Planning the Route

Pouring over maps is one of my favorite pastimes. I feel a bit like a dinosaur when I hand over my AAA card and ask for the foldable paper maps of all of the states and regions that I plan to explore this summer. Spreading them out on the counter and planning the trip with pen in hand ... I smile just thinking about it.

My initial game plan is to track the "perfect American road trip" which was created a few years ago by Randy Olson, a doctoral student at MSU, who used a computer algorithm to determine the most efficient way to hit all 48 continental states, national landmarks, sites, parks and/or monuments. The result is the map below which is what I have in mind, with a few detours along the way:

http://mentalfloss.com/article/72030/map-shows-ultimate-us-road-trip