Driving Chicago to LA via Denver & Albuquerque Please Help : )

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

Your trip certainly look achievable, with note that many of the drive times are a bit low, however, there are two spots that stand out.

You don't actually list any day going from Monument Valley to Grand Canyon, and the two are really too far apart for it to be considered the "surrounding area." It takes a few hours to drive between the two.

I also would not recommend at all trying to do Disneyland on the same day you drive from Vegas. Disney really is a full day activity where you don't want to try to start it after being on the road for 5 hours.

[Yeehaw]

As you will notice, driving west of Chicago is pretty straight forward and you can do that drive in 2 days to Denver. You'll also gain one hour between North Platte and Denver and you'll gain another hour between Monument Valley and Grand Canyon.
If you want to stay in Des Moines I'd stay at its western side where many good chain hotels are gathered. On a sunny day you'll have good views on the golden dome of its State Capitol from I80.
Yeehaw