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[OM] OT summer driving in the US

Subject: [OM] OT summer driving in the US
From: Bob Benson <bob.benson91@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2016 07:54:51 -0500
Re: the "geekiest road trip."   In 1987 my business partner and I decided
to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the US Constitution (essentially a
federal-state compact), by visiting all 50 states in under 200 hours.

The route we took looks quite similar to this roadtrip map,  though we
didn't require going to the state capitals.  We also flew to Ketchikan AL
amd Honolulu during 200 hours.  We started and ended in St Louis and
actually completed the 50-state trip in 192 hours.   We drove 10000 miles
(non stop other than the flights) and averaged 59 mph which included the
time for gas and food stops - and the occasional shower stop at an RV
camp.  Fortuitously, this was the summer (1987) that the infamous 55 mph
national speed limit was lifted;  it would have been more difficult
otherwise, and we couldn't have used interstates as much as we did since a
US highway route would have been shorter..

We replaced the rear-view-mirror with a video camera and recorded the
entire trip.  My partner processed the video to create a 10 to 1 time
reduction;  in effect, we have a 19 hour video of driving thru the US at
600 mph.

We also stopped at each state border and took a video of me standing by the
state welcome sign,  where I read aloud the next sentence of the
constitution.  We'd hoped to have a 30 minute or so video flashing thru the
50 state signs.  We did this up until the PA / NJ border (a very busy
bridge) and decided it wasn't cool to stop in the middle;  we thought this
might also be the case in, say, NY, CT, etc.

The only expense was gas plus a bit of food - by the third day we weren't
eating much.  I can't remember now whether we succeeded in getting TWA and
AK airlines to contribute our airfares,  which would have been the only
additional expense.

We've talked about redoing this in 2017 -- probably not, but it's an
interesting discussion item.

Other than seeing a lot of the US -- sunrises and sunsets were particularly
special -- the only really interesting event was getting through the
blockades CA and OR had on I-5.  This was the year of the Mediterranean
fruit fly or perhaps some other pests;  the officers asked us whether we
had fruit in the car -- yes -- where did you get it -- hmm,  OR, or maybe
WA, or maybe AK .. no, we got it in ID, and MO .. but oh,  I remember
getting the apples in ND ... ahh, you get the picture.

Bob
-- 
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