The great state-border-crossing challenge

I don't think I had ever once wondered how many different borders there are among the lower 48 states before seeing a Facebook group post the following list a few years ago. It definitely caught my attention.

Without flying or using ferries, here are the 107 state borders that can be crossed by driving.

Alabama Florida
Alabama Georgia
Alabama Mississippi  ✅
Alabama Tennessee   ✅
Arizona California   🙁
Arizona Colorado   ✅🥾
Arizona New Mexico  ✅🥾
Arizona Nevada   ✅
Arizona  Utah  ✅🥾
Arkansas Louisiana  ✅
Arkansas Mississippi   🙁
Arkansas Missouri   🙁
Arkansas Oklahoma   ✅
Arkansas Tennessee   ✅
Arkansas Texas   ✅
California Nevada   ✅🥾
California Oregon  ✅
Colorado Kansas
Colorado Nebraska
Colorado New Mexico  ✅🥾
Colorado Oklahoma
Colorado Utah   ✅🥾
Colorado Wyoming   ✅
Connecticut Massachusetts   ✅
Connecticut New York   ✅
Connecticut Rhode Island   ✅
Delaware Maryland   ✅
Delaware New Jersey   ✅
Delaware Pennsylvania   ✅
Florida Georgia   ✅
Georgia North Carolina
Georgia South Carolina   ✅
Georgia Tennessee   ✅
Idaho Montana   ✅
Idaho Nevada
Idaho Oregon   ✅
Idaho Utah   ✅
Idaho Washington   ✅
Idaho Wyoming   ✅
Illinois Indiana   ✅
Illinois Iowa   ✅
Illinois Kentucky   ✅
Illinois Missouri   ✅
Illinois Wisconsin   ✅
Indiana Kentucky   ✅
Indiana Michigan   ✅
Indiana Ohio   ✅
Iowa Minnesota   🙁
Iowa Missouri   ✅
Iowa Nebraska   ✅🥾
Iowa South Dakota   ✅
Iowa Wisconsin   ✅
Kansas Missouri   ✅
Kansas Nebraska   ✅
Kansas Oklahoma   ✅
Kentucky Missouri
Kentucky Ohio   ✅🥾
Kentucky Tennessee   ✅
Kentucky Virginia
Kentucky West Virginia   ✅
Louisiana Mississippi   ✅
Louisiana Texas   ✅
Maine New Hampshire   ✅
Maryland Pennsylvania   ✅
Maryland Virginia   ✅
Maryland West Virginia   ✅
Massachusetts New Hampshire   ✅
Massachusetts  New York   ✅🥾
Massachusetts  Rhode Island   ✅
Massachusetts  Vermont   ✅
Michigan  Ohio   ✅
Michigan  Wisconsin
Minnesota  North Dakota   ✅🥾
Minnesota  South Dakota   ✅
Minnesota  Wisconsin   ✅
Mississippi  Tennessee     ✅
Missouri  Nebraska  
Missouri  Oklahoma  
Missouri  Tennessee  
Montana  North Dakota   ✅
Montana  South Dakota   
Montana  Wyoming   ✅
Nebraska  South Dakota  
Nebraska  Wyoming
Nevada  Oregon   
Nevada  Utah   ✅
New Hampshire  Vermont   ✅
New Jersey  New York   ✅
New Jersey  Pennsylvania   ✅
New Mexico  Oklahoma
New Mexico Texas   ✅
New Mexico  Utah   ✅🥾
New York  Pennsylvania   ✅
New York  Vermont   ✅
North Carolina  South Carolina   ✅
North Carolina  Tennessee   ✅
North Carolina  Virginia   ✅
North Dakota  South Dakota   ✅
Ohio  Pennsylvania   ✅
Ohio  West Virginia   ✅
Oklahoma  Texas   ✅
Oregon  Washington   ✅
Pennsylvania  West Virginia   ✅
South Dakota  Wyoming   ✅
Tennessee  Virginia   ✅
Utah  Wyoming   ✅
Virginia  West Virginia   ✅

That's 85 of 107 or 79% of them checked. 

The sad faces mean that I was really close in these cases, and, had I known this would be a future quest, they'd be so crossed by now. A peculiar GPS routing had me miss AR-MS on a 2015 trip, which I recall because I didn't cross the Mississippi River where I thought I would on one trip, and crossings of that river are something I note (in fact, crossing the Big Muddy helped with two of the checked crossings above long before I was aware of this state-border idea). Six years earlier, I was near the AR-MO border, with a fleeting thought about checking out Branson. The killer, however, was missing AZ-CA last year, on two different trips. A tad more planning would have made it relatively easy in each case. But, I do have reasons to ultimately explore more of these areas, and I like to think I'll get another chance.


The boot is for ones where I also walked across a state border. The Four Corners gave me a bunch in one swoop. There may be more on-foot crossings; those notated are the ones where I am sure. There's a tri-state marker where NY, NJ and PA meet. I've walked that area, but don't recall traversing a state line. Catamount in the Berkshires straddles NY and MA, and I've skied across that. I had the same hopes when in Heavenly to ski between CA and NV, but wind holds on the gondola thwarted that plan.

Some road trips I have sketched for these next few years will actually have me close to a few more crossings. All 107 though? I don't know, as some of them would take a fair amount of effort to achieve. Still, if there's an NPS site, ballpark, etc., nearby, who knows...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

25 AAA ballparks visited, 5 to go!

Image
A snapshot of the current AAA venues where I've seen a game. The funny thing about AAA ballparks is I can't think of a single one I didn't really like. Well, at least not after a renovation gave me a second chance to form a first impression. Nor until attendance at unseasonably cold or damp April and May games in some of the northeast stadiums was remedied with second and third games at them in the summer months, rectifying any lukewarm perceptions I may have previously had. Yes, it may have taken a couple of ballgames at them, but each AAA ballpark left me with a very favorable impression. Unlike MLB ballparks, where my journey to see them all started 20 years earlier, my AAA chase is a more recent undertaking. With 5/6 of the AAA ballparks now under my belt, I thought I'd take a look back at the journey so far. Not long after moving up to the Hudson Valley in the mid 2000s, my MiLB ballpark chasing got underway, much like a ballplayer's journey might progress, fro...
Read more

That top-32 National Park list I once created

Image
I'm enjoying watching a few friends near the completion of their National Park quests. Earlier this year, while traveling through the three Florida National Parks, it was likewise enjoyable but also encouraging talking to fellow travelers pursuing their own such journeys: a father and son were hitting their 40th, and one woman was at her penultimate with plans to finish in September. That's all great stuff to me.  These quests also lead to questions from interested observers. "What's the first  #NationalPark  you'll be visiting when this is over?", "What's your favorite National Park?", "What are your top 3/5/10?" These are some of the questions I see posted and get asked. With 44/62 seen, I don't know if it's fair to assemble such a list, but here's how I ranked the top 32 I've visited. Yeah, if I redid it, many spots could flip, but the top 4 or so are pretty well locked in, until one of the 18 I'm missing changes ...
Read more

Tipping and ripping the cap

A belated tip of the cap to this year’s Baseball Hall of Fame inductees. I know the NFL and NBA Halls had their 2010 inductions more recently, and an eventual nodding of the helmets to the former may follow. It’s just that a recent conversation prompted this post. In this era of free agency, the need for players to don one team’s cap over another when their plaque is created seems to be something of a relic, especially when a player has left an indelible mark on multiple teams. Even if the bulk of his career or prime numbers rest mainly with one team, should that team be solely associated with that player when he gave another some great years? Conversely, if, say, a contract or personal quarrel leaves bad blood between a player and the team where his HOF numbers were earned, should that player have the right to select some team where he had less impact? Admittedly, most inductees do lean to one team or another in terms of career dominance, and Wikipedia, under the "Players with mu...
Read more