Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Alex Cabrero Reporting With Spring here, lots of us start thinking about road trips -- where to go, what to see. A few weeks ago, a Tooele County man finished the ultimate road trip, one that took him almost 50 years to finish.
Dave Bingaman: "I took my first trip when I was 10-years old."
If the open road has ever appealed to you...
Dave Bingaman: "It's truly more fun getting there than it is being there."
...then Dave Bingaman's story is one that'll make you just plain jealous.
Dave Bingaman: "Mentally, anytime I wanted to put myself on a self-induced high, I'd just get thinking about the next time I'd be behind the wheel, out on the open plain."
Driving made life more enjoyable for Bingaman, but it also allowed him to complete his lifelong goal to visit every single county in the lower 48 states.
Dave Bingaman: "3,066, if I got the right number."
He figured no one could ever collect all the stamps or all the baseball cards, but you could visit all the counties. Every time he drove into a new one, he highlighted it on a map.
Dave Bingaman: "I can't think of one I didn't like, let's put it that way."
More than that, though, Bingman says the memories along the way are what made his trip special, like the gas prices in the early 60's.
Dave Bingaman: "17.9 cents a gallon, Chillcotte, Missouri."
Or the confusing roads of New York City, where the residents turned out to not be so bad.
Dave Bingaman: "They were so courteous in downtown Manhattan, letting you make a turn or get into a tunnel."
And just a few weeks ago Dave visited Lackawanna County in Pennsylvania, his final county, after more than 50 years of driving in his free time.
Dave Bingaman: "No, there was no big pot at the end of the rainbow. It's just one of those things that kind of soaks in."
It was the end of his lifelong adventure, bringing him memories that'll last even longer.
Dave Bingaman: "You see something really beautiful, like a sunset over the Grand Canyon or something, and you look at the empty seat next to you, and you just wish that everybody you know and love could be sitting there at the same moment, and enjoying the same feeling and the same beauty you're seeing."
We should all be so fortunate. Bingaman isn't sure what he'd like to do next. The only thing he says comes to his mind is visiting every county again.
