If I’ve already done a bunch of stuff West of the Mississippi, it only stands to reason that I want to do a trip to cover the area of the US that is East of the Mississippi. I plotted a route all the way down the coast, and back up to Ottawa. Here’s the way the segments work out.

Segment 1 takes me to the tip of Florida (32d). I’d start off slow, juking around in New York State. Over towards Lake Placid, back over to Syracuse, mostly covering the Western part of the state that I haven’t done before. I’m still skipping a bunch of stuff along Lake Erie, but I’ll get to it later. I’d swing by Cooperstown, over to Albany (with time to stop this time), then down past Woodstock, farther near West Point, and turning back West towards the steel mill world…Scranton, Allentown, etc. I’d pick up Trenton, NJ, and Philly, plus some of the coast before heading to Baltimore and Washington. I’d go back to the coast to pick up Richmond, Norfolk, and Kitty Hawk, and then zag back towards Charlotte, NC. I’d want to see Myrtle Beach, don’t really have a good concept of it. And then…it’s time to zag back over to Augusta, and then zip the other way to Savannah. After that, it’s straight down the coast…Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, slight detour to Orlando and Kissimmee, and straight on to morning in Boca Raton, Ft. Lauderdale, and Miami. It is 4800 km, so somewhere around 12-14d, but it would easily take me twice that long with all the stops. I’d put it closer to 32 days as a rough estimate. There’s just so much to see and do along there. Plus the fact that I’ll want to go kayaking with gators (j/k).

Segment 2 would take me into the heart of the south (25d). Before turning tail, I would want to consider driving to Key West. I have no idea what that entails, if there are tolls, do you need special passes, or you can just drive drive drive. I’d like to drop the trailer in Miami (or West of Miami actually) and then drive down and back. It’s a 6h round trip, only 530km, but that would be a VERY long day. I doubt there’s anywhere I could sleep in my trailer, nor can I likely afford a hotel anywhere in that run. But I can’t NOT do it, right?

After that, I go up the West side of Florida, over to Tallahassee, and right on into Mobile, Alabama. I will have been to New Orleans, so I don’t know if I need to go much farther than Mobile, although Biloxi might call to me. I’d likely then go up to Montgomery and Birmingham, before doubling back for Auburn, Columbus, Atlanta and Athens. For Tennessee, I’d likely head to Knoxville and Nashville before tackling Kentucky — Louisville and Lexington. For Ohio, I would probably want to do Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Columbus. It would have been another 48h of driving, or about 4700 km. Call it 12d, add in some rest to make it 15, and add in stops to make it 25d.

At this time, I would then have a decision to make for Michigan and PA/NY or PA/NY and then Michigan. 🙂

Segment 3 would be a bit wonky (20d) and doesn’t have to be done on this trip, it could be a whole separate “mini-trip” on its own. At 45h, and 4100 km, I would start in Columbus and do an entire loop around Michigan. Back in Ohio, I’d head over to Cleveland before an “oops” of my first segment. Given all the stuff over to the coast, I kind of miss Pittsburgh in the first batch. So, I’d pick it up now and then come back to the shore of Lake Erie, all the way to Buffalo before re-entering Canada, albeit briefly. I would work my way down to Windsor, across into Detroit, up to Sarnia on the American side, and then all the way up the coast of Lake Huron to Tobermory. Why? Cuz it’s Tobermory and Georgian Bay, of course.

I’d pick up Collingwood, Wasaga Beach, Barrie, Orillia, Gravenhurst (dark sky preserve), and eventually back to Ottawa. I suspect I’ll be a bit tired of everything and just want to head home once I get to Buffalo, so I don’t know if I’ll do all of Ontario. Let’s assume I do though, call it 10d of driving, and well, probably another 10d of stopping/resting. There are a LOT of places to go kayaking in that route.

Even though I’m pretty sure I messed up the route. I should probably go from Columbus to Buffalo, through Canada back to Detroit, then upper Michigan, and back into Canada. Huh. I just plotted that route, and while I would likely ditch a bit, the full reroute only saves about 50km. If I drop Toledo and South Bend, it would shave about 500km. Interesting. Not quite “Holy Toledo, Batman”, but well, I couldn’t resist the punny reference. Sigh. I’ll show myself out.

Okay, let’s see now:

• Segment 1 — 4800 km, 32d
• Segment 2 — 4700 km, 25d
• Segment 3 — 4100 km, 20d
• Grand total — 13,600 km, 72d

And yet, even with all of that, I haven’t completed all of the US or Canada. I would still have some stuff in the Southern Prairies of Canada and the Northern mid-west of the US. Plus bits and pieces dotted here and there. Like the Grand Canyon as a destination or a big state like the US or the amazing beach we saw in our New England trip or a big city like NYC.

This trip option turned out longer than I thought, even without the last 20d. I thought that 30-40d was more likely, but as I looked at the sheer number of “famous” cities that draw my attention, not to mention hundreds of parks that I didn’t even mention, it’s easy to see any of them taking longer.

Is there any place in there you want to see?