Check out these 25 questions and answers and see where you land on the travel expert spectrum.
By Henry M. Holden
June 2015
Touring the United States by motorhome can add to your knowledge of places and things. Put that knowledge to use by tackling the following trivia questions. The accompanying answers have been verified as much as possible, though a few are debatable. That’s because the definition of what constitutes a town, a lake, or even east and west can be a tad nebulous.
Ready to get started?
Questions
General
1). Name at least three of U.S. News’ top vacation spots in the continental United States.
2). What U.S. city has the highest rate of lightning strikes per capita?
3). What state has had the flags of six nations fly over it — and what are those nations?
4). What is the deepest cave in the United States: Howe Caverns, in Pennsylvania; Kazumura Cave, in Hawaii; Lechuguilla Cave, in New Mexico; or Tears of the Turtle Cave, in Montana?
5). Which state has the longest straight stretch of road: California, Delaware, or North Dakota?
6). List the seven states whose names honor kings and queens.
7). Many are familiar with Dublin, Ireland. But how many U.S. states have a city or town named Dublin?
Interstates
8). How many states does Interstate 95 pass through?
9). How many states does Interstate 80 travel through?
10). Name the longest interstate highway in the United States.
11). What is the nation’s second-longest interstate route?
12). What is the nation’s shortest two-digit interstate route?
13). What is the United States’ longest north-south interstate route: I-15, I-55, or I-95?
14). What state has the most interstate mileage (not routes): California, Ohio, or Texas?
15). What state has the most interstate routes (not miles): New York, California, or Illinois?
16). Which president was instrumental in passing legislation to establish U.S. interstates: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Harry S. Truman, or John F. Kennedy?
17). Four state capitals are not served by an interstate. Can you name one?
Geography
18) Name the southernmost U.S. state.
19). Which state in the contiguous United States has the most lakes: Minnesota, California, or Wisconsin?
20). Which state has the lowest point of elevation: New Jersey, California, or Maine?
21). Which of the contiguous U.S. states has the longest ocean coastline: California, New York, or Florida?
22). What state has the shortest ocean coastline of any state: New York, Mississippi, or New Hampshire?
23). Which is the United States’ tallest mountain: Mount Rainier, in Washington; Mount McKinley, in Alaska; Mount Whitney, in California; or Mount Elbert, in Colorado?
24). Which of the Lower 48 has the fewest neighboring states? The most?
25). Name the easternmost and westernmost states.
Answers To Travel Trivia
General
1). The following top vacation spots are in popular order but don’t include spots outside the continental United States: Yellowstone National Park; Washington, D.C.; San Francisco, California; New York City; San Diego, California; Yosemite National Park; Walt Disney World, Orlando; Cape Cod, Massachusetts; Chicago, Illinois; and Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
2). Clearwater, Florida, has the highest rate of lightning strikes per capita.
3). Texas is the only state to have the flags of six nations fly over it. They are Spain, France, Mexico, Republic of Texas, Confederate States, and the United States.
4). Hawaii’s 3,614-foot-deep Kazumura Cave, a lava tube, ranks as the deepest cave in the United States. In 2014 a team explored Tears of the Turtle Cave in Montana to a depth of 1,629 feet, making it the deepest cave in the continental United States.
5). This answer is debatable, but some folks say the 123-mile stretch of North Dakota State Route 46 is the longest straight road in the United States, even though it has a few kinks. The straightest portion is the 31 miles between Gackle and Beaver Creek.
6). Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Virginia are named after kings and queens.
7). At least 15 states have either a city, town, or tiny burg named Dublin: Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia. There may be others!
Interstates
8). I-95 passes through 15 states and the District of Columbia: Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
9). I-80 travels through 11 states: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California.
10). I-90 is the longest U.S. interstate. It travels 3,020.54 miles from Boston, Massachusetts, to Seattle, Washington.
11). I-80, which encompasses 2,899.54 miles from Teaneck, New Jersey, to San Francisco, California, is the nation’s second-longest interstate.
12). I-97 is the shortest two-digit interstate, measuring 17.62 miles from Baltimore to Annapolis, Maryland.
13). I-95, which travels 1,919.74 miles from Houlton, Maine, to Miami, Florida, is the country’s longest north-south interstate.
14). Texas has 3,233.45 miles of interstate in 17 routes. California has more routes than Texas (25), but its total mileage is 2,455.74.
15). New York has 29 routes that stretch 1,674.73 miles.
16).President Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, which created a 41,000-mile “National System of Interstate and Defense Highways.”
17). Juneau, Alaska; Dover, Delaware; Jefferson City, Missouri; and Pierre, South Dakota, are not served by any interstates.
Geography
18). Florida is not the southernmost state in the United States, as some might assume. Hawaii is farther south.
19). In the contiguous United States, Wisconsin claims the most lakes, although Minnesotans disagree. Minnesota, the “Land of 10,000 Lakes,” counts a lake as having a minimum size of 10 acres; by that standard, it has 11,842. Wisconsin has more than 15,000 lakes (counting some less than 10 acres), giving it the highest number outside of Alaska. Although some of these Wisconsin lakes are large and well-known, such as Lake Winnebago, many of the smaller lakes are so tiny that they don’t even have names. (Alaska claims to have more than 3 million lakes, though many are small, seasonal, and vary with the snowmelt.)
20). Death Valley, California, is 282 feet below sea level — the lowest elevation in not only the United States but all of North America. Appropriately named, the valley also holds the record for the highest recorded temperature in the world: 134 degrees in 1913.
21). The longest ocean coastline in the contiguous United States belongs to Florida, which covers 1,350 miles.
22). New Hampshire has the shortest ocean coastline: 13 miles.
23). Alaska’s 20,236-foot-high Mount McKinley towers as the country’s highest mountain, followed by 10 other Alaska peaks. California’s Mount Whitney comes in at 14,494 feet, according to the National Park Service, making it the highest peak in the Lower 48.
24). Maine has only one state as a neighbor: New Hampshire. On the other end of the spectrum, Missouri and Tennessee each border eight states.
25). This is a real trick question. Alaska is the most western state. It passes the 80th meridian, making it the most eastern as well. If Alaska is excluded, the easternmost point is Sail Rock, near West Quoddy Head in Lubec, Maine.