Yeah. When I get bored, I get boooooooooored.

One of the things I've always wanted to do is to take a trip to all of the state capitals. I decided to plot the trip on Google Maps.

Since the program only accepts 25 destinations for directions, I had to split the map into 2 parts. If you want to see the map, here is part 1 and here is part 2. (WARNING - long load times)

Some screenshots
Here's the Eastern half of the trip.


Here's the central part


The west coast


Some notes:
*I did not include Juneau or Honolulu since you can't get to them by car.
*I don't know if this is the most efficient route, though I did try and plot by major highways and as little backtracking as possible. If you think you can plot a better route, go ahead.
*It wasn't my intention to include DC, but you pass through it anyways, between Annapolis and Richmond.
*I started in Augusta, and ended in Phoenix. You don't need to if you want to try it yourself.
*Click the Spoiler for the list of the cities I travel to, in order
[SPOILER:cb3892a08c][/SPOILER:cb3892a08c]
*The route I plotted is 12,654 miles. Google estimates it takes 216 hours of driving time to make the trip. If you want to walk it, it estimates about 4,091 hours. Walking 12 hours a day, that's very close to a year.
*Since it was asked, assuming today's average gas price of $3.71 a gallon, in a car that gets about 26 MPG, this trip would cost about $1,800 in gas money. Get yourself a Prius at around 47 MPG, we'll say, and the cost drops to about $1,000.

That's the results of my research. Enjoy, or ignore.

Dr. Jeebus wrote:

So are you gonna do this, or were you just sayin?

Just plotting it out. When I have the cash, I seriously will do this. But that's like "lifelong dream" territory.

Pandajuice wrote:

<3 my Sacramento. Also, when you do actually do this, go off the efficient route for a little while and go to San Francisco after you pass through Sacramento. Then drive down the coastline through San Jose, Santa Maria, etc until you hit LA. The views will be much better than in the middle of California and you get to avoid Stockton and Bakersfield. If you're going to the west coast, you have to actually see and drive the west coast; you won't be sorry.

Sorry, man, but the only city I hate more than Sacramento is San Francisco, and man it's close. I hated living there.

I have driven most of the PCH, and I do agree it's a nice drive.

Quote:

The actual answer: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~bryant/boolean/maps.html

I was only 1,000 miles off the best route just by fudging it and eyeballing what I think would be best. That isn't too bad, I think. [/quote]

Heh. I do plan on taking a road trip for our next vacation, actually, though it will most likely not be this one. I'll let people know where I'm going ahead of time.

Syd Lexia wrote:

There are no roads into Juneau? How the fuck did it become a state capital?

The same way a lot of state capitals did - two big cities (in this case, Fairbanks and Anchorage) in a new state didn't want the other one to the the capital. So they compromised.

From what I understand, Alaska isn't very big on road travel anyways. Most inter-city travel is done by plane.

And yeah, if I did do it, I'd so have to do it right. I'd probably make it my goal to visit every capital building, maybe meet with some state reps or the governor, make a whole blog about it and get internet-famous. But, again, it would take money.

atomjacked wrote:

UsaSatsui wrote: Sorry, man, but the only city I hate more than Sacramento is San Francisco, and man it's close. I hated living there.. I am interested in why you hate San Francisco... I am curious. Please explain.

Mostly because getting into, around, and out of San Francisco was a complete and utter pain in the ass.