I 29 closures

[ezsoil]

According to the Missouri Department of transportation and the Iowa Department of transportation, it looks like there are several major closures ...St Joseph looks like a major closure...

im looking at going over to Topeka and up 75 from Kansas City

 

[msubrave]

Waze

 

[vhdawg]

I drove through there two weeks ago today, which was the day before it closed again, and yall that flooding is very much for real. I would assume you need to plan an approach to Omaha from a direction other than south from Iowa.

 

[Duke Humphrey]

Google Maps has one of two ways... first, cutting over at St. Joseph and driving through Kansas/Nebraska via Highways 36 and 75. This looks to be two lane roads once you get past St. Joe's. This way is 13 hour and 57 min from Jackson.
Second, going up Hwy 61 from St. Louis and meander through Iowa to Des Moines where you hit interstate to Omaha. This way is 14 hour and 33 min from jackson.

 

[Maroon Eagle]

You can play with Google maps some to create alternative routes. For instance, if I wanted to take the Missouri River out of play totally, I might want to go by way of Topeka.

Going to Omaha from Jackson via Topeka is 14 hours and 5 minutes meandering across southern Missouri on US 60 and then going from Springfield to Kansas City via Missouri 13 & Missouri 7. It looks like traveling US 75 from Topeka on will be 2-lane.

 

[SLUdog]

The Best Route from Mississippi:

Memphis to Springfield, MO, then to KC, then to St Joes, then 36 Highway to 75 Highway North.

 

[ezsoil]

Memphis to Springfield, MO, then to KC, then to St Joes, then 36 Highway to 75 Highway North.

last year, I was coming from Texas so I came up to Topeka to 75 ...it was slow and had tons of speed traps....I hated the two lane road and can only imagine how slow it will be with the added traffic of a freeway shutdown.....I am thinking Des Moines is the best route.

 

[Maroon Eagle]

Was something up with I-135 & US 81 from Wichita? Looks like 81 is 4-lane.

 

[dstatechamps]

^^^^^ Listen to this man

Waze

Use Waze on any road trip you go on even if you know where you are going. Was on the way home from Destin a couple of weeks ago and it redirected us around a big wreck on I-65 in Birmingham. Probably saved us an hour getting home.

 

[SwampDawg]

Are the left lanes closed too? That's all I use.

 

[J-Dawg]

+1*

 

[PointAfter]

Stop wondering.....WAZE

 

[mstateglfr]

All routes to Omaha should run thru Des Moines as you get to appreciate what a great mid-sized city looks like. Then 90min later, you have to drive thru Council-tucky before crossing the bridge into Omaha.

 

[512taylor]

Memphis to Springfield, MO, then to KC, then to St Joes, then 36 Highway to 75 Highway North.

Can you tell if any of this portion is flooded?
I/m not very computer literate but we are spending the night in Springfield.

 

[Fletch F. Fletch.sixpack]

Memphis to Springfield, MO, then to KC, then to St Joes, then 36 Highway to 75 Highway North.

Highway 60 across the bottom of the state of Missouri, from Sikeston to Springfield, was one of the worst up and down, winding and poorly kept roads in the state when I regularly traveled it 8-10 years ago. With that, it may be totally upgraded but it was a first class mess when I drove it. About 5 hours to Springfield from Sikeston.

 

[ezsoil]

Can you tell if any of this portion is flooded?
I/m not very computer literate but we are spending the night in Springfield.

the Bus driver Kinnard went this way yesterday

 

[kired]

I believe there is a good hour or so of 2-lane road through northern Arkansas / southern Missouri if you're going to Springfield, correct? It's not much more time to go on up to St Louis if you prefer interstate all the way to KC.

I'm leaving Saturday and haven't really decided if I'm going Springfield or St. Louis yet. May depend on what the weather looks like.

 

[BlueRidgeMtns]

I'm a Waze guy too. However, I've had a couple times where it takes me a weird way or two.

 

[DAWG61]

If you drive 78 mph in the left lane you'll have a clear path the entire trip. Highly recommend. Perfect speed perfectly unblocked the entire trip and you'll piss off all the red *** dickheads on the roads to the point they'll still be obsessed about it 3 months later.

 

[512taylor]

I-69 and I-240 West towards Little Rock (around Memphis)...….. Continue on to US 63 …..How does that route look?

 

[kired]

I believe that’s what SLUdog was describing above. You have some 2 lane sections, I think, on 63. It’s a little longer to go the MSU bus driver route (thru St Louis) but that’s interstate all the way to KC.

 

[Trojanbulldog19]

Google maps before to plan a route and waze for navigation. Always, always, always verify and check out the routes ahead of time from google or waze. Always look over the directions and map ahead of time before just taking off following the directions. A lot of them do shortest distance or time that may lead you through some weird places or away from populated areas that may have food, gas, etc. check the with noaa also for flood warnings and possible closures or delays due to weather. I always tell it to route before I ever leave and go through the entire route to look it over and where it is taking me. I may end up taking a slightly different route to avoid areas or stay near certain areas at different times. Always have people tell me they just punch in the destination and follow blindly and end up in weird areas or having to go through areas they didn’t want to.

The route up to st jo looks pretty good and then going up through Kansas up through Nebraska. Using 36 and 75. It’s not too much out of the way. However like ezsoil said probably slow with speed traps depending the times you hit it. Interstates you can fly pretty fast.

We did through north Arkansas up through Springfield on the way last year and it was slow through part of the winding portion. Kansas City to Omaha was the easier part. Way back seemed faster going interstate because we could maintain speed however gets older faster because you don’t have many turns and just gets monotonous for that long on the interstate. If you have time take the highways and explore the country a little besides what you see on the interstate.

The flooding is really bad and has been for a while. Also be aware of hotels near flooding may still be booked from those displayed from flooding or emergency crews in the area.