A ROAD TRIP requires a lot of serious planning. You must make sure you check out all the sites you’ve always wanted to see and don’t exhaust yourself driving for hours on end. Thankfully, as reported by Discovery News, Randy Olson, a Computer Science & Engineering Ph.D. candidate at Michigan State University, has organized the absolute road trip for you.
Photo: Abigail Marie/Shutterstock
According to Science, This Is the Ultimate US Road Trip
Olson‘s “data tinkering” hobby led him to take on the challenge presented to him by Tracy Staedter: to use his “algorithmic talents to plot the optimum road trip route across the United States”. The conditions were:
- At least one stop in all 48 states in the contiguous U.S.
- Each stop would be at a National Natural Landmark, National Historic Site, National Park, or National Monument
- It would be a true road trip, taken by car and not leave U.S. soil
The result of Olson’s work is a 13,699 miles (22,046 km) epic itinerary that hits 50 major US landmarks. The trip, “a mix of inner city exploration, must-see historical sites, and beautiful natural landscapes“, would take 2 to 3 months to complete.
Now that the planning is all done, all you have to do is hit the road. 