Avoiding Chicago

To get from Cleveland to Rapid City, South Dakota, the most direct route is I-90 West. But it goes right through the center of Chicago. It's approximately 1,050 miles and the drive time estimate is roughly 17 hours. But did I mention it goes right through the middle of Chicago? We didn't want to go through the middle of Chicago.  Heavy traffic, dozens of lanes, lots of merging traffic, towing a camper. No. We would probably be stuck in traffic for hours or worse yet, be involved in an accident caused by someone who didn't think we were driving fast enough. Look at this picture. Who wants to be stuck in that??

We decided on a route that took us back south toward Dayton and across to Indianapolis, across Illinois into Iowa and up to Minnesota and across to South Dakota. Approximately 1,390 miles with an estimated drive time of 21 hours.

That's an extra 4 hours. More if you consider that we stop every couple of hours to stretch, refuel, or eat. All in all, I think avoiding Chicago probably cost us an extra day of travel time. I'm really not sure it was worth it. I think the extra time to get through Chicago traffic might have been an hour, or even two. I just can't imagine it would have been 6 or more, which is pretty much what it took us when you consider stopping time.

All I can say is that if there is ever a "next time" - we will be sucking it up and driving through Chicago.