The fair place to meet is Denver, CO — the city closest to the midpoint of Detroit and Sacramento. From the farther side that’s about 24 hr 12 min of driving.
Recommended midpoint
Denver, CO
From Detroit
24 hr 12 min
1,154 mi to Denver
From Sacramento
18 hr 35 min
887 mi to Denver
Sacramento has the shorter trip; the split is off by about 5 hr 37 min. The alternatives below can even it out. Detroit and Sacramento are about 2,021 miles apart.
Detroit and Sacramento are about 2,021 miles apart by road. Split the difference and you arrive near Denver, the city closest to the halfway point between them. That puts roughly 24 hr 12 min of driving on the Detroit side and 18 hr 35 min on the Sacramento side — the fairest single meeting point among the cities near the middle.
Over this distance most people will fly rather than drive the whole way. Denver still makes a fair, central place for Detroit and Sacramento to converge, splitting the travel instead of asking one side to cross the country.
If Denver doesn't have what you're after, Omaha and Kansas City are also close to the midpoint and worth a look — each keeps the drive reasonably balanced between Detroit and Sacramento.
Denver is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Officially a consolidated city and county, it is located in the South Platte River valley on the western edge of the High Plains, and is just east of the Front Range of the Rocky… Read more →
Detroit is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from the Canadian city of Windsor, Ontario. It is the 26th-most populous city in the United States and the largest U.S. Read more →
Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California. The county seat of Sacramento County, it is located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in the Sacramento Valley. Read more →
City descriptions adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA); photos via Wikimedia Commons, credited above.
Estimates use straight-line distance and typical road speeds; real drive times vary with route and traffic.