“So shut up, live, travel, adventure, bless, and don’t be sorry.” Jack Kerouac, Desolation Angels.

Like Jack Kerouac, I was born and raised in Lowell, Massachusetts. We both grew up in the same Québécois diaspora and attended the same Catholic parishes. My father was even an altar server at Jack’s funeral. But what really makes me think of Jack as a kindred spirit is our shared compulsion to travel.

Our Québécois ancestors were among the first Europeans to explore this vast continent. It’s as if traveling is hardwired into the French-Canadian DNA.

Or it could just be the ADHD.

Whatever the source, I’ve had a love of the open road since I was very young. On family car trips, I pored over AAA maps for hours on end. I did the same when I was at home. I was an easy kid to shop for. Getting me a bunch of free guidebooks was a cheap birthday and Christmas gift, I’m sure.

Elites put down places like Appalachia and the “flyover country.” This Massachusetts-raised boy has found Appalachia to be where his heart is.

In college, I found that weekend road trips were the perfect way to relieve stress. I continued this habit after graduating and getting a job. Putting in 12 hours on the road in a day was nothing to me.

But none of these excursions would compare to the 60-day, 15,000-mile trip across the continent I took in the summer of 2015. It lit the spark of my desire to visit every corner of North America.

When I moved from Massachusetts to South Carolina later that year, I began my quest as a “county collector” in earnest.

By now, you’re probably asking, “What in the world is a county collector?”

A county collector is a person who sets out to visit every single one of the counties and county equivalents in the United States of America—all 3,144 of them.

And, yes, we do call ourselves “county collectors.”

My current count stands at 2,571, which means I have 573 left to go.

Do I still have your attention? Great. You just may be county collecting-curious. If so, welcome! Here’s a little advice to get you started on your new compulsion.

Call of the Open Road

  Rob Eno

I’m assuming here that you’ve left your home zip code. If you have, you’re already on your way!

Don’t worry, you don’t need to get a big map, put it on your wall, and highlight all your counties by hand—unless you want to. For those of us who prefer digital tools, the excellent website mob-rule.com makes your progress easy to track.

An account on Mob Rule is free; just grab one and start filling in your counties. The folks at Mob Rule have even made it easy to see which counties you’ve been to by overlaying them on Google Maps!

But first, we need to clear up one thing: what counts as a “visit” to a county?

Here’s how Marty O’Brien and his friends at Mob Rule define it:

To visit a county, just cross the plane of the county line. Usually, you visit a county in a car, but it is possible to visit counties by biking, hiking, or even skiing. Generally, we don’t count flying over a county, especially flying in a commercial jet airplane.

As with seemingly everything in modern America, the exact rules of county collecting have been the subject of much debate. For example, do airports or water crossings count?

On those points, I take the advice of the wise sage of this endeavor, Reid Williamson, the president of the Extra Miler Club. Williamson often settles the controversies by stating plainly: if the county sheriff can arrest you, you’re in the county.

By the time you’re seriously pondering questions like this, the chances of you being hooked have gone up significantly. You’re on the way to being a certified county collector. “One of us! One of us!”

Find Your Crew

  It’s an endless topic of debate as to what best defines the great American road trip: natural beauty, national monuments, or popular amusements with the common touch?Rob Eno

You’re hooked, you say? Great. Now is when you find out there are more of us than you think.

Enter the Extra Miler Club. I cannot recommend joining this organization and its online Facebook community enough. It’s a valuable resource, both for learning county collecting tips and tricks and for meeting some very cool folks.

The Facebook group is very active, and members are both willing and eager to help you complete your quest in any way they can. It’s free to join, but I highly recommend paying the $12 a year membership to support the club’s mission. You even get a snail-mail newsletter four times a year with updates and articles about the hobby.

You’ll also be inspired by the 100% Club—the 70+ members who have visited every county.

One Bite at a Time

  A nation of roads must be a nation of signs. In America, in some sense, all roads and signs lead eventually to the sea.Rob Eno

First up, ask yourself what type of county collector you want to be. Are you going to try to grab some counties on other trips? Or are you going all in and planning trips just to grab counties? Both are valid options. There is no “right way” to do this.

Whichever route you choose, the main thing is to keep it fun and not make a job out of it. In either case, the first thing you need is a road atlas with county lines, which is crucial for planning. The Rand McNally Atlas is a good option. For a county-counting specific trip, open up your Mob Rule account and see what counties you need. Then open up your paper atlas to get a rough outline of your route.

First, find a city or landmark that you can use as a waypoint and highlight it. Look for places from which you can drive across a county quickly. Make sure to grab as many of those waypoints as you can.

When you’re on your trip, use your GPS to go to the waypoints you’ve selected. I’m a fan of using the “avoid highways” option so that I can get a sense of where I’m traveling. It’s that easy. Don’t worry about losing cell service—you’ve got that paper map to fall back on.

If you’re looking to add new counties as you travel for another reason, take a look at the route most people take, and then see if there are nearby counties with minor detours. Get off the highway, and go grab them. Or, do what journalist and The Voice of Middle America author Salena Zito does and only travel on secondary roads.

I’m not going to sugarcoat this. Before 2021, this hobby was much more affordable—especially during 2020, when the vast majority of folks were afraid to travel and gas was under two bucks a gallon. Hotels were cheap as well. Today, however, the answer is yes, this does get expensive.

But it really isn’t much more expensive than grabbing a flight to some tropical paradise or Europe for two weeks, and you can find lots of ways to make it cheaper. Stay at motels or other low-cost brands. If you like to camp—and, unlike me, are willing to tolerate mosquitos—even better.

Plus, you don’t need to get this done in one chunk. Spread it out. Give yourself a long-term goal.

Beauty of the Backroads

  Criscrossing the country, one’s recurring companions are obscure hamlets, imposing power centers, and the substance that keeps them forever connected: gasoline.Rob Eno

You may be asking yourself: is all this effort worth it? Why would you do this?

Well, it’s simple. We live in a great and glorious nation with natural beauty in every state. County collecting is an excellent way to open your eyes to these riches.

Elites put down places like Appalachia and the “flyover country.” This Massachusetts-raised boy has found Appalachia to be where his heart is. Western North Carolina up through eastern Kentucky is one of my favorite places in all of America. The Ohio River valley is majestic. I’d never have gotten there without this hobby.

I hope I’ve convinced you to undertake this journey with me. If so, I’ll see you on the road.

Rob Eno is the managing editor of Blaze News. He is from Lowell, Massachusetts and now resides in the freedom of Texas.