How many states have you been to? How to count them, and how to finish the map

It's the travel question with the most arguments attached. Does driving through a state count? What about an airport? A gas station at two in the morning on the way somewhere else?

Everyone has a number, and almost nobody counts it the same way. So before the number, the rules.

The counting rules people actually use

These are the house rules that come up most, from strictest to loosest:

• You slept there. A night in a bed (or a tent) inside the state line.
• You did something there. A meal, a hike, a game, a visit with someone. Just driving through doesn't count.
• You set foot there. You got out of the car. The gas station counts.
• Airports count. The loosest rule, and the one people argue about the most.

None of these is wrong. Pick one, write it down, and keep it, so your number stays honest from year to year.

My rule is that I had to get out of the car and do something in the state. Layovers don't count.

Let the map keep count for you

In YourPond, a state fills itself in the first time you log a moment anywhere inside it. Log a dinner in Austin and Texas is collected. Check in at a national park or a landmark and the state around it comes along too.

The moments you logged in the past count, so most people's maps are partly done before they ever look at them.

Then there's the map itself. Switch it to States and every state you have collected fills in, with a running count at the top of how many you have. The gray ones sit there looking at you. That gray part is where the next road trip comes from!

Each state stamp also keeps the people you were there with, so the map remembers who was in the car, not just where it went.

How to finish the map

Once you know which states are left, the planning gets fun. A few patterns help:

Group the small ones. The New England states are close together. A long weekend with a car can pick up several of them.

Plan around a park. National parks pull you into states you would not visit otherwise. Arizona and Colorado both have parks worth a whole trip, and a park check-in collects the state.

Save the far ones for a real trip. Alaska and Hawaii are usually last on the list because they take more than a weekend. Give them the trip they deserve.

Use the Bucket List. Save the states you want to a Bucket List in Pond Passport. When you finally log a moment there, the stamp moves into your collection on its own.

If you want to see what you can collect once you get there, the United States guide is a grid of the states, and each one opens its own page.

How to start

Open YourPond and switch the map to States. Count the gray ones. Then log the last trip you took to one of the states you have, with the people who came.

Pond Passport is free, on the web and in the YourPond app for iPhone.

Browse the US state stamps · Stamps by place · How Pond Passport works