I am starting in Washington DC and cycling a route along US State Capitols and hope to reach the west coast of the US.
Here is an approximate timeline:
| City | Planned Distance | Budget Days | Projected Date | Actual Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Washington DC | 0 | 0 | 4/29/2023 | 4/28/2023 | |
| Annapolis | 37 | 1 | 4/30/2023 | 4/29/2023 | |
| Dover | 117 | 3 | 5/3/2023 | 5/2/2023 | |
| Trenton | 107 | 2 | 5/5/2023 | 5/4/2023 | |
| Hartford | 220 | 5 | 5/10/2023 | 5/8/2023 | |
| Providence | 83 | 2 | 5/12/2023 | 5/10/2023 | |
| Boston | 46 | 1 | 5/13/2023 | 5/11/2023 | |
| Concord | 77 | 2 | 5/15/2023 | 5/16/2023 | |
| Augusta | 139 | 3 | 5/18/2023 | 5/15/2023 | |
| Montpelier | 174 | 4 | 5/22/2023 | 5/19/2023 | |
| Albany | 157 | 3 | 5/25/2023 | 5/23/2023 | |
| Harrisburg | 267 | 6 | 5/31/2023 | -- | Removed |
| Charleston | 396 | 9 | 6/9/2023 | -- | Removed |
| Columbus | 179 | 4 | 6/13/2023 | 6/6/2023 | |
| Frankfort | 185 | 4 | 6/17/2023 | -- | Removed |
| Nashville | 210 | 5 | 6/22/2023 | -- | Removed |
| Springfield | 344 | 8 | 6/30/2023 | 6/29/2023 | |
| Indianapolis | 194 | 4 | 7/4/2023 | 6/10/2023 | |
| Lansing | 248 | 6 | 7/10/2023 | 7/9/2023 | |
| Madison | 376 | 8 | 7/18/2023 | 7/14/2023 | |
| St Paul | 272 | 6 | 7/24/2023 | 7/20/2023 | |
| Des Moines | 269 | 6 | 7/30/2023 | 7/26/2023 | |
| Lincoln | 197 | 4 | 8/3/2023 | 7/31/2023 | |
| Pierre | 399 | 9 | 8/12/2023 | 8/9/2023 | |
| Bismarck | 205 | 5 | 8/17/2023 | 8/13/2023 | |
| Cheyenne | 564 | 13 | 8/30/2023 | 8/25/2023 | |
| Denver | 106 | 2 | 9/1/2023 | 9/5/2023 | |
| Salt Lake City | 564 | 13 | 9/14/2023 | 9/19/2023 | |
| Helena | 500 | 11 | 9/25/2023 | Removed | |
| Boise | 443 | 10 | 10/5/2023 | 9/28/2023 | |
| Olympia | 592 | 13 | 10/18/2023 | 10/13/2023 | |
| Portland | -- | -- | -- | 10/10/2023 | Added |
I can watch the budget dates with the actual dates and depending on whether I start to get “ahead” or “behind”, I may alter the route some. For example, if I get “behind” I might do fewer squiggles and skip some capitols along the way. If I get “ahead”, then I might have some time on the West Coast to also visit Juneau, Alaska or Salem, Oregon. In any case, I should never be very far from an Amtrak line and/or rental car if I otherwise adjust things.
I got to this route by exploring several alternatives described below.
I initially thought through two general alternatives (a) take the longest leave of absence (LOA) I can (six months) or spend a full year on the road. Hence, depending on whether I had a LOA approved or not, then I could figure out what made sense.
The one observation I had early on is that the amount of time it would take to visit all 48 state capitols in the lower 48 states from the US was roughly a year. I then made several considerations, the most important were
- The route shouldn’t be too long, so should be fairly efficient in visiting the State Capitols. There is a famous algorithm: travelling salesmen problem which says finding the absolute shortest path is “NP hard” resulting in a combinatoric explosion of paths where it could take a long time to prove any particular path is shortest. Now I don’t need the absolute shortest path, but have a computer search program to find relatively efficient alternatives.
- The route should consider the climate. Cycling Southwest deserts in summer heat, northern mountains in the winter or the gulf coast during hurricane season does not make for an enjoyable (or safe) trip. I modified my computer programs above with “comfort” scores, particularly temperatures and humidity to help me pick routes that optimize climate for travel.
- Bicycle travel along suitable roads and routes. Major highways are OK, as they have shoulders, but extended periods on interstates (in west where allowed) is not ideal. Some of the detailed route finding will happen as I travel, but I did make distance calculations based on “google maps no-highway” type distances
One year of travel
Where could I visit if I had a full year to ride? It would be possible to visit all state capitols…
Overall, with these calculations and a departure date of April 29th from Washington DC, following was a sample schedule. If I pick different departure dates, I’m at least as likely to also alter the departure location.
Over a one year period, this schedule would be ~40 miles a day including any non-cycling days, so that also gives me some time to play with for adjusting things – perhaps getting “ahead” or taking an extra day here and there. For example, 20% of the days off to explore or do non-bicycling things and half the days >50 miles and half the days <50 miles.
| City | Planned Distance | Budget Days | Projected Date | Actual Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Washington DC | 0 | 0 | 4/29/2023 | ||
| Annapolis | 37 | 1 | 4/30/2023 | ||
| Dover | 117 | 3 | 5/3/2023 | ||
| Trenton | 107 | 3 | 5/6/2023 | ||
| Hartford | 220 | 6 | 5/12/2023 | ||
| Providence | 83 | 2 | 5/14/2023 | ||
| Boston | 46 | 1 | 5/15/2023 | ||
| Concord | 77 | 2 | 5/17/2023 | ||
| Augusta | 139 | 4 | 5/21/2023 | ||
| Montpelier | 174 | 5 | 5/26/2023 | ||
| Albany | 157 | 4 | 5/30/2023 | ||
| Harrisburg | 267 | 7 | 6/6/2023 | ||
| Charleston | 396 | 10 | 6/16/2023 | ||
| Columbus | 179 | 5 | 6/21/2023 | ||
| Frankfort | 185 | 5 | 6/26/2023 | ||
| Nashville | 210 | 5 | 7/1/2023 | ||
| Springfield | 344 | 9 | 7/10/2023 | ||
| Indianapolis | 194 | 5 | 7/15/2023 | ||
| Lansing | 248 | 6 | 7/21/2023 | ||
| Madison | 376 | 10 | 7/31/2023 | ||
| St Paul | 272 | 7 | 8/7/2023 | ||
| Des Moines | 269 | 7 | 8/14/2023 | ||
| Lincoln | 197 | 5 | 8/19/2023 | ||
| Pierre | 399 | 10 | 8/29/2023 | ||
| Bismarck | 205 | 5 | 9/3/2023 | ||
| Cheyenne | 564 | 15 | 9/18/2023 | ||
| Denver | 106 | 3 | 9/21/2023 | ||
| Salt Lake City | 564 | 15 | 10/6/2023 | ||
| Helena | 500 | 13 | 10/19/2023 | ||
| Boise | 443 | 12 | 10/31/2023 | ||
| Olympia | 592 | 15 | 11/15/2023 | ||
| Salem | 174 | 5 | 11/20/2023 | ||
| Sacramento | 609 | 16 | 12/6/2023 | ||
| Carson City | 147 | 4 | 12/10/2023 | ||
| Phoenix | 748 | 20 | 12/30/2023 | ||
| Santa Fe | 516 | 14 | 1/13/2024 | ||
| Austin | 696 | 18 | 1/31/2024 | ||
| Oklahoma City | 419 | 11 | 2/11/2024 | ||
| Topeka | 339 | 9 | 2/20/2024 | ||
| Jefferson City | 216 | 6 | 2/26/2024 | ||
| Little Rock | 344 | 9 | 3/6/2024 | ||
| Jackson | 261 | 7 | 3/13/2024 | ||
| Baton Rouge | 155 | 4 | 3/17/2024 | ||
| Tallahassee | 486 | 13 | 3/30/2024 | ||
| Montgomery | 199 | 5 | 4/4/2024 | ||
| Atlanta | 173 | 5 | 4/9/2024 | ||
| Columbia | 217 | 6 | 4/15/2024 | ||
| Raleigh | 206 | 5 | 4/20/2024 | ||
| Richmond | 172 | 5 | 4/25/2024 | ||
| Washington DC | 141 | 4 | 4/29/2024 |
Half year of travel
Where could I go if I only had half a year?
One alternative is simply to take the capitols in one-year route above and just start cycling them and when a half year was reached, finish the ride. This left a nice open-ended part to the trip where I could adjust things.
Another alternatives is to take a subset of state capitols. For example, following is a route that takes in mostly capitols that are west of the Mississippi river.
| City | Planned Distance | Budget Days | Projected Date | Actual Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austin | 0 | 0 | 4/29/2023 | ||
| Oklahoma City | 419 | 8 | 5/7/2023 | ||
| Little Rock | 348 | 7 | 5/14/2023 | ||
| Jefferson City | 333 | 7 | 5/21/2023 | ||
| Topeka | 252 | 5 | 5/26/2023 | ||
| Lincoln | 179 | 4 | 5/30/2023 | ||
| Des Moines | 218 | 4 | 6/3/2023 | ||
| St Paul | 274 | 5 | 6/8/2023 | ||
| Bismarck | 451 | 9 | 6/17/2023 | ||
| Pierre | 204 | 4 | 6/21/2023 | ||
| Cheyenne | 418 | 8 | 6/29/2023 | ||
| Denver | 111 | 2 | 7/1/2023 | ||
| Salt Lake City | 534 | 11 | 7/12/2023 | ||
| Helena | 490 | 10 | 7/22/2023 | ||
| Boise | 471 | 9 | 7/31/2023 | ||
| Bellingham (Alaska?) | 611 | 12 | 8/12/2023 | +8 days for marine ferry to Alaska | |
| Olympia | 180 | 4 | 8/24/2023 | ||
| Salem | 186 | 4 | 8/28/2023 | ||
| Sacramento | 586 | 12 | 9/9/2023 | ||
| Carson City | 142 | 3 | 9/12/2023 | ||
| Phoenix | 737 | 15 | 9/27/2023 | ||
| Santa Fe | 510 | 10 | 10/14/2023 | ||
| Austin | 691 | 14 | 10/21/2023 | Leaves 10 days of buffer to apply to dates above. |
This route has a slightly higher average distance per day, but also some options that could be used it time runs short, e.g. don’t go up to Alaska, skip Little Rock/Jefferson City at the start or stop over in New Mexico at the end.