roaming bunny to spend three weeks cooped up in a cage as i think it is?  Or is this just me being a neurotic pet owner?
2) how traumatic are road trips for bunnies?  is there a way to encourage him to eat food and drink water during the 10-12 hours of driving each day or should i just make them available and let him deal with them?

Answer
Hi Adrienne,

Ok you so sound like me with my bunny's. Its not traumatic for them to be in there cages like that but if he is using it as a little box for the most point only I would be more concerned with his hygiene sence he doesn't "live" in his cage. If it were me since you have done it before and he was ok i would take him with me. Just keep the ac going. Most bunny's dont eat during travel. I would just make them available and let him deal with them he will eat on his own.