Fun little site/applet that lets you track states — ostensibly for the ones you’ve visited, but in theory for pretty much anything else. Here’s my “visited” list — the large majority of US territory, but still a small majority of states, since I’ve never done much in the Northeast or Mid-Atlantic.
They also offer you an opportunity to contribute to an open travel guide. It’s all in Beta, so the performance is a little flaky.
The “what really counts as a visited state” debate gets summarized here:
Clearly, just being [at] an airport shouldn’t count, right? But of course, this opens up all sorts of arbitrarinesses. First, what about train stations? On the one hand, they’re like an airport. On the other hand, you do pass through the countryside and actually see stuff. But really, should that be enough to count a state? And if not, then what about just driving through? The driving-through test is why I get to count Idaho and Wisconsin, for instance, but why is driving through any better than taking a train through? And if just driving through doesn’t count, what if I stopped at a gas station/mini-mart? Or what if I was only in the state long enough to stay in a hotel overnight (Ohio)? Or what if in addition to staying in a hotel overnight, I used a laundry service (Minnesota)? All these are questions for you to resolve between yourself and your God.
I think I’ve excluded airport-only stops (NY and GA), but I do include some states I’ve essentially driven through without stopping (KS) (is the Interstate that much more representative than an airport?), and some where my business was focused on just one city (OH, TX), or even just a part of a city (VA).