Over the road truckers are limited to 11 hours per day for good reason, your brain thinks falsely it can safely do more, but studies show otherwise.

I have found on my cross country trips that there are plenty of small towns scatters across the US to make finding a hotel within an hour easy (though I'm sure you can find exceptions). I have also found a lot of interesting "small town" parks and culture because I forced myself to stop and find something (anything!) to do after 11 hours on the road.