I drove the A1 from Split to Dubrovnik last week.

We were initially reluctant to leave the coast road, because it was going to be dark soon and I honestly thought this road through the mountains might turn out to be a proverbial donkey path.

Oh man was I wrong…

The A1 is the single most fantastic road I’ve ever driven on. It cuts right out through a broad mountain valley in the heart of the Dinaric Alps.

Pretty shocked to discover how much it felt like driving through the American West: a big broad, open road through stunning, arid mountain scenery. Except there wasn’t a chuck hole in sight. You can really haul ass on it. And seriously, we might have seen 30 other cars from where we got on the tollway outside Split all the way down to Metković on the Bosnian border.

I hate driving, but the A1 was an experience in its own right and actually enjoyable. I wish we had these roads in America. So much for rugged mountain tracks in a “war-torn country.” (Even when we briefly crossed into Bosnia, I was surprised how good their roads were.)

To be fair, the A1 is less than 10 years old. It will age, too. But right now, it’s amazing.

As for Croatia’s other roads, I didn’t see a whole lot that fazed me. Most of the roads were in great shape.

But don’t get me wrong: Croatia is a country with a ton of narrow one-way lanes that magically become two-way lanes, where it ought to be a topic for investigation under the category of “potential miracle” that anybody can drive without head-on collisions. Not to mention scraping the side of your rental car: I have a $450 charge on my credit card this morning because of the stupid decision to drive down a narrow alleyway out on one of the islands.

There’s also some pretty scary drop-offs on the smaller roads in rural Croatia — so it’s obvious why the A1 was built. A lot of those older roads have no guard rails, so if you veer too far to the right, you’re super-screwed and can easily end up hanging six feet off the road or launched in some farmer’s field… upside down.

It was also interesting to see how Croatians in cities just park on the sidewalk. Then again, that keeps them from decimating their cities with ugly parking lots. Parking space is at a premium in this mountainous country.

But as far as the main roads go — especially the A1 toll road — I’ve never seen better roads anywhere.

Overall, I didn’t understand what Europeans were talking about when they say “the United States has bad roads.”

Once I drove the A1, now I know that most of our American interstate highways and chuckhole-filled city streets are mule paths in comparison.

Croatia has problems of its own. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not putting it on a pedestal. But as far as highways go, #Make America Croatia Again.

Giddap, mule.