Making a 48-state drive

[Slammr (imported)]

Brings back visions of Dinah Shore.

River

I guess that jingle is that old: See the USA in your Chevrolet.

[kristoff]

I guess that jingle is that old: See the USA in your Chevrolet.

That's the one I remember

[Losethem (imported)]

Has anyone plotted a route yet?

[artisticlicense (imported)]

It wasn't easy getting the miles down to 6,782. I had to really finesse the route to get it.

I'm going to try another starting point and see if it makes a significant difference. Florida, Texas, and California make it difficult, though California allows you to keep a large part of the west out of your driving since it is so far to go north to south across it.

--LT

I wish we had the mapping sites like Google, Bing, and Yahoo back when I drove a truck, and had to earn by mileage used or saved.

I use Bing.com maps every day. They have a drop and drag feature, and an 'add to route' feature. I have to plan the shortest routes, based on traffic, to get anything done.

Try a map with all the state capitals as an example. Just add the city and state to the trip list, then refine the routes with the map drag feature.

[fhunter]

I wish we had the mapping sites like Google, Bing, and Yahoo back when I drove a truck, and had to earn by mileage used or saved.

I use Bing.com maps every day. They have a drop and drag feature, and an 'add to route' feature. I have to plan the shortest routes, based on traffic, to get anything done.

Try a map with all the state capitals as an example. Just add the city and state to the trip list, then refine the routes with the map drag feature.

I tried to do this, but google did not allow me to add more than 25 capitals

Haven't tried with with Bing.

[Dave (imported)]

Here's one group that did it in 96 hours...

http://48in96.blogspot.com

Three Men Break Their Own Guinness World Record

for Driving Through the 48 States in 97 Hours and 7 Minutes!

On June 19, 2010, we drove across the Vermont state line, our 48th state, with a time of 97 hours and 7 minutes. The previous Guinness World Record for driving through the 48 states in the fastest time was 104 hours and 57 minutes, which we set in 1999. Jay Lowe (Colleyville TX) and Ted Jacobs (Mt. Pleasant TN) were the drivers. Andrew Shull (McKinney TX) was the navigator.

HEre's another group that did it in 120 or so hours, a few years before.

They have a map showing their route.

They did the "Four Corners" thing last and called it a success.

http://wot.motortrend.com/5-days-48-sta ... z2Hz66R3Qn

Sometimes nothing beats an epic road trip — settling in for a long, multi-state journey, visiting places and sights you’d normally fly over without a second thought. Whether visiting new parts of the country, taking the kids to Wally World, or even just to see what’s out there, hitting the open road with a couple friends can be a great way to spend time.

But what’s the most ground you’ve covered — five states? Ten? And how quickly have you covered it? Ever managed an 800 mile day, or 1000? How about doing approximately 1500 miles a day for five days straight, around the clock with stops only made for gas? It may sound impossible, but that’s exactly what Josh Keeler, Adam Gatherum, and Joey Stocking are doing in an attempt to pass through all 48 states of the continental U.S. in under just 120 hours.

Following a route originally planned 15 years ago by Keeler’s father and a friend, the trio started out in Vermont, zigzagged down the east cost to Florida, over to Louisiana and Texas before winding back up through the Midwest, and are now heading across Montana to the Pacific Northwest before turning south again toward their finish line at the famed Four Corners. The route is pretty much continuous, with diversions to hit a few states such as Michigan, Minnesota, Texas, and California, among others. To save time the guys have packed their own grub (even fast food takes too long) and eat while on the road, stopping for bathroom breaks only when they need gas.

So if you’re on a mission to beat the best known time for a 48-state trek of 127 hours and 15 minutes,

Read more: http://wot.motortrend.com/5-days-48-sta ... z2Hz74vPoh

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[Riverwind (imported)]

I like how they end up at the 4 corners all 4 and stop. However setting foot in the state is one thing, how about visiting every state capitol?

Note, I have never been to the deep south, LA, MS, AL, GA, SC and FL, I have been to all the others at one time or the other.

River

[Dave (imported)]

There's a bunch of articles out there under "driving through all 48 states" or some closely related search terms.

If the goal is to simply set foot in each state then stopping or starting on Four Corners makes sense.

The same is true for "Beat the Clock" ideas of driving through a part of each state in the fastest legal path. Texas and Oklahoma are too big and too long to drive through other than to touch. The same as making the beginning the end point a mile into Maine. To go any farther is to backtrack or waste time. Florida is another big problem. Most of the solutions I have seen maps only touch Florida -- Jacksonville in particular serves the bill. If you made a side trip to Miami or worse Key West, then you have gone way out of your way and back tracked in an ugly manner.

I see a strategy in those statements... Don't you?

ON THE OTHER HAND, If the goal is to visit each state capital, then that is a different problem. IT's not trivial to solve and requires a high level of mathematics and computing power.

Apparently, GOOGLE MAPS and other such programs have discovered that the solution to the "shortest path" problems over 25 steps requires significant computing power. I know what "we hippies" did to Ma Bell when I was in college and I can just see the servers at Google Maps crash with the efforts.... Hence, they make you pay for premium services that only might, maybe, possibly will give you the answer you want.

You have to be careful with the maps and mapping programs. IF they measure "line of flight" or "crow flies" between two cities then they won't give you the answer you seek. Your car drives on roads and the interstates go around cities and not through them.

[Losethem (imported)]

I like how they end up at the 4 corners all 4 and stop. However setting foot in the state is one thing, how about visiting every state capitol?

Note, I have never been to the deep south, LA, MS, AL, GA, SC and FL, I have been to all the others at one time or the other.

River

I can say with confidence that your life will be complete if you die and never set foot in Alabama, South Carolina, or Mississippi.

--LT

[Losethem (imported)]

Here's one group that did it in 96 hours...

http://48in96.blogspot.com

Three Men Break Their Own Guinness World Record

for Driving Through the 48 States in 97 Hours and 7 Minutes!

HEre's another group that did it in 120 or so hours, a few years before.

They have a map showing their route.

They did the "Four Corners" thing last and called it a success.

http://wot.motortrend.com/5-days-48-sta ... z2Hz66R3Qn

I saw the first site and it's the one I quoted with miles down to 6700. The second site you reference I had not yet seen, but they have an interesting map that takes about 1000 miles more than the shortest one I've done, and my map gets me much closer to being back at the starting line. I will say that their map had some elements (or close to it) as my map had with how they got into some states. Theirs also uses the interstate system much more than I did.

In one my maps I started in California (barely) just south of Las Vegas, then drove north similar to the map on the website you gave, but once I headed east I didn't zig-zag like that map. I ended by zig-zagging in the panhandle of Oklahoma after barely crossing into Colorado, and then nicking the extreme northwestern corner of the Texas panhandle as I crossed into New Mexico.

It's been an interesting exercise. Best map I have so far for distance is about 6775 miles or so.

--LT