Driving from Chicago to OC - Any ideas ? (Irvine: hotels, horse)

[clueless1]

As a part of relocation, I am considering driving down from Chicago to OC. I am hoping to complete this trip in approx 4/5 days. Any recommendations on interesting things to see/do on the way ? Is the drive worth it ? I have always wanted to do a cross country road trip and would love to hear about some experiences, thoughts, concerns, ideas and recommendations.

[Humanoid]

I'm making a very similar trip soon (Pennsylvania to OC). So far our plan is to do the following:

PA->Chicago area->Iowa/Nebraska->Colorado->CA. We aren't completely sure how the drive though the mountains in Colorado and Utah is though. It should be rather nice, but will it take a long time? Not sure.

Anyhow, when we moved to PA we drove too. But we went the South route, that is CA->AZ->NM->TX->OK->MO etc. You drive though a lot of desert but its actually pretty nice. We did a bunch of small things on the trip, visited some caves some old towns etc. It seemed that there was something you could stop and see every few hours.

[Mel2882]

Last year I took a road trip from OC to New York, and Chicago was along the way. Some places we stopped were: Denver, Mt. Rushmore and the Crazy Horse (both in South Dakota)...and you could also do the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Aspen, CO is also a nice place to drive through.

[Humanoid]

Mel2882,

Is the drive through CO easy going? Seems to be a major highway that goes through it, but I'm worried about having to drive 30-40 miles per hour through the montains.

[movingtohouston]

When my family moved to Ca from Ohio we went through Chicago, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Arizona Nevada and finally made it to Ca. We made it there in Three days. We would have spent much more time sight seeing but had to be there right away to start work. Going through Co and Utah was absolutely beautiful. Tons of gorges, canyons, beautiful landscapes colors you wouldn't even know existed. If you stop in Las Vegas take time to go see the Valley of Fire and Red Rock Canyon areas. Utterly beautiful while being stark and barren at the same time. Driving is defiantly worth it.

[clueless1]

Thanks for all the comments so far. I have decided to take the so-called north route. I am looking forward to the trip. From what I can see, the drive would be quite boring until after Nebraska. So I am thinking of getting the first 12/14 hours out of the day real quick.. and then take more time driving through the scenic area. If I was planning to do this over a period of 4 days which includes 3 nights staying in the hotels .. what would you recommend ? the first night stay - somewhere around Nebraska.. and then Coloroado and then Utah Do you think that would be good planning ? By the end of 4th day I should be in Irvine.. I haven't done much mountain driving . I am planning to do it during day time and going slower.

[Humanoid]

From looking at maps I'm going to do something similar. Although there doesn't appear to be much in Utah along the highway, so we plan to instead stay at the Colorado/Utah border where there are a few towns. After that we plan to make it all the way to CA, we are staying with some family and they don't care if we show up at 2am. Although if we are sick of driving we plan to stay in Vegas.