Endpoints: Saint Charles, IL to Tucson, AZ

Days: 2

Hours Driving: 32 or so

Route:

- IL-64: Saint Charles to Savanna, IL (Mississippi River)

- IA-64: Savanna, IL (Mississippi River) to Anamosa, IA

- US-151: Anamosa, IA to Cedar Rapids, IA

- US-30: Cedar Rapids, IA to Grand Island, NE

- US-281: Grand Island, NE to Hastings, NE

- US-34: Hastings, NE to McCook, NE

- US-83: McCook, NE to Garden City, KS (end Day 1)

- US-83: Garden City, KS to Sublette, KS (begin Day 2)

- US-56: Sublette, KS to Boise City, OK

- US-385: Boise City, OK to Dalhart, TX

- US-54: Dalhart, TX to Tucumcari, NM

- I-40: Tucumcari, NM to Santa Rosa, NM (US-54 is concurrent)

- US-54: Santa Rosa, NM to Vaughn, NM

- US-60: Vaughn, NM to Bernardo, NM

- I-25: Bernardo, NM to Socorro, NM (US-60 is concurrent)

- US-60: Socorro, NM to Globe, AZ

- AZ-77: Globe, AZ to Tucson, AZ

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Route Commentary:

Three important things.
1) First, I'm the kind of person who can sit in the car and drive all day. Is 16 hours of driving each day back-to-back crazy? Probably. But I enjoy every minute of it.
2) The point of this trip was to intentionally AVOID the interstates. Seeing the small towns that one would miss on the interstate is so enjoyable. Small-town America has so much character. Also, the remoteness of two-lane roads, cutting across the middle of nowhere is quite an experience. It has a timeless feel to it.
3) I did this trip with no GPS at all. Just a road atlas and my eyes. The entire route was planned using the atlas, and I used the atlas if I needed to know where I was, or what the next town was. Honestly, this was really fun. GPSs are good for route optimization and ease of use, but doing it old school was a lot of fun. Heck, I doubt a lot of people even know how to use a map these days.

I started in St. Charles, IL before dawn. IL-64 took me west to the Iowa border. There are better roads to take, but I had always wanted to take this road as far west as it goes, since this was my hometown road. It's nothing special, but it was a bit of a personal bucket-list item for me. IL-64 ends in Savanna, IL on the river, where a bridge connects it to IA-64, a continuation of the 64 road. By then, there was daylight, and rolling through the Iowa farmland on a seldom used two-lane road at dawn was pretty relaxing and scenic. At Anamosa, I hopped on US-151, which is an expressway to Cedar Rapids. After driving through downtown, I joined US-30 west, which would take me into Nebraska. US-30 changes between an expressway and a 2-lane road a few times. The Iowa scenery here wasn't anything specifically noteworthy, but the occasional rolling hill was pleasant. US-30 took me into Nebraska, where it runs north of Omaha and cuts west. Again, there aren't too many notable things to see along this portion, but the frequent small town (every 10 or so miles) helped break up the monotony of the flat farmland. I got lunch in Grand Island (Pizza Ranch!!!) and turned south on US-281 for a quick few miles down to Hastings. From there, US-34 took me west across the very southern part of the state. Again, there isn't much to see, but the landscape begins to look more like grasslands and plains. McCook was the turning point south on US-83 and the last city in Nebraska before entering Kansas. US-83 was very scenic, I thought. It's much more than flat, grassy plains. The section between Oakley and Scott City was stunning, especially at sunset. I should've stopped for some views at the Little Jerusalem Badlands; it was gorgeous. The road also become much more remote here; cars became few and far between. Upon arriving in Garden City, I was ready to call it quits for the day, so I found a cheap place to stay. Garden City seems like a nice place. It's pretty big for being in the western part of the state. I didn't explore much, but I did check out the old Santa Fe depot, which still sees passenger traffic.

Day 2 began just after sunrise, as I proceeded south on US-83 to the junction of US-56. This road cuts southwest towards the corner of the state. Just after Elkhart, Kansas, I crossed into the panhandle of Oklahoma. Here, the landscape began to change from grassy plains to more of a desert. The small towns were also becoming less frequent; it was now common to travel 30+ miles without even seeing a small community. Boise City was the only significant town in Oklahoma that I went through. It's the junction of several US highways, and I would take US-385 south into Texas. The 45 miles stretch between Boise City and Dalhart, TX was probably the most isolated segment of the trip. There is nothing out there. I could've counted the cars I saw on one hand, likely. It was pretty neat. I may or may not have opened up the throttle for a few miles to see what triple digits feels like in the desert.... ssshhhh! :) At Dalhart, I turned southwest on US-54. The truck traffic on this road was borderline unbearable. Maybe I got unlucky, but I rarely got up to a comfortable cruising speed between here and the New Mexico border because there were so many trucks. Oh well. After entering New Mexico, the landscape turns to a pretty standard southwestern desert. It's enough to entertain me, but that's probably because I'm not used to it! At Tucumcari, NM (I had to look up how to pronounce it), US-54 joins with I-40 for a bit, so I broke my no interstate rule. However, it was a nice change of pace. At Santa Rosa, US-54 leaves the interstate and heads southwest to Vaughn, which apparently is known for the freight trains. Here, I joined US-60, which I would stay on for quite a long time. US-60 seemed pretty lightly used from what I saw, which surprised me. The road parallels some BNSF railroad tracks which seemed extremely busy. Watching the parade of trains kept me entertained. West of Vaughn, the mountains become visible and the flat landscape gives way to more entertaining terrain. West of Mountainair, US-60 cuts traverses some mountains, and eventually runs into I-25 at Bernardo. It runs concurrent for a few miles south to Socorro. There, it runs west towards the Arizona border. On the way, it passes the Very Large Array telescope, which was neat to see. Besides that, there isn't much else noteworthy on this segment; it's a lot of long tangents on the high plains. There is a town called Pie Town though, which wins the award for most interesting town name on the trip. Inadvertently, I saved the best scenery for last. US-60 between Show Low, AZ and Globe, AZ is breathtaking mountain driving. I've driven through the Rockies before, and this was easily comparable. Seriously, an underrated route. After Globe, I lost daylight. AZ-77 took me the remaining 90 miles or so to Tucson in the darkness, wrapping up the trip.