That’s right, folks. Not content with my madness on visiting all 88 Ohio counties in 24 hours, I have endeavored to find routes to visit all the counties in other states in 24 hours. Consulting this list of states by land area, I put the practical limit on 24 hour county trips somewhere around Alabama (28th in land area and 30th in total area). Though some of the larger states are also doable due to their small number of counties. Specifically, I have already figured out routes for Nevada (7th in land area and 17 counties) and Arizona (6th in land area but only 15 counties). I think Utah (12th in area and 29 counties) might be doable, but I wouldn’t count on getting Texas done in 24… 🙂

My latest project has been the neighboring state of Indiana. Slightly smaller than Ohio, but with 4 more counties (92 to 88), it seemed definitely doable. Here is my first completed route:

This route is estimated at 22 hours, 48 minutes. But now it’s time to spend a bit of time refining it. From my experience (and I am the self-declared world’s top expert in such matters), the best way to do this is to first get one completed route. Once you can see it graphically, it is easier to determine where you might be able to tweak it and save some time.

For instance, my first thought was whether or not it was worth time to cut north on the west side of Hendricks county (west-central) and pick up Marion county from the east after Hancock. It’s not.

It does cut 7 minutes off to get Hamilton (just north of Indianapolis) from the south off of I-465, which allows a straight line east from Howard to Madison to Grant (north-central), since you then don’t have to cut down south to get Hamilton. So the current best time is 22:41, but I have a few more ideas.

As always, I will keep you posted, even though I know nobody but me cares 🙂