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Most US Counties Visited in 24 Hours

Started by Astada, August 15, 2022, 06:21:05 PM

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Astada

So I've seen posts here (https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=15635.0) before discussing the somewhat well-known achievement of the most states visited by road in 24h, and the planning of such trips.

However, this got me thinking about the natural evolution of such a challenge, when it seems like we're reaching the limits of the possible with the 20ish range of states. However, there are a lot more counties dispersed around the country, and the optimal pattern for visiting them in one rapid trip has surely not been devised yet.

So I'm wondering, has anyone ever thought about this before? Is there a documented record for most counties visited in one day (I couldn't find it), or has anyone here accomplished something that might be a challenger for such a record?


Rothman

Quote from: Astada on August 15, 2022, 06:21:05 PM
So I've seen posts here (https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=15635.0) before discussing the somewhat well-known achievement of the most states visited by road in 24h, and the planning of such trips.

However, this got me thinking about the natural evolution of such a challenge, when it seems like we're reaching the limits of the possible with the 20ish range of states. However, there are a lot more counties dispersed around the country, and the optimal pattern for visiting them in one rapid trip has surely not been devised yet.

So I'm wondering, has anyone ever thought about this before? Is there a documented record for most counties visited in one day (I couldn't find it), or has anyone here accomplished something that might be a challenger for such a record?
That's somewhere on here already and heavily biased against the larger counties in the West.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position(s) of NYSDOT.

webny99

From a quick count on mob-rule, I've passed through 39 counties in one day.

JayhawkCO

Looks like my highest in 24 hours is 68 driving from Lawrence, KS to Jacksonville, FL not the fastest way.

NWI_Irish96

#4
Went from Ft. Lauderdale to South Bend in one continuous trip via I-95, FL Turnpike, I-75, I-24, I-65 and US 31 and if I counted correctly that was 66 counties.

EDIT: So I looked a little bit more closely and it actually looks like 70 counties, not 66.
Indiana: counties 100%, highways 100%
Illinois: counties 100%, highways 61%
Michigan: counties 100%, highways 56%
Wisconsin: counties 86%, highways 23%

clong

Looks like 69 (Plymouth, MA to NE AL) is my best in 24 hours.
Also one with 47 (Birmingham, AL to Georgetown, KY with a couple of dips to get extra counties)
Another 2 trips with 30 (Birmingham, AL to Miami, FL and Birmingham, AL to Lakeland, FL).

formulanone

Probably 48, helped by a trip from Florida to Virginia.

SEWIGuy

Pretty sure it is 59 from Tallahassee to Jefferson County, WI via Apalachicola.

Scott5114

I feel like if you wanted to run up the score here very quickly, the way to do it would be to just zig-zag across Georgia.
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

webny99

Quote from: Scott5114 on August 16, 2022, 04:29:59 PM
I feel like if you wanted to run up the score here very quickly, the way to do it would be to just zig-zag across Georgia.

At least until you run out of interstates. Rural US/state/county highways can be slow going, so I think you'd rather stay on the interstate even if it means going to another state with slightly larger counties.

Scott5114

Quote from: webny99 on August 16, 2022, 04:56:17 PM
Quote from: Scott5114 on August 16, 2022, 04:29:59 PM
I feel like if you wanted to run up the score here very quickly, the way to do it would be to just zig-zag across Georgia.

At least until you run out of interstates. Rural US/state/county highways can be slow going, so I think you'd rather stay on the interstate even if it means going to another state with slightly larger counties.

Even so, Georgia counties are insanely tiny. There are 22 of them that are less than 200 mi² in area. (By comparison, the smallest county in Oklahoma is 371 mi².)
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

chrisdiaz

Just counted, and on a road trip from my old hometown of Long Island, NY (suffolk county) to my new hometown of North Myrtle Beach, SC, I passed through 46 county and county level equivalents. All of that was done in less than 12 hours.

NWI_Irish96

Quote from: Scott5114 on August 16, 2022, 06:19:28 PM
Quote from: webny99 on August 16, 2022, 04:56:17 PM
Quote from: Scott5114 on August 16, 2022, 04:29:59 PM
I feel like if you wanted to run up the score here very quickly, the way to do it would be to just zig-zag across Georgia.

At least until you run out of interstates. Rural US/state/county highways can be slow going, so I think you'd rather stay on the interstate even if it means going to another state with slightly larger counties.

Even so, Georgia counties are insanely tiny. There are 22 of them that are less than 200 mi² in area. (By comparison, the smallest county in Oklahoma is 371 mi².)

Yeah, Georgia is why my count I stated above was off. I-75 goes through the very corner of several counties in Georgia.
Indiana: counties 100%, highways 100%
Illinois: counties 100%, highways 61%
Michigan: counties 100%, highways 56%
Wisconsin: counties 86%, highways 23%

Max Rockatansky

Probably however many counties there are between downtown Chicago and Albuquerque via the main Interstate corridors.

formulanone

Quote from: Scott5114 on August 16, 2022, 06:19:28 PM
Quote from: webny99 on August 16, 2022, 04:56:17 PM
Quote from: Scott5114 on August 16, 2022, 04:29:59 PM
I feel like if you wanted to run up the score here very quickly, the way to do it would be to just zig-zag across Georgia.

At least until you run out of interstates. Rural US/state/county highways can be slow going, so I think you'd rather stay on the interstate even if it means going to another state with slightly larger counties.

Even so, Georgia counties are insanely tiny. There are 22 of them that are less than 200 mi² in area. (By comparison, the smallest county in Oklahoma is 371 mi².)

Georgia does allow somewhat easy picking. I've had 20-25 counties through Georgia in a 8-10 hour span...though there's still three between Augusta and Savannah that elude me.

Some of the independent cities of Virginia are also easy to claim, and Mob Rule files them as counties.

US 89

As far as I can tell, mine is 37, from the Atlanta airport to Russellville, AR via the GA/AL/TN tripoint. Takes advantage of the small counties of Georgia and Tennessee, and the tendency of I-75/24/40 to barely clip corners of a lot of those counties.

Dirt Roads

Mentioned beforehand, my trip home to Richmond from a railroad project in Shattuc, Illinois was a 28-hour whirlwind.  It was back in the NMSL days, so I decided to take a more southerly route using the Mountain Parkway and US-460 through Eastern Kentucky and Southwestern Virginia on the way home.  To allow for higher speeds, I took I-64 all the way back.  I was staying in Salem, Illinois so I didn't make the full trip back into Clinton County.  I was supposed to get to leave on a Thursday afternoon after the whistle blew at 3:30PM CDT; instead, we worked a bunch of overtime clean through to 7PM CDT on Saturdays.  I had been away from home for more than two weeks and needed to get back to pay my bills.

Some caveats before I get started.  I'm guessing that it took about 4 hours to get to Louisville that night, given that I would have stopped for quick dinner along the way.  It makes sense to count the 24-hours on the front end of the trip to pick up the additional county (Clinton, Illinois).  No matter how I slice it, the Mountain Parkway cuts off of I-64 in Clark County, Kentucky and that county plus all of those west of there don't count on the way back.  Fortunately, it is standard here at AARoads to include independent cities in the list of counties (which lets me pick up Salem, Roanoke, Lynchburg, Richmond, Waynesville and Covington).  Some of those don't seem fair, so feel free to throw darts (I won't be offended).

Illinois (5 counties)
Indiana (10 counties)
Kentucky eastbound (14 counties)
Virginia eastbound (2 counties)
West Virginia eastbound (1 county)
Virginia eastbound (14 counties and independent cities)
four-hour sleepover (enough time to do a load of laundry!)
Virginia westbound (12 counties and independent cities, excluding Richmond city again)
West Virginia westbound (8 counties)
Kentucky westbound (5 more counties, ending before the Mountain Parkway)

Grand total of 71 counties and independent cities (my spreadsheet says 72, so I might be missing one in the counts).  Subtracting one from my spreadsheet, I went through a total of 93 counties and independent cities on the entire 28-hour trip (including duplicates), and crossed over 104 county borders along the way (including all of the ins-and-outs). 

By the way, you can't make that same trip anymore.  I took Chesterfield SR-754 (Old Hundred Road/Coalfield Road) to cross over between US-360 at Brandermill -to- US-60 in downtown Midlothian, but that road has since been bisected by the VA-288 freeway and no longer goes all the way through.  Oh yeah, I had been gone so long that the Postal Service retrieved all of my mail and marked it "Return to Sender" (big ouch).  I had to grab all of my previous bills and work out the details while on the next leg of my travels.  All I got to show for my efforts was a clean load of laundry and an extra half-day of rest in order to meet the Hours of Service laws.

austrini

#17
I contracted for Fedex for a few years in planning and had access to any extra seats they or their contractors (who would allow it) on flights. They had a tool called jumpseat finder. You couldn't plan a big vacation on it, but you could plan to go around North America. So I'd plan my days off for planes going to far off places like Boise or Saskatoon and then rent a car and drive around a bunch. This allowed me to go to a lot of really odd places like Nome, hop off the plane during loading and walk around the airport and get back on. I went to Minneapolis that way and drove around for a weekend in a rented car and ended up getting 66 in one day, and then 12 the second day.
AICP (2012), GISP (2020) | Formerly TX, now UK



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