The ultimate road trip???

[texaskdog]

This looks like it would be fun to do but if I were going to Minnesota it would be the mall of America, not Fort Snelling.  If I have some time to waste I might write up my own list.




Map points the way for the ultimate U.S. road trip



13,699-mile journey stops at 50 landmarks – but you'll need some serious time off to complete it.






By: Laura Moss   

Wed, Mar 11, 2015 at 01:15 PM

      8kFacebook   37Twitter   153Pinterest   11Google+ 
6





Photo: Randy Olson/Google Maps




Planning the ultimate U.S. road trip requires more than an atlas – it takes an algorithm.



When a producer at Discovery News challenged Michigan State University doctoral student Randy Olson to plot the optimum route across the continental U.S., Olson got to work charting a course within these parameters:

-There would be one stop in all 48 contiguous U.S. states, as well as Washington D.C. and two stops in California for an even 50 stops.


-Each stop would be at a national natural landmark, national historic site, national park or national monument.


-The vehicle would never leave U.S. soil.


Olson's first step was to take the list of 50 landmarks he was provided and find the shortest distance by road between each one.



Once he had this information, he approached the task as a traveling salesman would. In other words, he had to put the landmarks in such an order that the driver would backtrack as little as possible, which is especially difficult when making stops in Florida and the Northeast.



To do this, Olson used information from Google Maps API and wrote a bit of code to determine the distance and time it would take to drive to all 50 landmarks.



It would take millions of years for a computer to look at every possible solution, so he employed a genetic algorithm – the same one he used to devise the best way to find Waldo – to find a "near-perfect solution."



road trip in convertibleIf you were to follow this 13,699-mile route and had the road entirely to yourself, it would take 9.33 days of nonstop driving, according to Olson's calculations.



However, in reality you'd have to commit two to three months to complete the ultimate road trip.



Considering embarking on such an epic trip? Olson's course is designed so you can start anywhere on the route, and many of the destinations are also near other tourist sites.



"You'll hit every major area in the U.S. on this trip, and as an added bonus, you won't spend too long driving through the endless cornfields of Nebraska," he wrote on his blog.



If you're looking to optimize your time in urban settings, Olson also created a second U.S. road trip map that makes stops at the top-ranked TripAdvisor cities.



The second trip is 12,290 miles long and follows a similar path; however, it bypasses North Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia because none of these states are represented in TripAdvisor's top 400 cities.



"This is especially interesting because TripAdvisor reviewers recommend cities like Flint, Michigan – the seventh most crime-ridden city in the U.S. – over any city in North Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia. I'll leave the interpretation of that fact to the reader," Olson wrote.



Olson also created an ideal European road trip, and he's released the code he used to create it, meaning you can optimize your own custom route.



Below is a list of the destinations you'll see if you follow his ultimate road trip route:

1.Grand Canyon, Arizona


2.Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah


3.Craters of the Moon, Idaho


4.Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming


5.Pikes Peak, Colorado


6.Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico


7.The Alamo, Texas


8.The Platt Historic District, Oklahoma


9.Toltec Mounds, Arkansas


10.Elvis Presley's Graceland, Tennessee


11.Vicksburg National Military Park, Mississippi


12.French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana


13.USS Alabama, Alabama


14.Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida


15.Okefenokee Swamp Park, Georgia


16.Fort Sumter National Monument, South Carolina


17.Lost World Caverns, West Virginia


18.Wright Brothers National Memorial Visitor Center, North Carolina


19.Mount Vernon, Virginia


20.White House, Washington, D.C.


21.Colonial Annapolis Historic District, Maryland


22.New Castle Historic District, Delaware


23.Cape May Historic District, New Jersey


24.Liberty Bell, Pennsylvania


25.Statue of Liberty, New York


26.The Mark Twain House & Museum, Connecticut


27.The Breakers, Rhode Island


28.USS Constitution, Massachusetts


29.Acadia National Park, Maine


30.Mount Washington Hotel, New Hampshire


31.Shelburne Farms, Vermont


32.Fox Theater, Detroit, Michigan


33.Spring Grove Cemetery, Ohio


34.Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky


35.West Baden Springs Hotel, Indiana


36.Abraham Lincoln's Home, Illinois


37.Gateway Arch, Missouri


38.C. W. Parker Carousel Museum, Kansas


39.Terrace Hill Governor's Mansion, Iowa


40.Taliesin, Wisconsin


41.Fort Snelling, Minnesota


42.Ashfall Fossil Bed, Nebraska


43.Mount Rushmore, South Dakota


44.Fort Union Trading Post, North Dakota


45.Glacier National Park, Montana


46.Hanford Site, Washington state


47.Columbia River Highway, Oregon


48.San Francisco Cable Cars, California


49.San Andreas Fault, California


50.Hoover Dam, Nevada



Read more: http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/eco-tourism/stories/map-points-the-way-for-the-ultimate-us-road-trip#ixzz3U7Lc819e

[kkt]

Two things on California's list and neither of them makes my Top 5.  For that matter, neither does Hanford in Washington.

[Laura]

I've been to 9/50 (Cape Canaveral, FL; Mount Vernon, VA; Annapolis, MD; New Castle, DE; Cape May, NJ; Liberty Bell, PA; Mammoth Cave, KY; Abe Lincoln's home, IL; Mount Rushmore, SD).

I really should get around to visiting the inside of the White House one of these days!


iPhone

[oscar]

In the 50 destinations listed above, I'm missing 3, 8-9, 11-13, 15-18, 21-28 (23 is a maybe), 30-36, 38-42, 44, and 46 (the Hanford site's not exactly a must-see tourist destination). I've crossed over the San Andreas Fault many times, but never stopped to take a closer look.  Some of the others, I came within spitting distance, but never stopped to visit the specific parks or other sites on the list (for example, I've driven through the Okefenokee Swamp, but never stopped at its state park).  So I'm about 20/50 at best.

Some of the places seem incredibly obscure, maybe with a tilt to sites near a state line to cut down on the driving distance.

[J N Winkler]

I have been to 17 out of 50, but in general I am not impressed with this list.  No. 8 (Platt Historic District) is actually a demoted national park (created 1906, abolished 1976) that is currently incorporated into the Chickasaw National Recreation Area in southern Oklahoma.

I actually live in Kansas and had never heard of the C. W. Parker Carousel Museum.  Wikipedia tells me it is in Leavenworth, which I have visited, but the real draw there is a museum on the Army post where (if memory serves) you can see Abraham Lincoln's carriage and Custer's horse (stuffed).

[texaskdog]

I have been to 17 out of 50, but in general I am not impressed with this list.  No. 8 (Platt Historic District) is actually a demoted national park (created 1906, abolished 1976) that is currently incorporated into the Chickasaw National Recreation Area in southern Oklahoma.

Well it is Oklahoma.  Where you gonna go, Norman?

[J N Winkler]

Well it is Oklahoma.  Where you gonna go, Norman?

There is actually a fair amount to see aside from the Route 66 stuff, which is on the way if you are "doing" Route 66.  OKC has the Cowboy Hall of Fame and the OKC bombing memorial and museum, while Tulsa has a couple of good art museums; AAA rates all four as top-tier (used to be called "starred," was later renamed "GEM" for "Great Experience for Members" when the national AAA moved to Florida and went to pot, and may be called something else now).  There are other places in the state (such as the Woolaroc ranch and museum near Bartlesville) which are similarly ranked.

None of these is a pan-continental tourist draw of the same order as, say, Yellowstone National Park, but there is plenty to make a drive down from one of the neighboring states worthwhile.

I think the author of this "tour" chose this little part of the Chickasaw NRA because it was the place in Oklahoma with federal landmark status that added the least mileage to a 48-states circuit.

[texaskdog]

I think I'll make my list of 100 regardless of state, it would be a fun project.  I would have to have Disneyland & Disneyworld but don't want to leave out SF or the Keys.  I would be hard pressed to think of a decent Nebraska or Iowa for example.  I believe I would start with my favorite National Parks and bridges. 

[texaskdog]

Well it is Oklahoma.  Where you gonna go, Norman?

There is actually a fair amount to see aside from the Route 66 stuff, which is on the way if you are "doing" Route 66.  OKC has the Cowboy Hall of Fame and the OKC bombing memorial and museum, while Tulsa has a couple of good art museums; AAA rates all four as top-tier (used to be called "starred," was later renamed "GEM" for "Great Experience for Members" when the national AAA moved to Florida and went to pot, and may be called something else now).  There are other places in the state (such as the Woolaroc ranch and museum near Bartlesville) which are similarly ranked.

None of these is a pan-continental tourist draw of the same order as, say, Yellowstone National Park, but there is plenty to make a drive down from one of the neighboring states worthwhile.

I think the author of this "tour" chose this little part of the Chickasaw NRA because it was the place in Oklahoma with federal landmark status that added the least mileage to a 48-states circuit.

JR's barbeque is not far away.  But then you'd have to go to Norman.