Most pathetic state clinches

[webny99]

I think that everyone's clinch of Delaware is pathetic.

Maybe if all you've done is pass through on I-95. But I have driven the entire length of the state and passed through all three counties. I wouldn't call that pathetic at all. I have a few clinches that are more pathetic:

-Colorado: Airport-only (DEN)
-Rhode Island: passed through on I-95, no stops
-New Hampshire: entered, took a picture of the welcome sign, and turned around. Beat that! 

[Roadgeekteen]

I think that everyone's clinch of Delaware is pathetic.

Maybe if all you've done is pass through on I-95. But I have driven the entire length of the state and passed through all three counties. I wouldn't call that pathetic at all. I have a few clinches that are more pathetic:

-Colorado: Airport-only (DEN)
-Rhode Island: passed through on I-95, no stops
-New Hampshire: entered, took a picture of the welcome sign, and turned around. Beat that! 

I should have said most people. Also, you drove through the majority of Rhode Island (I have been to Newport so my clinch isn't pathetic).

[Rothman]

Come to think of it, my wife's first visit to Maine consisted of taking a photo at the border beyond the east end of the Kanc.  She mutters about it to this day, despite having had real visits since.

[SkyPesos]

If we're including airport layovers, it's Colorado and Texas for me, at DEN and DFW airports respectively.

[webny99]

Come to think of it, my wife's first visit to Maine consisted of taking a photo at the border beyond the east end of the Kanc.  She mutters about it to this day, despite having had real visits since.

Sounds a lot like my clinch of NH... whatever the Kanc is. 

[webny99]

-Rhode Island: passed through on I-95, no stops
...

I should have said most people. Also, you drove through the majority of Rhode Island (I have been to Newport so my clinch isn't pathetic).

I'm still calling it pathetic because there were no stops. At least with Delaware I had a few stops and drove on some non-interstates.

[Flint1979]

For me it's Kansas. I went to Downstream Casino one time which is in Oklahoma, but you enter the casino parking lot in Missouri and part of the parking lot is in Kansas so that was my only clinch of Kansas ever to this point.

Was that a tripoint?

It's close to one. To get to the tripoint you'd make a left on a dead end road coming into the casino and the tripoint is near the cul-de-sac at the end of the dead end.

[Flint1979]

I think my clinch of Rhode Island isn't all that great. I have for the longest time only had one county to go in that state (Newport County) and have never been back to clinch it since I have only been through Rhode Island once and that was in 2004.

[Rothman]

Come to think of it, my wife's first visit to Maine consisted of taking a photo at the border beyond the east end of the Kanc.  She mutters about it to this day, despite having had real visits since.

Sounds a lot like my clinch of NH... whatever the Kanc is. 

Kancamagus Highway.  Border's at Fryeburg, ME.

[dkblake]

My worst are driving I-10 through New Mexico without stopping and driving I-20 and US 78 (before it was I-22) through Alabama with stopping only once for gas. I've tried to keep a "do something in the state other than look at the backside of a welcome sign"  mentality for clinches.

[webny99]

Come to think of it, my wife's first visit to Maine consisted of taking a photo at the border beyond the east end of the Kanc.  She mutters about it to this day, despite having had real visits since.

Sounds a lot like my clinch of NH... whatever the Kanc is. 

Kancamagus Highway.  Border's at Fryeburg, ME.

Interestingly, Google seems to think it ends in Conway, NH. But close enough, I suppose.

[Rothman]

Come to think of it, my wife's first visit to Maine consisted of taking a photo at the border beyond the east end of the Kanc.  She mutters about it to this day, despite having had real visits since.

Sounds a lot like my clinch of NH... whatever the Kanc is. 

Kancamagus Highway.  Border's at Fryeburg, ME.

Interestingly, Google seems to think it ends in Conway, NH. But close enough, I suppose.

...which is why I used "beyond" in my original response...

[webny99]

Come to think of it, my wife's first visit to Maine consisted of taking a photo at the border beyond the east end of the Kanc.  She mutters about it to this day, despite having had real visits since.

Sounds a lot like my clinch of NH... whatever the Kanc is. 

Kancamagus Highway.  Border's at Fryeburg, ME.

Interestingly, Google seems to think it ends in Conway, NH. But close enough, I suppose.

...which is why I used "beyond" in my original response...

My bad, I took beyond to mean "into Maine".

[StogieGuy7]

In my case, I've had pathetic state clinches in the distant past but pretty much all have been replaced with real ones.  However, one that still hangs out there for me is British Columbia. I "clinched" BC via the Yellowhead Highway from Jasper National Park and went as far in as Mount Robson before turning back to return to Alberta.  It's maybe 20 miles in which included some spectacular scenery but not much of BC really.

Federal pathetic clinch: Panama.  Have changed planes at Panama City a dozen times but never had the chance to visit beyond the airport.  Closest I got was within a few feet of immigration. But, I maintain it counts (despite my wife's protestations).  The example I give is that, if I punched someone in the nose I would be subject to Panamanian law to be arrested by Panamanian police and charged under Panamanian law.  Because I'm in Panama. 

For those of you who watch "Locked Up Abroad" on NatGeo, think back to the episodes where some smuggler is nabbed in a different country than the O and D points, while merely connecting between flights. Yes, it counts.

[JayhawkCO]

I had some in the past:
Utah at Four Corners
My first visit to Georgia was just driving up from Jacksonville and turning around at the first exit (after getting gas)
My first visits to New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Michigan, and Illinois were all airport layovers

My current:
Rhode Island was just I-95 with no stopping
In Maine, we went up to Wells, had a Shipyard beer and a lobster roll and then headed back down to Boston

International visit of note:
Azerbaijan I have flown through Baku twice and additionally barely stepped foot across the border at the monasteries of Davit Gareja

Chris

[doorknob60]

Contenders for me:
Arizona: Passed through on I-15, no stops, 29 miles. Scenery is notable though.
Delaware: I know some people hit only I-95, I beat that at least. I-295, US-13, DE-1, US-301. 28 miles.
Rhode Island: Just I-95, no stops. 43 miles.

But I think I will beat this coming up. I'm visiting Carowinds next month, which straddles the NC/SC border. My current plans don't involve anything else in SC, so the extent of my travels into SC may fit into this small picture:

[CoreySamson]

My most pathetic one is probably Nevada, as I had a layover for about 2 hours at LAS.

[SEWIGuy]

So the only states I haven't been to are AK, HI, UT and NM.

The states that I have clinched but haven't spent a night:  ID, WY, NE, OK, KS, AR, MS, VT, NH, RI, DE  (all of these were drive throughs)

I believe out of these, the one that is the most pathetic is VT.  I drove through it once on VT-9 and I-91 and don't think I even stopped and got out of the car.  NH is a close second because I drove through it twice - to get to Maine along I-95.  I believe the rest included the purchase of a meal, gas, etc.

The only Canadian province I have been to is Ontario.

[kphoger]

Geogia – Never set foot outside the Atlanta airport.  But ran most of the way across it!  (the airport, not Georgia)

Tamaulipas – I've been in the northwestern bit of it probably a dozen times (actually 13 if I'm counting correctly), but never for more than about an hour at a time.  The only times I've actually set foot in Tamaulipas were (1) during a childhood vacation when we went across the border from Laredo for about an hour, (2) pulling over on the side of the highway and changing a diaper in 2009, and (3) to get lunch at this Church's Chicken (used to also be a Subway) in 2010.  Technically, I've also stopped in Tamaulipas one other time, but that was being stopped by a police officer for speeding and subsequently bribing him out of it, and I never actually left the car.

[akotchi]

I can claim two pathetic clinches in the Four Corners area - New Mexico and Colorado.

My only forays into Texas were two airports in Dallas/Ft. Worth for connecting flights.  Had time for lunch in DFW, though.

[HTM Duke]

I consider Nebraska to be my sole pathetic clinch, at about 13 miles driven.  From I-29 in Iowa, I exited off onto US-77 south, then continued on US-22 BUS through South Sioux City and kept going when the BUS designation ended to Dakota City.  To return back to Iowa, I then turned west to reach NE-35, then a couple more turns onto NE-110 and US-20 to reach I-129.

[mgk920]

Howabout someone clinching Wisconsin by traveling through it on MN 23?

Anyways, my most pathetic state clinches are Maine (visited the I-95 welcome center from New Hampshire and then headed back southwest at the next interchange) and Texas (changed planes in both directions on a round trip through DFW, never leaving the secured side of the airport).   Both were about 20 years ago.

Mike

[Max Rockatansky]

CA 225 in Santa Barbra; it is only consists of about 0.09 miles off of US Route 101 on Castillo Street through a rail underpass. 

[jp the roadgeek]

As part of our honeymoon, my wife and I spent a night in Savannah.  We crossed the US 17 bridge into South Carolina, immediately turned around, are crossed back into Savannah.  Could not have been in the state longer than 2-3 minutes.

Since this old thread got bumped, I thought I'd mention that I've since been back to SC for a few days. Now, my most pathetic state clinch would be Delaware, driving back and forth once between DC and NYC. Did stop for gas/food both directions but still wasn't in the state more more than an hour.

I think that everyone's clinch of Delaware is pathetic.

Mine's pretty solid.  Drove all the way down DE 1 to Rehoboth Beach, plus I've done a lot of shopping up near Christiana, no sales tax and all (including restaurants).

[EpicRoadways]

I've got quite a few 
I think I've talked about this on here before, but the only two times I've ever set foot in North Dakota were both when I had a track meet in Moorhead and just decided to run across the Red River during my warm up for shits and giggles.

Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland are all states that I've driven through and gotten out of the car in but never really "entered" in the sense that I did something meaningful there. I count Pennsylvania because I have actually spent one night there, but the others I feel don't really count.

Georgia I've entered many times on I-24 but that's pretty brief. I definitely wouldn't count that as a clinch.

When I was younger my family had a layover in either Denver or SLC on a family trip out to California. My parents don't remember which. Obviously because neither of these can be verified I don't count either of these as clinches and even if they were they wouldn't meet my criteria for doing something meaningful there.