Rhode Island began on February 1, 2010 and completed on February 13, 2010
Walking Across Rhode Island
I’m walking across Rhode Island.
Castle Lighthouse in Newport, Rhode Island
Okay, not really. I’ve only been once, and that was several years ago. And I was in a car for almost the entire time. I think I have spent a grand total of forty minutes of my life in Rhode Island.
However, starting today, February 1st, I am going to walk across Rhode Island. Virtually. Sort of. In a symbolic, kind of way.
I wear a pedometer everyday. I’m not overly anal about getting my steps in, but I like to see how I’m doing. One day, it occurred to me – if I added up all of the steps I’ve taken this month, how far could I have walked?
Well, I’m a bit of an obsessive thinker, so that got me thinking a lot of different things, and before I knew it, I had come up with the idea to keep track of my steps and see how far I could walk over the course of my weight loss journey. And that then led to the thought of, “Wouldn’t it be cooler to know I had walked across this many states instead of just, I’ve walked this many miles?”
So I spent some time over the weekend going through Wikipedia and Google, calculating how wide or long each state is. (In the case of Hawaii, I decided to use the width or length of its major islands.) I decided to go with the longest measurement for my count. In other words, for a state like my home state of Kentucky, it’s length is much different than it’s width, so I’m going to walk it’s width. It’ll take longer.
I decided to start with Rhode Island, because it is the smallest state and therefore can be completed the quickest. It’ll be a nice little boost to complete a state right off the bat. I’m not sure what the next state I’m going to trek across will be, but I will post here that I’ve completed Rhode Island and announce the next state I am walking across.
For the record, Rhode Island is 48 miles across. I can walk a mile in about 1900 steps, so for me, I’ll complete Rhode Island in 91,200 steps.
I’d love it if some people wanted to take this journey with me! I’m not sure how do to this except for the honor system, but if you’d like to walk across the US with me, please let me know!
For those interested in the distance across each state, I’ve made a nice little list. Remember, the miles given is the maximum of width or length, not the shortest way across. (And I realize diagonal would be the longest way across in some states, but that involved way more work than I was willing to put into this.)
Rhode Island, 48
Delaware, 96
Connecticut, 110
New Jersey, 150
Vermont, 160
Massachusetts, 183
New Hampshire, 190
Ohio, 220
West Virginia, 240
Maryland, 249
South Carolina, 260
Arkansas, 261
Indiana, 270
Pennsylvania, 280
Georgia, 298
Oklahoma, 298
Hawaii, 299
Missouri, 300
Iowa, 310
Wisconsin, 310
Maine, 320
Alabama, 330
New York, 330
Mississippi, 340
North Dakota, 340
Utah, 350
Oregon, 360
Washington, 360
Wyoming, 360
New Mexico, 370
Kentucky, 379
Louisiana, 379
Colorado, 380
South Dakota, 380
Illinois, 395
Arizona, 400
Minnesota, 400
Kansas, 417
Nebraska, 430
Virginia, 430
Tennessee, 440
Florida, 447
Michigan, 456
Idaho, 479
Nevada, 490
North Carolina, 560
Montana, 630
California, 770
Texas, 790
Alaska, 2261
I have currently walked across zero states. I’ll post an update with the state colored in as soon as I’ve completed one!
No States Walked Across Yet
Nebraska rocks! I’m in!
Sweet! I’ll make sure Nebraska is the next state I cover.
What a great idea!
I thought so, too. I’m curious to know how many states I’ll cover before I make it to goal weight.
That’s an awesome idea Jeremy! I think you should do Alaska (my home state) next
I think I might save Alaska for a little closer to the end… kind of a long walk.
[...] those of you who are knew to this blog, you may not know that I am “walking across the US.” I’m doing it a little differently than you might think, though. I wear a pedometer daily to [...]