Day Trippin'

On Monday, three friends left Vermont on a quest to drive through all 48 contiguous states in the U.S. in under 120 hours.

On Thursday afternoon they completed their goal and obliterated the unofficial record when they covered 48 states in 7,008 miles and did it in 106 hours and 43 minutes.

The three guys in their early 20s documented their progress along the way on their Web site, greatamericanroadtrip.us , with pictures, progress updates and blogs.

The idea for the trip originated 15 years ago with the elder Keeler, who planned on trying to break the Guinness record with two of his friends.

“I did it all using paper maps, which means I had to calculate every mile between every town and city in the country by hand,” said James. “It took me six months working on the maps every day.”

Just before he was getting ready to leave on the trip, James’ mother died and as a result the trip never happened.

Then, last September, his son Joshua came to him with an idea- ‘We’re going to do the trip.’”

Using his father’s maps and research, Keeler, Stocking and Gatherum chose a route that took them down the East Coast and then looped through the South. From there they zigzagged through the Midwest, cut across the Pacific Northwest, and then looped through California and Nevada before reaching the Four Corners.