From Kansas City to San Francisco: An Interactive Road Trip Puzzle

Hello, fellow travelers! I need your help!  From October 7th, 2022 to October 16th, 2022, I went on a trip across the United States of America. I began in Los Angeles and I remember flying to Kansas City. But when I woke up in my friend's apartment in San Francisco, California, on October 16th, I was so exhausted from the journey that I couldn't remember how I got there. It turns out we went on a road trip and took plenty of pictures. However, there's a catch: when I moved the photos to a new folder, they were scrambled and ended up completely out of order! Hoping to get some help from the internet, I posted them all on an Instagram account that I made especially for the trip.  https://www.instagram.com/fromkctosf/ Can you help me retrace my steps and re-organize the photos by location?  Post your answers in the comments below if you can!  Best wishes and regards, The Traveler 

Aha! Looks like someone already pieced it all together. But if you still wanted to solve the puzzle yourself, here's a handy guide of clues: 1. Check each Instagram post itself. There's often an extra set of clues that might help to solve the puzzle. 2. Seven states in total were visited.  3. Three major cities make up the foundation of the trip: Los Angeles, Kansas City, and San Francisco. There is 1 post from LA, 7 posts from Kansas City, and another 9 posts from San Francisco. Everything in between comes from the road trip itself.  4. Look closely at the road signs. Almost every stop on the trip takes place on the same road. Almost.  5. Large gaps between towns on the highway. Does that help to narrow it down?

Phew. Thanks to a few intrepid Internet sleuths, I've been able to retrace my steps over the last week. Glad to know what a week I had! Think you've solved the puzzle yourself? Alrighty then: here's the reconstructed answer key, shown in descending order of Instagram post (most recent post is "Post #1" and so on). The answers describe the location of the image and the state itself, along with any other pertinent info.  My thanks to all the travelers for putting together the pieces of my journey -- and for everyone who joined in on the hunt. Happy travels! ANSWERS BELOW SPOILERS AHEAD ONE LAST CHANCE Key: Post #1: Outside Tarantino's Restaurant, Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco, California Post #2: Road Sign, Grand Island, Nebraska Post #3: Starlite Motel, Seneca, Kansas Post #4: Tree of Utah, Road landmark near Utah Salt Flats Post #5: Round Table Pizza, San Francisco, California Post #6: Skyline of Kansas City, Missouri Post #7: National World War I Memor...