I have to confess that I don't remember when it was. How long ago. What I was doing at the time. What we were even talking about. But, I do remember my oldest daughter, Holly, declaring that before she graduated from high school, she wanted to have visited each of the contiguous United States - and then go to Hawaii for a graduation present. (Obviously, being somewhere in her pre-teens, she didn't actually use the word "contiguous" but that was what we knew her to mean. Although she was probably throwing Alaska in there, too. Sigh.)

I also remember agreeing to the "contiguous" part of her request/goal. At the time, we had relatives living in Oregon, Washington, California, Utah, Arizona, Oregon, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and even South Carolina. Maybe I've even left a couple off... At any rate, with all of the traveling we did, it seemed like a pretty easy thing. Hit the South and New England, and be done with it.

Well, now she's finishing up her freshman year in high school, and there's a family reunion in Palmyra, New York, so it seems like this summer is the year to hit the missing States.

I just mapped it out. To get the ones we're still lacking, we need to drive from Utah to South Carolina, to Maine, to Upper Michigan (just to visit my old stomping grounds), to Butte Montana, and back home again. We'll cover 27 States in all - several we've already hit before. And, thank goodness we've already hit the Deep South, or this would be an even longer trip.

All in all, mapquest says it will be a trip of 6066.76 miles and take 95 hours and 34 minutes. Ouch!

I'm estimating $2000-3000 in gas, depending on prices. We'll get an oil change and tune-up before the trip and then need another one - and probably new tires - about the time we pull into Maine.

It will take at least 10 days of 9-hour drives. This from a group of kids that can rarely make it through dinner without a squabble...

It should be quite a bonding experience. And, I'm sure that at several points along the drive we'll ALL feel like we're in bondage.

It's bound to be one for the books, so I'll have to make some notes.

BTW, when did the concept of "graduation trips" enter the picture? Is that suddenly some sort of right? When I graduated high school I got a pat on the back and an overly large suitcase. I hope she's got some frequent flyer miles saved up if she's expecting to go to Hawaii.... ;^)

Read the original "Lines of our Times" post here.