I-44 from St. Louis to Oklahoma City

[bulldog402]

Has anyone taken this route? I will possibly heading that way for the winter going to Bernalillo NM from northern MI. My GPS shows this as the fastest route but I have never pulled my rig out west. Any help would be appriciated.

[helmick]

It was an easy pull for us in April of this year.

Part of it is a toll road.

[8.1al]

We travel this all the time and it is fine. When you go through St. Louis dont' bother with the bypass, just go right through the middle of town.

[Alwims]

The Troll roads in OK are expensive and are kind of rough in spots. Be sure and take the Creek turnpike around Tulsa and the Kilpatrick turnpike around OK City and have lots of change for the Troll booths on both. The main Troll roads have people manning them so paper money works good.

If you are taking I44 south out of OK City don't take the Kilpatrick turnpike. Just stay on 44. I do feel sorry for you if you are going 44 out of OK City. That stretch of road, IMHO, is the roughest road in the USA.

[Art-n-Marge]

I've only been on this road once in either direction but not towing. I was in my empty truck in one direction and moving my brother's stuff with a completely full truck bed in the other direction. THIS is the fastest road I have ever been on with the amount of traffic it carries. I've been on fast Interstates in Texas but there was nowhere near the amount of traffic.

In Oklahoma, it seemed the average speed is about 90mph for everybody even semi-tractor trailer rigs! The slowest things on the highway that I could pass were trailer rigs and a lot of them tried to keep up, but they probably lingered around 75 (I would never drive past 65 even now). These were about the only things I passed or some old beater car that wanted to chance it. There is no lane control so I found myself keeping up with semis all the time since the slower trailers prompted the trucks to stay in the faster lanes.

In Missouri it wasn't as bad and maybe that's why the road is in so much better shape. Even though it's toll road I'd do it again. At least I know what to expect.

And the Missouri rest stops are some of the best I've ever seen and had some of the nicest and friendliest attendants and guests on our cross country trip!!! We stopped at four different ones in Mo. and all of them were great. Every other state's rest stops, people pretty much stuck to themselves.