Two states light up; connect them by naming states that share borders, building an unbroken chain across the country. Ten puzzles per run.
It's a road-trip planner's quiz: the skill is seeing the short route through the middle instead of wandering the long way around.
How to play
Type any state to add it to the map; the round completes the moment a full border-to-border path links the two highlighted states.
Any route works — shorter is just faster. Ten puzzles per run, one count-up timer.
What counts in this quiz
10 randomly drawn state pairs per run, always connectable by land — Alaska and Hawaii sit these puzzles out for obvious reasons.
What's not included — and why
Washington, D.C. is not on the map as an answer — it's a federal district under Congress's direct authority, not a state, despite having more residents than Wyoming.
The five inhabited US territories — Puerto Rico, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands — are excluded because they're US soil but have never been granted statehood.
Good to know
Alaska, the largest state, was purchased from Russia in 1867 — and Rhode Island, the smallest, would fit inside it more than 400 times.
Delaware earned its "First State" nickname by ratifying the Constitution in 1787, ahead of everyone else.
Virginia has produced eight US presidents — more than any other state — while Ohio claims seven as its birthplace.
Wyoming is home to Yellowstone, established in 1872 as the world's first national park.