The route for the holiday

The map of the route we are taking this year appears in the background image of the blog and also in the post called The start of the journey. For those who aren't familiar with US geography from a map we are taking the following route:

Saturday	3rd	London to Washington, DC
Sunday	4th	Washington, DC
Monday	5th	Washington, DC
Tuesday	6th	Washington to Fayetteville, NC
Wednesday	7th	Fayetteville, NC to Charleston, SC
Thursday	8th	Charleston, SC to Atlanta, GA
Friday	9th	Atlanta, GA to Tupelo, MS
Saturday	10th	Tupelo, MS to Little Rock, AR
Sunday	11th	Little Rock (rest day)
Monday	12th	Little Rock, AR to Wichita, KS
Tuesday	13th	Wichita, KS to Lincoln, NE
Wednesday	14th	Lincoln, NE to Watertown, SD
Thursday	15th	Watertown, SD to Bismarck, ND
Friday	16th	Bismarck, ND to Deadwood, SD
Saturday	17th	Deadwood (rest day)
Sunday	18th	Deadwood, SD to Bozeman, MT
Monday	19th	Bozeman, MT to Salt Lake City, UT
Tuesday	20th	Salt Lake City, UT to Winnemucca, NV
Wednesday	21st	Winnemucca, NV to San Francisco, CA
Thursday	22nd	San Francisco
Friday	23rd	San Francisco
Saturday	24th	San Francisco to Heathrow (arrive the following day – Sunday 25th)

This means travelling from Washington, DC through 20 states, including the last one California. I said 21 states in the earlier post, but of course DC is a district not a state, though it isn't in a state! The 20 are:

Virginia
North Carolina
South Carolina
Georgia
Alabama
Mississippi
Tennessee
Arkansas
Oklahoma
Kansas
Nebraska
Iowa
South Dakota
North Dakota
Wyoming
Montana
Idaho
Utah
Nevada
California

So why this route? And why all these states?

Well back in 1994, my brother, sister, brother-in-law and I first travelled to the United States and did an pleasant tour around California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado and Utah – Flying in to Los Angeles airport and out of San Francisco airport. We enjoyed the mix of travelling and staying so much that we made plans for a road trip across the northern states - from New York through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Nevada and California visiting places like Punxsutawney (home to the famous groundhog), Chicago, Deadwood, Yellowstone (aka Jellystone where Yogi Bear lives) and again ending up in San Francisco. << co-pilots note: he keeps trying to return to 'jellystone', firstly I'd have to put up with being called boo boo for weeks, secondly it's sitting on top of a dirty great big caldera. Given his experience with natural disasters it's a bit too much in the way of tempting fate. Message ends>>

In the year 2000 we were back again and this time started in Michigan where my sister has friends, and travelling from there via Indiana onto Route 66 from Illinois through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and again to California. Indeed following the end of Route 66 in Santa Monica we travelled North on highway 1, back to San Francisco. Route 66 is a really evocative trip, I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to do a US road trip.

By this time I was past halfway in the number of states I had visited. I came back to the US in 2002, as the first real holiday Drew and I had together we went from New York to San Francisco via the southern states - it was a fun trip taking us through Delaware, Maryland, DC, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia,  Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

Then in 2009 we, again with my sister and brother in law, did a great trip up towards the Pacific Northwest. This time we started and ended in San Francisco, so covered California, Oregon, Washington (State) and Idaho.

On our last holiday to the USA and Canada, see the details here, we visited New England for the first time. Travelling from New York through Connecticut, Massachusetts  Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island.

So, if you check the states I have visited you will see I am left with six states of the 48: North Carolina, South Carolina, Arkansas, Nebraska, Iowa and North Dakota. However, looking at the map you will see they are not all close to each other. And indeed if I had started planning to do all 48 contiguous states earlier in the trips I could easily have picked at least four of them up.

But this six seemed a challenge  so when planning this year's holiday I looked for a route that would take us to all 6. And this is what we have planned. It makes no sense, but as a basis for a road trip it gives an outline plan, not a rational one perhaps, but one that should be enjoyable.

My 6 new states will be beaten by Drew who will be travelling to 12 states he hasn't been to before. Bringing him to 39. Do you see a plan for another holiday in the future :-) 

So today we begin, picking up a car at the Hertz office at the Verizon Centre in Washington and starting out on this odyssey together with you my friends.