The 48-state Road Trip

If you really wanted to see America, you’d travel by car to every contiguous state and hit all the famous landmarks on your way. Michigan State University doctoral student Randy Olson worked out the route, shown above. You can see the full-size map here. Since it is a continuous loop, you can start at the point nearest you.

If you had the road to yourself, it would take 9.33 days of driving, Olson calculates, but in reality you'd need at least 2 to 3 months to make the journey.

The U.S. is a pretty big place, but if you have the time and the gas money, this would fill a great summer. Discovery News has more details and a list of the landmarks along the way.