March 19, 2020
Congratulations to Apurva Singh, from Mumbai, India. We are proud to add him to the list of International Members as one of our first members from India. He visited all 50 when he was in the USA on a student visa. He took regional trips to complete all 50 in the span of 5 years and visited at least one tourist attraction or major city in each state.
Drove 45,000 miles solo
Completed in 5 years
Completed at age 26
Drove 40+ rental cars
August 2014
Apurva landed in the USA in New Jersey (1st state) on August 20, 2014 to attend school at New York University (2nd state) While there he visited nearby states – Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Maine, Massachussetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, West Virginia and Virginia + Washington DC. (3rd-13th states)
March – April 2017
Apurva temporarily lived in North Carolina (14)
July 2017
Then he moved to Washington (15) for temporary work and visited nearby Oregon (16)
November 2017 – February 2018
Apurva transferred to Atlanta, Georgia (17) for work and went to Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina and Alabama here. (18th – 21st states)
April 2018
Apurva moved back to Seattle, Washington in February and took multiple road trips of the Western USA.
Road Trip 1 (4,015 Miles):
Day 1- 3 Visited San Fransisco, San Jose, and Sacramento in California (Stayed here for 3 Days) (22nd State)
Day 4: Drove to Reno and Carson City in Nevada (23rd State) all the Way to Salt Lake City in Utah and stayed there.
Day 5: Visited Salt Lake City in Utah (24th State) and drove to Cheyenne, Wyoming (25th State) visited it for couple of hours, then drove to Casper, WY and stayed there.
Day 6: Drove to Cody, WY and from there Drove directly to Seattle, WA. (Drove across Idaho and Montana)
Day 7: Returned to Seattle, WA
Road Trip 2 (2,000 Miles):
Day 1: Drove to Ontario, Oregon (Border city/town in Oregon and Stayed there.
Day 2: Entered Idaho and Visited Boise and Shoshone Falls in Idaho (26th State). Drove to Helena, Montana.
Day 3: Visited Helena, Montana (27th State) and started drive back to WA
Day 4: Returned to Seattle, WA
July 2018
3 day trip with his parents to Chicago, Illinois (28th State).
October 2018
Denver, Colorado (29th State) for IELTS exam and visited for 2 days.
Minneapolis, Minnesota (30), Mt Rushmore, South Dakota (31) and Bismarck, North Dakota (32) via a complete loop on I-90 and I-94 to return to Minneapolis.
November 2018
6 day tour to Kansas City, Missouri (33), Des Moines, Iowa (34), Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska (35), Topeka and other Kansas Landmarks (36), Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (37), Little Rock, Arkansas (38) and Jackson, Mississippi (39). Revisited Memphis and St Louis Arch) before returning to Kansas City, MO to complete the loop.
December 2018
5 day tour
Day 1: Drove from Boston, MA to Erie, PA
Day 2: Entered Ohio and visited Cleveland and Columbus in Ohio (40). Drove to Indianapolis, Indiana (41).
Day 3: Went through Marshal, IL and drove to Louisville, Kentucky (42).
Day 4: Visited Frankfort and Lexington, KY, Cincinnati, OH.
Day 5: Crossed into West Virginia, Entered Pennsylvania and visited Pittsburgh and Harrisburg. Drove back to Boston, MA.
2019
For Hawaii (43rd state) Apurva completed a loop around the whole main Island, stopping at beaches, scenic points and the Pearl Harbor Memorial.
For Alaska (44), Apurva flew into Anchorage, kayaked in Fairbanks, drove an ATV in Denali , did some gold panning. He visited Homer, AK and the town “North Pole” and drove scenic AK-Route 4.
Apurva made a trip to Phoenix and Tucson for Arizona (45).
Another road trip led Apurva to El Paso, Texas (46) and Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico(47) with a stop at the Four Corners Monument.
From Houston, TX Apurva drove to Louisiana (48) and saw the cities of New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette and Alexandria.
His last tour was in August to Detroit and Lansing, Michigan (49) and then the Michigan Upper Peninsular and finally Wisconsin (50th state ) visiting Madison and Milwaukee.
What does Apurva plan to do next?
Apurva travel plans are to visit the US territories and then all 13 Canadian provinces. After that he hopes to travel to visit more countries across the globe. May the travels continuue!
Quotes from Apurva
“When I look at myself in the eye, I see all 50 US States”
“For me 2 to 3 Hours drive is like being nextdoor, 4 to 5 Hours is a short drive, 6 to 9 hours in a normal drive and 10+ hours is a long drive”
“If you are planning for your next 2 to 3 tours/trips while currently being on one, you are on track for visiting 50 states”
“Distances don’t matter to me, but crossing states borders motivates me and I keep looking further to do my next crossing”
