Ultimate Road Trip Across the U.S.
Hitting the open road and driving into the sunset is a romantic notion; however, most of us need a little planning before embarking on a road trip.
Planning Your Route
Do you head north or south? Should you take a week or a month? What are the best stops to make? There are countless questions to consider.
Your Guide to an Efficient Journey
Randy Olson, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, has devised a super-efficient and ambitious way to explore the contiguous United States. He created his cross-country road trip by utilizing algorithms and Google Maps, allowing him to visit 48 capitol buildings in a streamlined manner.
“For this road trip, there is one goal: to take a picture at as many U.S. state capitols as possible,” Olson wrote on his blog. “We will travel only by car, so we’ll be focusing on the 48 contiguous states, excluding Alaska and Hawaii.”
Optimizing Your Trip
Olson’s strategy was to avoid foreign routes, as entering or leaving a country requires passports and often introduces delays. To determine the optimal path, he calculated the “true” driving distance between all state capitols, amounting to an astounding 2,256 directions. Olson conducted extensive math, and you can read more about his methodology here.
Key Insights from the Road Trip
The optimized solution devised by Olson results in a complete trip to all U.S. state capitols covering only 13,310 miles (21,420 km) of driving. This itinerary allows for visiting those 48 U.S. state capitols in just 8.5 days.
Flexible Start Points
One of the best aspects of this road trip is its flexibility. You can start from anywhere along the route, and as long as you follow the designated path, you will hit every state capitol within the contiguous U.S.
- By Jordi Lippe-McGraw
