Driving Directions

[Chili]

Starting to get into the real serious prep mode here and have been planning our route to DW. Being a CAA member I had them make me up a triptik. The triptik has a different route for coming home and heading down? You'd think that the quickest route would be the same in both directions?? To add to the confusion I used mapblast and they gave me a different route once again. Looking for some advice on the best route from some of the Mid-west folks.

Our route is pretty much locked in stone up until Sioux City IA, after that options start to crop up. On the way down the CAA triptik has us going south on I-29 until 680 which we take the NW route around Omaha. We end up on I-80 heading west to US 81. We take US 81 south to I-135 which we take right through Wichita and then straight South on I-35 into OK from there.

Coming home according to the triptik we come back North on I-35 to Wichita but then we stay on I-35 and head NE all the way up to Kansas City and then hooking back up with I-29 on the north side of KC all the way back home.

The Mapblast route seems to split the two CAA routes and cut through the middle hitting Topeaka KS. LINK TO MAPBLAST ROUTE.

 

[Tony Eeds]

Chili:

Couple of questions and comments.

1 - Do you prefer to stay on the Interstates?
2 - If you are driving straight through, when do you expect to leave and what time of the day/night do you expect to be driving through the central states?

I drove down I35 from Kansas City to Dallas last weekend and found it to be a long, boring, and uneventful trip. The roads are in good shape except for construction beyond where you are going to be turning off.

Personally I like smaller roads (as Lou about our drive back from Reno ;) ) and tend to choose the smallest possible road for the situation.

Last summer we drove up I35 to I135 and followed US81 north to I80 across Kansas on our way to southeastern Iowa for RAGBRAI. This proved to be very good roads and fairly well populated. Services might be a problem in the middle of the night but I doubt it. US81 parallels I29 on the west from Fargo south. The road does jog back and forth a bit (Interstates do as well to a lesser degree) and this might slow you down, but I have found you can often cut many miles off of trips by using these older routes.

That being said, US77 splits off of US75 just south of Sioux City and connects back with I35 just north of

It is about 120 miles from Sioux Falls to Lincoln (which is on I80),
about 130 miles from Lincoln to the intersection of US77 and I70,
and about 110 from there to the Freeway Entrance for I35 in El Dorado KS. This is a total of 368 miles.

From Sioux Falls to El Dorado via I29 and I35 it is 437 miles.

Interestingly enough, it is only 2 miles farther (370 miles) via US75 and I335, but there are tolls on I335 and I35 in Kansas. If you choose that route, I would follow I29 south to the Nebraska City Exit and jog over to catch US75. They aren't more than a mile or two apart at that point and it is pretty good bit south of Sioux Falls.

Also, don't drive into Stillwater as Cooperland is 15 minutes west of town. We will resurrect the instructions from I35 and 51.

Just some thoughts. Maybe XR3J will weigh in on this thread. He lives in Riverton Nebraska.

 

[Chili]

Thanks Tony, I'll hit the maps tonight when I get a chance. As for your questions I have no real preference about the interstates as were are in an older motorhome and towing an enclosed trailer I tend to keep the speed down around 55 so the shortest route would be the best since I'm not doing the 75 on the Interstate to make up for a longer route. We are going to break the drive down since I expect it to be roughly 23 hours or so at our slower speeds. we are leaving on the Friday after I get off work at 6pm and will most likely only do about 4 hours that night which should put us in Fargo ND. On the Saturday we intended to put in a decent day of driving (maybe 12-14 hours, likely 8am-10pm) and then just find a Wal-mart parking lot or something similar to park the RV for the night. This will hopefully leave us with a short jaunt left on Sunday and allow us an early Sunday afternoon arrival. Services are definately an issue as the Motorhome sucks fuel and only has a range of about 225 miles per tank give or take.

I would follow I29 south to the Nebraska City Exit and jog over to catch US75. They aren't more than a mile or two apart at that point and it is pretty good bit south of Sioux Falls.

That is the route that mapblast suggests, it is also the route I took earlier this year on my ill-fated trip to Hutchinson KS to look at a trailer a shyster was trying to sell. It seemed to me to be a pretty direct and decent route and was likely going to be the route we took until CAA seemed to think there was better options and filled my head with questions.

 

[XR3J]

Chili,
I don't know how much help I will be, but from Riverton, I jog over to 81, and just head straight south until I get on I35. That will take you to 51 in Oklahoma. I 35 is a toll road from just south of Wichita to almost the Oklahoma state line. One other thing-take the loop around downtown Wichita. I can't remember the number, but it takes you around the west side of town. It takes a little longer, but is worth it in terms of dodging traffic and construction.
Jerry