Re: Is this a good "shortcut" idea? (IA/MO/KS)


"My Land of Misery" <grvan@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:1192589072.035738.215470@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Oct 16, 9:17 pm, "brink" <brinknos...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"My Land of Misery" <gr...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in messagenews:1192585984.519587.66180@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx





> On Oct 16, 8:15 pm, "brink" <brinknos...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> I need to drive from Muscatine, IA (near the Quad Cities area) to >> Silver
>> Lake, KS (near Topeka, KS); GPS says I-80 to I-35 to I-70 is the way >> to
>> go... experience tells me that this isn't always so, especially since
>> the
>> primary alternate routes (mainly US highways) are often pretty wide >> open
>> out
>> here and you can make great time.

>> Instead of the interstate route, I was contemplating taking:

>> US-61 south out of Muscatine;
>> IA-92 west out of Grandview;
>> US-218 south out of Ainsworth;
>> US-34 west out of Mount Pleasant;
>> I-35 south out of Osceola;
>> US-136 west out of Bethany, MO;
>> US-169 south out of Stanberry;
>> US-59 south out of St. Joseph;
>> KS-4 southwest out of Nortonville, KS;
>> 82nd St west out of Meridien to NW Topeka Blvd to 62nd Street west to >> my
>> destination address.

>> I've done the Iowa leg of this trip in reverse a couple years ago and >> it
>> seemed to go really well; made great time and it was a nice drive. >> It's
>> the
>> MO/KS part I'm a little more leery of.

>> I don't have to make spectacular time but I also try to avoid the
>> "scenic"
>> route if it's going to add more than 30-60 minutes to what scopes out >> as
>> a
>> 7.5 hour drive via the interstates.

>> I do like the though of bypassing KC and the possible traffic crunch
>> there -- any risk of traffic in and around St. Joe's?

>> brink

> St. Joe isn't that bad on US 36 or I-29. Your plan out of St. Joe is
> good. However, I have a better recommendation that would save some
> time (watch for construction zones).

> Muscatine to St. Joe: US 61 south to IA 92 at Grandview would be OK.
> IA 92 west to US 218 at Washington. Should take a little over half an
> hour. Then....

> US 218 south to IA 27 south of Donnellson, then IA 27 & MO 27 past
> Wayland to US 61. It's mostly 4-lane. Should make that leg in about
> an hour.

> Continue south on US 61 to US 24 west (west of Hannibal), then US 24
> west to US 36. That leg in under an hour.

> US 36 across MO to St. Joe. It's an hour to Macon, then another 2
> hours or so to St. Joe, depending on the progress of the pavement
> rehab between Brookfield and Chillicothe. Cameron is a little bit of
> a slowdown (1/2 mile of 45 and a light), but not real bad.

> In St. Joe the SL on US 36 drops to 55. It will get you to US 59 via
> SB I-229, but you get a city-street stretch on US 59 between I-229 and
> MO 752. That may add 10-15 minutes to the plan. Otherwise you can
> use I-29 south to I-229 north to MO 752 west to bypass the slower part
> of US 59.

> Between St. Joe and Topeka, US 59 and KS 4 are nice for driving but go
> right into the heart of Atchison. Figure on 1:15 from St. Joe to
> Topeka.

> That comes out to around 7 hours by my estimate. Good luck.

Hmmm... thanks for the tip. I drove US-61 south all the way down past
Hannibal once a few years ago, but didn't take the shortcut away from the
Mississippi. It was a nice drive.

Let me ask you: any particular reason for eschewing the US-34 and I-35
section of the trip I planned? I seemed to recall US-34 being a pretty wide
open stretch of road, though long stretches were 2-lane. Is because US-36
is a lot of 4-lane across MO?

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I've never driven more of US 34 than the Ottumwa-Albia stretch. 2-
lane roads in IA are still 55. The US 36 part west of Macon is 4-lane
and mostly posted 65, and the 2-lane portion between US 24 and Macon
is mostly posted 60. Other than the rough pavement (not sure about
the current pavement rehab status) between Brookfield and Chillicothe,
US 36 is a painless drive.

Also, you will run into construction on US 34 in Ottumwa with rework
of the intersection with US 63 south and the construction of the US 63
Ottumwa Bypass.

Thanks again for the input; I ended up taking US-34 instead in part because I needed a Wells Fargo Bank branch... while they're plentiful out on the West Coast, not so much in IA.

Most of my trip was a real pleasure... the contrast between driving in CA and IA is remarkable... obviously much lower-volume traffic but the way IA has upgraded so many US routes to 4-lane median-separated expressway/freeways with 65 MPH limits and bypasses around most towns is *very* nice.

The US-61, IA-92, and US-218 sections of my trip were all an absolute breeze. Little traffic and I was lucky enough that the few cars I encountered on the brief 2-lane portion of US-61 I drove and the entire length of IA-92 caused no delay -- we were "spaced" just right.

It's funny to hit US-218 after that stretch of IA-92... in the middle of seemingly nowhere, I gigantic Interstate-grade interchange looms on the horizon and bam, you're on a freeway. There was light-to-moderate traffic -- a little busier than I expected -- but I was glad for the freeway/expressway 4-laner as there were plenty of semis.

The interchange with US-34 was the first point where my 2008 Delorme Street Atlas GPS showed the progress IA has been making recently in upgrading these routes (well, besides the fact that it isn't showing the freeway sections of US-218 yet)... GPS mapped the interchange as more of an intersection, whereas the present interchange is a direct-connect ramp hookup -- VERY smooth. It's funny, with those deviations from the GPS map, the voice that alerts you to turns starts to freak out a bit... "OFF ROUTE - recalculating route - turn left at McMill St, approaching now -- OFF ROUTE..." as it tries to compensate for you driving through what it has mapped as a field. ;-)

US-34 was great too... another 4-lane median-separated freeway/expressway... most towns bypassed, though obviously the bypass around Fairfield isn't yet complete. The highway still runs through the heart of town, but wasn't a major delay... traffic wasn't too bad westbound (worse eastbound though).

Which reminds me: why are the *large* towns the last to be bypassed on these routes? Because it's easier to build the bypasses around the small towns?

GPS hadn't yet updated with the bypass around Agency so more "OFF ROUTE" warnings there as I was off-roading according to the map... ;-)

I've driven through Ottumwa before, but I have to admit I was shocked in that I didn't recall it being such a big town. Guess I never drove through that part. I recalled it as about a Fairfield-sized town, maybe 15K-20,000 people -- looks much bigger than that from what I saw 2 days ago.

West of US-34 is where it becomes a 2-lane route, but that was little delay, if any; what started to slow us down was the RAIN, which was starting to come down in sheets.

Rain persisted until we hit I-35 south and all the way across the MO state line. Started to clear up at that point.

More rain once we hit US-36 west toward St. Joe. POURED for most of this stretch, really started to slow us down...

St. Joe was a bit confusing with some bridge work and closed routes. We followed the GPS-suggested route of NOT crossing the bridge and got off on a few surface streets to pick up US-59. Looks like under normal circumstances, that wouldn't have been a smart move -- looks like there's now a direct-connect between US-36 and US-59 (right?) over the bridge, but traffic was backed up on it with construction and rain. We bypassed all of that.

US-59 was a breeze and I'm a big fan of diagonal routes, which KS has a LOT of. Still lots of rain, but made decent time.

Not too much traffic and we certainly weren't slowed down behind anyone, even in Atchison and even with the rain. The Amelia Earhart bridge, while narrow and a little freaky with the heavy rain, was NOT under construction and we experienced no delays. They're really nuts for Ameila Earhart in Atchison... bridges, stores, birthplace, woodcarvings all in her honor...

Picked up KS-4, another diagonal route, everything was great, til we made our FIRST routing mistake of the day... which I suspected all along but figured "What the hey..." 110th St west out to Hoyt is a dirt road, which made for a very dirty vehicle after all was said and done.

US-75 down to Silver Lake, then we were done. Crossing US-75 is a bit nerve rattling, HEAVY traffic moving VERY fast. Cars are often queued up waiting to cross or turn. It amazes me how much traffic there is between Topeka and... what? Holton? There doesn't seem to be much north of there.

All said and done, 9 hours, which is what GPS projected, but we stopped quite a few times including a 30 minute stop west of St. Joe to get some propane. The rain was really the only bummer!

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