Dept. Due to road closures because of flooding what was a 6 hr trip will probably be 8-9 this year!
I wrote that story. I wrote it would be 8.5 hours based on the suggested route from Missouri and Iowa DOTs, which is through Des Moines. But there are other routes that Google Maps says could be between 7.5 and 8 hours that do not take you quite so far east.
Scott Suhr indicated to me yesterday that some of those Google drive times along the state highways might be a little off because of all the traffic that is on those roads. Apparently those state highways go through towns with stoplights (and speed traps, I’m sure) and can get pretty congested. It really just depends on what time of day you go through those areas. I noticed on Google last night that some of the drive times had decreased by about 45 minutes. I’m sure that has to do with there being fewer cars on the roads at night.
Adam Watson from MDOT told me there were people from northwest Missouri who work in Omaha and they have resorted to renting properties until the interstate is open again. They just can’t afford the round-trip drive times.
I’m driving up tomorrow morning. I’ll be the advance scout and report back.
Thanks Matt. I want to go and I’d talked my wife into going with me, but a 9 hour drive from LR turning into a 12 hour drive might be a game changer. In fact, the additional hours almost require us to stop overnight. The return trip wouldn’t require the overnight, but would be a very long drive.