When we first started planning our yearlong perimeter trip along the Edges of America, we wondered just how many miles we were talking about.
If we were to just do the interstates nearest the country’s borders, our preliminary research indicated, it might be 10,000 to 15,000 miles.
But we’re not about interstates. We want to do the smaller, more scenic roads. And we want to stick closer to the edges of America. How many additional miles will these goals add?
Not an easy question to answer.
It’s complicated by the fact that so much of the country’s border is coastline and so much of that coastline is jagged. Then there’s the hundreds and hundreds of miles of marshland that is part land and part water…. How to estimate the number of inlets we’ll explore, causeways we’ll canvass, ferries we’ll frequent and marshlands we’ll meander?
Bottom line? We’ve not a clue how many miles we’ll traverse this year.
Here’s what we do know: As of May 22, we’re on our ninth state and have clocked 6,140 miles. We left Dallas on March 1 and have been on the road for 12 weeks, so we’ve averaged 512 miles a week so far.
Georges thinks we’ll hit 30,000 miles by the time we pull back into our downtown Dallas driveway on or about next March 1. I’m guessing it will be closer to 35,000 – and depending on how many excursions inland from the border or into Canada and, later, into Mexico, we take, even that could be a conservative estimate.
What do you think?
Place your bets in the Comments section below.
Postcards from the Perimeter 
I say, 32,018 miles just because serendipity needs to be allotted for.
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Thanks, Julie. Good logic!
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I’ll guess 38,462.
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All right. You’re on! (Thanks, Mike!)
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I now have the benefit of 10 guesses so I’m going to the low end of scale as I think I agree with Cecilia that the country straigthens out past the East Coast so my guess is 27,949. We enjoy all your posts and wish you continued safe travels
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Thank you, Tom!
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Dear Tom, we have just returned home to Dallas this afternoon and it looks like you’ve won the guess-the-total-miles sweepstakes. Please reply to this comment and I will provide details. Congratulations!
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Keven & Georges,
We are immensely enjoying your adventures as you travel the perimeter of America. We recently took delivery of a Casita 17′ Spirit Deluxe at the Rice factory and are spending our first camping nights over the Memorial Day Holiday. Since we are such Casita novices, we have many questions, but to respect your time, I’ll ask only one… Are you using the Casita supplied cushions as a mattress, or did you purchase one of those custom size mattresses we have heard about? Our research shows they are very expensive so we’ve considered a full-size inflatable mattress instead. Can you please help guide us with a bedding recommendation?
Thanks,
Don & Chris Cox
Garland, TX
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Welcome to the Casita family! Glad to have you aboard. Pls feel free to ask any questions. We are in and out of cell service but we’ll do our best to respond. Re mattress: We use the Casita-provided cushions plus we went to Costco and bought the memory foam that’s nearly 3 inches thick. Georges cut it to fit the bed and it lays on top the cushions. Our Casita bed is as comfortable as our bed at home!
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37,007 miles
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Very precise, Bill. Sure you don’t want to make it 37,007.5? 🙃
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We did the northern route around the Great Lakes three years ago. You are not close enough to the lakeshores to see anything worthwhile. Basically you are driving through a forest near a lake. We would suggest the southern route.
We enjoy your posts immensely. We have rented a Casita for three days in mid-June to see if we enjoy it. I’m betting we will.
Keep up the great work.
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Thanks for the advice, John! Others have said something similar. Congrats in the Casita rental! We love ours and we’ve had it for 11 years. Here’s to your enjoyment…!
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I would have picked the 3’s so I
will guess 33999. I had hoped you would have come across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel as I wanted you to come to Delmarva so I could take you out for crab cakes!!! You would definitely have been on the perimeter if you had come that way but I understand your reasoning to go to Williamsburg.
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Yes, thanks Deb, we were sorely tempted to take that tunnel! I hope to have another opportunity to do so at some point. G had a sudden business need to take a quick trip to Dallas so we needed to get to Reagan Natl. (Blog post about this coming soon.) We do hope to get into Delaware early next month as we cross over the northern part of the Eastern Shore…. (We have another dilemma like this coming up when we hit the Great Lakes: Do we take a northern route or southern route around them? Or both! I’ve vacillated back-and-forth…. Stay tuned!)
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I’ll vote with Georges on this. Once you get past the Great Lakes, the border gets fairly even except for the Washington/Oregon coast. I’ll bet 30,000 tops.
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G thanks you for your solidarity!
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My guess 31,111
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Sounds good. Thanks, Dan!
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Just pulling a random number out of a hat…37,288 miles. I figure there’ll be detours along the way to get ice cream.😋🍦
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Sounds like a good random number to me. And love the ice cream expectation! Thx, Margaret.
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Maine alone has 4,598 miles of coast – more than rest of East Coast. Still, I don’t think you’ll spend two weeks in Maine even though it is a fabulous place to be in the summer. Ifyou stick with one year, my guess is 29,500. If you stretch past a year, who knows?
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Thanks, Tegwin. You are very precise!
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I’m taking the 3’s before someone else does.
33,333.33
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Thanks, David. Sounds like a good strategy!
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In a sense you’re navigating the diameter of the circumference, so I vote for Pi: 314,159 miles.
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Yikes, Stu. Very mathematical of you! (Or should I say “geometric” of you.) 🤦♀️
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I’m going with 33,000
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Thanks, Keith! (Nothing like splitting the difference….)
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