48-state road warriors have a minute for Minnesota

The Great American Road Trip

Joey Stocking fuels up as The Great American Road Trip continues.

By PAUL WALSH, Star Tribune

Last update: May 7, 2008 - 3:24 PM

Under cover of darkness and without encountering a single soul, the Utah road warriors popped into Minnesota early today for a figurative cup of coffee as they rolled on toward driving through all of the Lower 48 States in less than a week.

As of this 3 p.m. CDT today, 20-somethings Joshua Keeler, Joey Stocking and Adam Gatherum, all of North Salt Lake, were halfway through Montana -- state No. 39 -- in their boxy but roomy 2005 Toyota Scion.

With Gatherum behind the wheel, the three rode 1 mile into Minnesota on Interstate Hwy. 90 in Rock County. They left the highway at Exit 1 (Manley), drove over the overpass and entered westbound I-90 for South Dakota.

"We're just nicking [the states], if we can," Josh Keeler said today, explaining their brief time in the Gopher State.

Keeler said they saw no sign of life Minnesota. "Nothing but road."

The mission began Sunday in Vermont, when the three put their car in drive -- and drive, they have -- and embarked on the "Great American Road Trip" in Vermont.

The 120-hour odyssey, if successful, will cover about 7,500 miles. They have traveled more than 5,100 miles as of this morning.

The end is scheduled for Friday (they are ahead of the unofficial record of 5 days, 7 hours and 15 minutes for such a pursuit) at the Four Corners where New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Utah meet.

Guinness World Records declines to recognize cross-country driving records such as these because they encourage speeding, but these three are trying to beat the "best known time" for a continuous drive touching the contiguous 48 states.

Tuesday night, with most of South Dakota ahead of them, their blog at greatamericanroadtrip.us reported, "We hear that I-90 is pretty boring on the east side [of the state] ... lucky for us we are doing it in the middle of the night. We hit a monster rain storm in Iowa, and that slowed us down a bit but we are still ahead of schedule."

The three are using AAA maps and global positioning system to help them stay on course and document that they actually entered all 48 states.

Keeler's father, Jim, conceived the trip 15 years ago, but it was set aside when his mother died.

"We are getting ready to head south to Four Corners to meet you Friday at about 3:00 AM," the elder Keeler wrote on the guys' blog. "Everyone is invited to come to the finish to meet them as they finally get to stand up for more than five minutes."

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482

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