AZ to MI Roadtrip - I40 or I80?

[veronica1021]

My boyfriend and I are going on our first long road trip from Phoenix, AZ to East Lansing, MI at the end of July. Google lists two options - I40 and I80. Both are estimated around 30 hours.

Questions:
What is the realistic time we should give ourselves? I am not sure if I can trust Google. Originally, I thought I could do it one shot but after reading some of the other posts I think that may not be realistic.

Trying to get to Phoenix as soon as possible - maybe 2 to 3 days. Is that even possible?

Thank you for your help!

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

Well first of all, you certainly can not do this trip in one shot, and you can't do it in just two days either, no matter what route you take. There's simply no way to to make the trip safely in that kind of timeline. You are right to be suspicious of Googles time estimate, as it is low by several hours, but more importantly, this is a trip that needs to be measured in days not hours.

Three days would be on the very upper edge of what is possible, but that is still going to be about 700 miles a day and at least 12 hours on the road time each of those days. That is more than we recommend, especially when you've just got 2 people and can't really do a good rotation where one person can really rest without leaving the driver all by themself. 4 days would really be much better.

Because you want to keep this trip as short as possible, you need to stick to the shortest, fastest route. I this case its going to be I-40/I-44/I-70 through St. Louis to Indianapolis, then I-69 via Fort Wayne or I-75 via Toledo to Michigan, depending upon where in the Detroit area you are heading.

[glc]

For East Lansing, you would want I-69 through Ft. Wayne all the way.

A nice diversion to get from Phoenix to I-40, instead of up I-17 to Flagstaff, would be the 202 freeway east to AZ-87, up to Payson, then AZ-260 to Heber, AZ-277 to AZ-377 to AZ-77 to Holbrook. Timewise, this can actually be a bit shorter than I-17.

Concur, you should really make this a 4 day trip.