113 Hours, 48 States

[corco]

http://goo.gl/maps/Ut4sx is five hours faster and 100 miles shorter anyway

[Laura]

http://goo.gl/maps/Ut4sx is five hours faster and 100 miles shorter anyway

Corco, I like your route better, if for no reason other than the fact that you get to drive through at least one state in the southwest for longer than thirty seconds.

[oscar]

http://goo.gl/maps/Ut4sx is five hours faster and 100 miles shorter anyway

Corco, I like your route better, if for no reason other than the fact that you get to drive through at least one state in the southwest for longer than thirty seconds.

On the other hand, that trip and the other hypothetical trips discussed here would require a cross-country trip from Montana to bring the car back to its starting point in Maine, which would add a lot of time to the journey, or leaving the car behind in Montana (if it's a rental, possibly with a prohibitive drop-off fee).  The actual trip taken by Barry Stiefel was done as a round-trip from well inside California (he had the disadvantage of living and working several hours inside the state line), which added some time to his journey (a day or so) within California and Arizona over the bare minimum time to reach all the lower-48 states, but not nearly as much extra time as a trip back to Maine from western Montana.

The round-trip aspect of Stiefel's trip is also why his itinerary was fundamentally different from (and in some sense less efficient than) the hypothetical routings, since he snagged the northern states on the outbound leg and the southern states on the return.

BTW, Stiefel's "21 states in one day" exploit was done as an essentially one-way rental, with only a backtrack from Memphis to Nashville to return the car.  But he timed his trip to not only get an hour bump from the changeover from daylight to standard time (along with the change from Eastern to Central time, giving him a 26-hour calendar day to work with), but also the rental company was looking to shift some of its fleet from New England south for the winter and so did not charge a one-way dropoff fee.

[Laura]

http://goo.gl/maps/Ut4sx is five hours faster and 100 miles shorter anyway

Corco, I like your route better, if for no reason other than the fact that you get to drive through at least one state in the southwest for longer than thirty seconds.

On the other hand, that trip and the other hypothetical trips discussed here would require a cross-country trip from Montana to bring the car back to its starting point in Maine, which would add a lot of time to the journey, or leaving the car behind in Montana (if it's a rental, possibly with a prohibitive drop-off fee).  The actual trip taken by Barry Stiefel was done as a round-trip from well inside California (he had the disadvantage of living and working several hours inside the state line), which added some time to his journey (a day or so) within California and Arizona over the bare minimum time to reach all the lower-48 states, but not nearly as much extra time as a trip back to Maine from western Montana.

The round-trip aspect of Stiefel's trip is also why his itinerary was fundamentally different from (and in some sense less efficient than) the hypothetical routings, since he snagged the northern states on the outbound leg and the southern states on the return.

Yeah, holy guacemole, his itinerary is way better because it avoids the one way rental car issue (http://www.barrystiefel.com/50_states_in_a_weeks_vacation/50_states_in_a_weeks_vacation.htm). I could use Corco's route from Four Corners to Missoula with the rest of Stiegel's route (and switch up MD, of course, to be most advantageous to my residenceand I wouldn't even need to switch up MD because his route comes within 2 miles of my residence).

[Brandon]

How to drive 48 states in 113 hours.
I have to disagree with this: several states are hardly touched at all. US 71 at Texarkana counts as Texas, Downstream Casino counts as Kansas and Oklahoma, Four Corners counts as Arizona and New Mexico. 

Anyone have a better routing?

Given that Four Corners is only accessible from New Mexico on a road that goes into both Colorado and Arizona, the only state one could get by going there and not driving into is Utah.

But the route discussed upthread went to Four Corners after crossing Colorado, and exited (after a backtrack into Colorado) northwest through Utah, so both Arizona and New Mexico but not Utah would be its "cheats". 

Barry Stiefel's route went to Four Corners from New Mexico, via Colorado, and exited through Arizona, so Utah was his only "cheat".

BTW, I've never been to Four Corners. though I'm not above other kinds of "cheats".

But, if his route goes to Four Corners after going through Colorado, then he still has to enter New Mexico before he even gets to the monument as the only road to it is IN New Mexico.  You still have to cross into New Mexico to even get to the monument.  I know, I've been there.

[leroys73]

FYI:
As far as just touching a state to count in the Iron Butt Association's 48 in 10 day motorcycle certification requires, along with a log, a dated, timed fuel (favorite) receipt with the location printed on it from each state so there is no misunderstanding.  Not as easy as it sounds.

[oscar]

How to drive 48 states in 113 hours.
I have to disagree with this: several states are hardly touched at all. US 71 at Texarkana counts as Texas, Downstream Casino counts as Kansas and Oklahoma, Four Corners counts as Arizona and New Mexico. 

Anyone have a better routing?

Given that Four Corners is only accessible from New Mexico on a road that goes into both Colorado and Arizona, the only state one could get by going there and not driving into is Utah.

But the route discussed upthread went to Four Corners after crossing Colorado, and exited (after a backtrack into Colorado) northwest through Utah, so both Arizona and New Mexico but not Utah would be its "cheats". 

Barry Stiefel's route went to Four Corners from New Mexico, via Colorado, and exited through Arizona, so Utah was his only "cheat".

But, if his route goes to Four Corners after going through Colorado, then he still has to enter New Mexico before he even gets to the monument as the only road to it is IN New Mexico.  You still have to cross into New Mexico to even get to the monument.  I know, I've been there.

If you're talking about Stiefel's route, he crossed into New Mexico from Texas, and went all the way to then-U.S. 666 before cutting into Colorado to approach Four Corners.  So he definitely didn't "cheat" New Mexico, and not really Colorado either considering his significant mileage in that state before reaching the Four Corners area.

As for the hypothetical route under discussion, whether I'm right that New Mexico was one of its "cheats" depends on how much mileage in New Mexico before reaching Four Corners, after crossing almost all of Colorado.

[bugo]

I've done MO-IL-IN-OH-MI-WI-MN-IA in a single day, as well as OK-MO-IA-SD-ND-MN ind a day and MO-IL-IN-OH-WV-PA-KY in a day and a half.  All rather large states (except for Indiana, which is still pretty big.  No postage stamp sized northeastern states.  I could do 10-12 of those in a day easily.

[Duke87]

Most states I've done in one day? Hmm. Well, day one of my 2012 cross county trip involved NY/NJ/PA/WV/OH/IN/IL, so that's seven.
Day one of my trip to Nashville earlier this year involved CT/NY/NJ/PA/OH/WV/KY... also seven, but a slightly different seven.
Day four of that same trip involved WV/VA/MD/DC/PA/NJ/NY/CT. Seven states again! But eight in this case if DC counts.

Involving New England would be a seemingly ideal way to break this number but given where I live it would take some weird circumstances for a trip to New England to also involve any states south or west of NY, which puts the logical cap at... oh look at that, seven.
That said, I have been to all six New England states in one weekend, but never all six in one day. I have done five in one day, with Vermont being the one left out.

I can't produce a 100% accurate list of states I've taken a dump in but it's probably roughly the same if not identical to the list of states I've spent the night in (which is smaller than the list of states I've been to).

If receipts are required I lose Missouri and Mississippi from my list of states I've "been to" since while I have set foot in those states, I have never purchased anything in them. If you don't accept the details of credit card statements as receipts then I lose almost everything since I never ask for or keep paper receipts unless I need them for an expense report for work.

But I define having been to a state simply as having put both feet on the ground in it, even if only for a few seconds by the side of the road (this is how I've "been to" Mississippi), and even if I never got off the interstate and the ground was at a rest area (Missouri).

[bugo]

I barely, and I mean BARELY visited Michigan.  I drove up M-49 north from Ohio, headed west on US 12, then south on I-69 into Indiana.  I did stop at an ATM in Coldwater and got some cash, but the receipt is long gone.

[hm insulators]

If it's 3PM, this must be Iowa.

[Brandon]

Here is the Four Corners area in question:

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=36.994961,-109.040315&spn=0.009769,0.021136&t=h&z=16

[Scott5114]

http://goo.gl/maps/Ut4sx is five hours faster and 100 miles shorter anyway

You can shave 103 miles and 2 hours off this one by hitting Michigan at the southern tip of the UP rather than crisscrossing Indiana.

[corco]

http://goo.gl/maps/Ut4sx is five hours faster and 100 miles shorter anyway

You can shave 103 miles and 2 hours off this one by hitting Michigan at the southern tip of the UP rather than crisscrossing Indiana.

But then you never enter Ohio

[leroys73]

I did Texas in one day.  1150 miles on a motorcycle. I did not leave the state. 

[agentsteel53]

I'm pretty sure I've done over 10 in the northeast.  but I think TX-OK-KS-MO-IA-SD-ND-MN (8) in under 24 hours should count, especially that I almost threw MB in there.  turned around at the border in Pembina about 20 feet from Canada, if that*.  clinched I-29 in nearly one straight shot (three gas station off-and-back-on breaks), and missed NE by under a mile simply because I didn't want to get off I-29.

* still haven't gotten MB or SK, eight years after this trip!

[bugo]

On one of the Minot trips, I hit ND, SD, IA, NE, MO, AR, and OK.  I barely missed KS.

[Sykotyk]

http://www.sykotyk.com/supertrip/

I took a 10,473 mile long trip around the country to hit all 48 states back in 2007. If you read, you will find one glaring factual error regarding a road. I had only based it on anecdotal evidence.

This was a round trip, I wasn't setting out to see how long it would take to hit all 48. Plus, I started in an odd location and wasn't going for time, so-to-speak.