Reading Road Trip Across the US

GAME IS OFFICIALLY OVER! Thanks for playing everyone! Here are the winners:

Chili = Grand Prize: A print of the literary map in the top image and a box filled with bookish gifts worth about $100.
Nicole D = Early Bird prize: $50 book depository gift card for the first person to arrive on the West Coast.
Rachel N = Unlucky: Gag gift to the person who is selected the most for travel delays. This was selected via random draw.
Currey = Random winner: Randomly selected person will receive a $25 Amazon gift card.

Congrats! I will reach out to you all individually tomorrow.

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Welcome to our summer 2017 reading challenge where together we will read our way across the United States! The goal of the challenge is to travel (a.k.a. read) from the East Coast to the West coast and amass the highest points. The challenge will begin July 1 and will end September 30 at midnight EST.

How to play:
All players will begin on an East Coast state of their choice: Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, New York, Connecticut, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, or Florida.

To travel across the country you must read and review books corresponding to each state. The book either must be predominantly set in that state OR the author has to be from the state. You will be awarded points for each state you visit. You must move across the country in the same way you would drive — you can’t skip states (see exception below).

To move across a state you must complete your book and post a mini review (or link to your view on Goodreads or your blog) as a comment on this page.

Five bonus points will be awarded the following pitstops:
Mount Rushmore, South Dakota
Antelope Canyon, Arizona
Zion National Park, Utah
Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico
Savannah, Georgia
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Rock and Roll hall of fame in Ohio
Liberty Bell, Pennsylvania
Spotted Cat Jazz club, New Orleans, Louisiana
Graceland in Tennessee
Largest ball of twine, Kansas
Lucy the Elephant, New Jersey
Dreamland BBQ, Alabama
Las Vegas, Nevada
Federal Hill, Rhode Island

Your trip will end when you arrive in Washington, Oregon, or California and finish your book for that state.

Travel Exceptions: Each Monday (starting July 5) three major events will happen that can impact your game. One event type will advance your game and the other two event types will delay you.

1. Flight hubs: Each Monday we will use random.org to select 5 states that will become flight hubs for the week (Monday-Sunday). If you arrive in this state any time in that next week, you will be able to either skip over one state to in your move west OR travel eastbound to any landmark located east of your current location. In order to take advantage of this opportunity you must declare that you are using the flight hub and where you are going before the end of the week.
2. Travel delays: Two randomly selected participants will be picked each Monday to experience a travel delay. If you are selected, then you will not be able to advance to a new state until the following Monday. You can finish your current book but will not be able to start a new book until your travel restriction is lifted. If you have bad luck, you may be delayed multiple times throughout the game but no player will be given back-to-back delays.
3. Weather warning. Two states will be randomly selected as blackout states each Monday. This means that for that week, you will be unable to travel through that state. If you are already in that state when the weather warning occurs, you may finish your book for that state but you may not start your book for the next state until the blackout is over. If you are adjacent to that state and want to travel through it, you must either wait until the end of the week OR find a alternate route.

Additional Rules:

• You can only read one book at a time.
• You must complete the book and write a mini review BEFORE you move onto the next state.
• Please keep track of your own score on this page. You can start a thread for yourself by posting a comment with your name. Then each time you return to update, just hit reply to your original comment with the mini review and score update. I will double check all scores.
• Books must be over 120 pages and no graphic novels allowed.

Points & Prizes:
-1 point per state you complete
-5 points per landmark you visit (basically you will get 6 points for visiting states with one of the landmarks listed above).

Grand Prize: A print of the literary map in the top image and a box filled with bookish gifts worth about $100. To win this prize you must a) reach the West coast AND b) have the highest number of points among all those who also reach the west coast. If you have the most points but fail to reach a West coast state by end of game (September 30) you win a big fat nothing.
Early Bird prize: $50 book depository gift card for the first person to arrive on the West Coast.
Unlucky: Gag gift to the person who is selected the most for travel delays.
Random winner: Randomly selected person will receive a $25 Amazon gift card. To qualify you have to have completed a minimum of one book. You do not have to complete the challenge to win this prize:

List of participants:
1. Jen: 
2. Sushicat:
3. Tessa
4. Rachel O
5. Jenni
6. Tracy
7. Currey: 
8. Diane S
9. Jean:
10. Cindy:
11. Chili:
12. Rachel N
13. Blueberry: 
14. JoLene
15. Jan
16. Nicole: Arrived on West Coast
17. Lara
18. Book Worm
19. Debbie
20. Jessica: 
21. Jenny
22. Kamisha
23. Katie:
24. Katja: Arrived on West Coast
25. Betty:
26. Unidragonfrag:
27. Kristel
28. Erin S: 
29. jyotioo:
30. Charisma
31. Denise:
32. Katie

First flight hubs:

1. 1. Oklahoma
   2. Texas
   3. New Hampshire
   4. South Dakota
   5. Louisiana

The game ends on September 30th so no more travel delays so people can make it to the end.

NOTE: I’ve noticed that a few of you have visited the same state more than once. I’ll contact you all individually, but you cannot claim landmark points more than once so please go through your score/states and make sure you are not counting landmark points more than once. So you can get the full points the first time but then next time you visit the same state, you only get the points for the state.