What counts as a cross country drive?

[GaryV]

Another question: Is Seattle, WA to Halifax, NS, crossing the border at Sault Ste.-Marie, cross-country or not? You didn't fully cross either country.

Well, is a Seattle-to-Boston flight a cross-country flight?  I think it would go over Ontario airspace.

It might even go over Alberta and/or Sask airspace, in addition to Ontario.

[US 89]

Another question: Is Seattle, WA to Halifax, NS, crossing the border at Sault Ste.-Marie, cross-country or not? You didn't fully cross either country.

Well, is a Seattle-to-Boston flight a cross-country flight?  I think it would go over Ontario airspace.

It might even go over Alberta and/or Sask airspace, in addition to Ontario.

Per Google's straight line tool, a straight line from Seattle to Boston does indeed go over Ontario but misses the 49th parallel by about 40 miles.

[CoreySamson]

Here's an interesting thought: how much E-W driving in a relatively N-S drive makes it cross-country? For example, I'll use Houston.

I regard a trip from Houston to Boston or Seattle to be cross-country. But is a trip from Houston to Minot cross-country? Or what about a trip from Houston to Detroit? Maybe. In the same way, is Miami-Boston cross-country?  Probably not. But is Miami-Chicago?

From this, I define a US cross-country drive is any drive that is at least 1500 miles long and crosses at least 25 degrees of latitude.

[hotdogPi]

From this, I define a US cross-country route is any route that is at least 1500 miles long and crosses at least 25 degrees of latitude.

The Northwest Angle in Minnesota is at 49.38°N.
Key West is at 24.54°N.
This is under 25° – barely. Nothing counts as cross-country unless it goes into Alaska.

(tl;dr you meant longitude)

[CoreySamson]

From this, I define a US cross-country route is any route that is at least 1500 miles long and crosses at least 25 degrees of latitude.

The Northwest Angle in Minnesota is at 49.38°N.
Key West is at 24.54°N.
This is under 25° – barely. Nothing counts as cross-country unless it goes into Alaska.

(TL;DR you meant longitude)

No I meant latitude. Regardless of how north or south a certain drive goes, as long as it is longer than 1500 miles and goes across 25 degrees of latitude E-W, then I think it counts as a cross-country drive.

[oscar]

One day I would like to have a trip that is truly coast to coast, hitting both the Atlantic (not Gulf of Mexico) and Pacific.  I've always lived just far enough inland that it hasn't worked out that way.

My summer 2017 mega-road trip touched both the Pacific (several times) and Atlantic coasts. But my only "beach experience" that summer on the Pacific coast involved a bear killing a deer on a gravel beach in southeastern Alaska. I was fortunate, on the return trip, to visit some friends on the Jersey Shore for some much better beach time. That trip also involved three breakdowns, each delaying my travels for one or more days. I hope you can do better.

My first major 2011 road trip, which started on the first day of my retirement, took a jog east for some beach time on the shores of the Atlantic. Alas, the turnaround point at the west end of that trip was in western Colorado.

My "Bad Roads of the Arctic" tour of 2012 came closest to a tri-coastal "cross-country" trip, with beach time on the Arctic coast, and beach time or other contact with the Pacific in British Columbia, but no contact with the Atlantic on my way out from or back to D.C.

[US 89]

From this, I define a US cross-country route is any route that is at least 1500 miles long and crosses at least 25 degrees of latitude.

The Northwest Angle in Minnesota is at 49.38°N.
Key West is at 24.54°N.
This is under 25° – barely. Nothing counts as cross-country unless it goes into Alaska.

(TL;DR you meant longitude)

No I meant latitude. Regardless of how north or south a certain drive goes, as long as it is longer than 1500 miles and goes across 25 degrees of latitude E-W, then I think it counts as a cross-country drive.

So you did mean longitude. Longitude is E/W, latitude is N/S

[CoreySamson]

Oh I'm a dummy. Forgive me for that.

[Bruce]

You must fully submerge your vehicle in the waters of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. No cheating with the Gulf of Mexico.

[kphoger]

For what it's worth, I'm not comfortable with any definition that considers Boise—Chattanooga to NOT be a cross-country trip.

[doorknob60]

PST to Atlantic coast state plus Pennslyvania and Vermont. Can't say EST as I wouldn't count South Bend to Vegas as cross country,

By that definition, Vale, OR to Key West, FL, over 3000 miles, and going between states that touch the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, would not count because Vale is in MST. Maps link

[dkblake]

My only cross country trip went NYC -> NOLA -> SF. I never had thought of the first leg of that trip as "cross country" even though I went north-south, but definitely thought the second part was. I've done some 1000 or so mile drives (upstate NY -> Nashville, Long Island --> Champaign, IL, Montreal --> UP) which I wouldn't have thought of as cross country. I think that from my current state of VT, I'd have to get west of I-25 for me to think of it as "cross-country".