The first thing you need for a great trip is a great map!  So here, broken down into sections, is the basic route that we originally planned on taking in our journey.  We did ultimately make a couple changes, but this was what was planned in the first place - 

• Total Miles to be Driven - 16,701.  This does not include side trips, detours, getting lost, etc. (The end total was 22,264 miles)
• All 50 states visited, including the District of Columbia
• Including Flights, we will cover over 25,000 miles, in just over two months!  (We flew 8,436 miles, for a total distance covered of 30,700 miles!)
• We plan to photograph over 150 dancers as part of the project.  (We ended up photographing 163 dancers.)
• Every Level 1 American ecoregion with be represented.  These consist of -
  • Arctic Cordillera
  • Tundra
  • Taiga
  • Hudson Plains
  • Northern Forests
  • Northwestern Forested Mountains
  • Marine West Coast Forests
  • Eastern Temperate Forests
  • Great Plains
  • North American Deserts
  • Mediterranean California
  • Southern Semi-Arid Highlands
  • Temperate Sierras
  • Tropical Dry Forest

Leg 1 - Ft Lauderdale, FL to Garden of the Gods, CO

Leg 2 - Garden of the Gods, CO to olympic national park, wa

Leg 3 - Olympic National park to Tallgrass prairie national preserve, ks

Leg 4 - Tallgrass Prairie national preserve, ks to acadia national park, me

Leg 5 - Acadia National park, me to the white house, washington d.c.

Final leg - the white house, washington d.c. to ft. lauderdale, fl

the flights

hawai'i and alaska destinations