Driving from Charlotte to Phoenix, any advise?

My daughter and I are taking the 40 from Charlotte to Phoenix. We plan to spend the 1st night in Nashville and do a little sight seeing in the late afternoon, evening. Next, drive through Memphis and tour around a little, then stay a night around Oklahoma City. Next leg is to stay in Santa Fe or Albuquerque. Any hotel recommendations near Oklahoma City, Santa Fe or Albuquerque? Our car will be pretty full and we'd like to be sure we are in some safe areas. Any sight seeing stops, or restaurants we should hit? It's not going to be a very fun trip as we plan to spend 3 nights and 4 days to travel. Most places we will arrive in the evenings. Thanks for any suggestions!

Welcome to RTA!

If you have to make this trip in 4 days and want to spend the night in Nashville, you are not going to have time to tour around Memphis. You will need to adjust your overnights to Van Buren AR and Santa Rosa NM. Both towns have a decent selection of hotels right off I-40 and will be relatively safe. At Van Buren, most of the hotels are at Exit 5, I've stayed in the Super 8 there and it was one of the better Super 8's I've stayed at. I've also stayed at the Super 8 in Santa Rosa and it was decent. There are, of course other options.

If you like steak and want an early dinner, there's the Big Texan in Amarillo. Van Buren should have a wide variety of restaurants, Santa Rosa is a bit limited, I've heard that they do have a good Mexican restaurant though. Nashville has some good BBQ, I've eaten at Jack's on Broadway downtown, good stuff.

Santa Rosa also has a decent Quality Inn. The gal there recommended the Santa Fe Grill which was about 3/4 mile down from the hotel. The Silver Moon Cafe' next door was handy, but the gal said she preferred the SF Grill, so that was where we went.


Donna

According to Tripadvisor, the Santa Fe Grill is closed for remodeling.

Oh, that's a shame. Well, there are a few other places in Santa Rosa, including the Silver Moon Cafe', any number of fast food places (including a full DQ Brazier right across from QI), and a Denny's.


Donna

Thank you! I wasn't sure if we should take time to see a little bit of Nashville or Memphis. I could just drive through Nashville and stay overnight in Memphis, but it would be late in the evening. Which one would be more interesting?

Charlotte to Memphis in one day is a bit of a stretch but doable. You wouldn't really have time to do anything once you got there. For that reason alone, I'd do Nashville and adjust your overnights as I suggested before. Nashville to OKC is just too far for 1 day.

Nashville to Sallisaw, OK, is a hair over 500 miles, a good day's drive. Sallisaw has a number of hotels. The Super 8 there is decent, has a pool. If either of you like catfish, there's Shad's Catfish Hole about 7 miles south of Sallisaw. (Get directions locally, as it's a challenge to find.) They also have fried chicken strips if catfish isn't a favorite of one of you. They're only open 5 days a week, however....Weds through Sat 4:30 to 9 pm, and Sundays for brunch 11:30 to 2:30, so all bets are off if you're going to be going through there on a Monday or a Tuesday, or landing there on Sunday night.

Donna