San Francisco to Kansas City

[iamstrangepants]

Hi,
I'm going to be driving from San Francisco to Kansas City, MO in the next week. I'd love recommendations of the best route to take, cities to stop in, attractions to see and even motel recommendations. I am just starting the planning process so all information is helpful.

TIA

[Southwest Dave]

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

There is no single 'best route' as that would mean different things to different folks, it will depend on interests, how much time you have and how much driving you are comfortable with, all of which you have told us nothing about. As you have just started to plan, take a close look at the maps, search the RTA site and when you have a few basics sorted out we will be able to offer meaningful advice.

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

Much as we'd like to give you the same kind of (hopefully) useful advice you've seen others get here, you just haven't given us enough information to even start paring down the dozens of routes and hundreds (if hot thousands!) of attractions between San Francisco and Kansas City. Just for a start, we'd need to know how much time you have for the trip, what kinds of things you're interested in (We simply don't believe in generic 'must see' lists.), any budget constaints you might have, and what kinds of accommodations you're looking for. "[A]ll information", while it might be helpful, would run to far more than you could read in the few days you have left to plan your trip.

AZBuck

[iamstrangepants]

Thanks for the quick responses! I figured there would be a best route because it is winter but i'm already learning by posting here :).
I don't have a limit on time, i'm relocating and will be finding a job once I get out to Kansas City. From my first glance it looks like the trip will take 3 to 4 days of driving. I don't want to power through it any faster than 3 days. I'm an experienced road tripper, recently did a trip from Queenstown to Auckland in NZ and have driven the entire west coast, just haven't gone east. I will be driving my Mazda5, so want to stick to well maintained roads since I do not have 4 wheel drive (but I do have my chains ready in case of snow). Some of my top interests are music, art and anything to do with horses. For accommodation i'm happy with anywhere clean that will be safe to park a car packed full of my belongings, which may mean small towns are better than cities. A friend suggested staying at the Clown Motel in Nevada, I'm definitely intrigued by quirky places like that.

Look forward to hearing any suggestions.

[AZBuck]

OK, so it seems that the first few choices you'll need to make include:

Time available: This is perhaps your most basic and defining choice. As you've correctly noted, you can make this drive in as little as three days, but that would leave you little time for anything other than just driving pretty much all day every day with no time for interesting stops anywhere along the way. Four days would let you make one or two stops a day of a couple of hours each, which might be enough for you if you didn't need to wander off the more-or-less direct route. With five or more days, the possibilities really start to open up, both for more and longer stops as well as leaving the straight and narrow for a bit.

Basic Route: The next big decision you'll need to make before you can really get down to detailed planning. Unless you plan to spend a week or so, you've almost got to stick to one of two main routes: I-80 through northern Nevada, Colorado and Nebraska to I-29 down into Kansas City OR I-5 down the Central Valley of California, CA-58 across to Barstow, then I-40 across northern Arizona and New Mexico, US-54 cutting up through the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles to I-335/I-35 into the KC area. Each of those routes has some major sites such as Lake Tahoe, Great Salt Lake and Salt Lake City, and the Platte River/Oregon Trail on the 'northern' I-80 route, and London Bridge, the Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest, and Old West cattle towns such as Dodge City on the 'southern' I-5/I-40 route.

Once you've got those two decisions made, everything else will start to fall into place such as what else you might like to see, and where (roughly) you'll be spending each night. I wouldn't worry a whole lot about "stick to well maintained roads", since almost all federal and state roads (those with numbers) in the US meet that description with a very few exception. You might see snow along the 'northern' route because it goes through some fairly high mountain passes in the Sierra Nevada of California, the Wasatch mountains of Utah and the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, but the 'southern' route should certainly be mostly snow free this time of year. If it's a real worry, your best option is to just leave yourself an extra day for the drive so that you can let the road crews do their jobs before you get back on the road. If you're forced to put on your chains, you'll be forced to go slowly enough that you don't want to be driving long distances anyway.

So, I hope that's enough info for you to at least decide the basic outline of your trip. And as I said, once you've got that we will really be in a much better position to help you with specifics.

AZBuck