Quickest way to drive through 5 counties

Someone posted something somewhere. The something was a post asking what would be the quickest way to drive through 5 states.

He wondered if this would be where some of the big, square midwestern states border each other - 4 corners and one other if you will; or whether it would be quicker to go through some of the smaller North Eastern states.

My best bet was to go from Clayton, New Mexico, to Elkhart, Kansas, or something like. It worked out at about 85 miles. The New England States may have a geographically shorter version, but I think there'd be more traffic on the roads.

So a couple of assumptions have to be made.

Firstly, you have to drive along roads. Unless you're driving some kind of tank, a direct route would be impossible.

Secondly, the post specified the "Quickest" route, and that's not necessarily the shortest. Speed limits, urban (and by extension, traffic) density, and road quality all have to be taken into consideration.

So the Clayton - Elkhart route (with a tiny foray into Texas, and a slight diversion into Colorado) is what I've come up with.

But that's the good old U.S of A.

Here in Blighty, we have counties rather than states. But the same principle applies.

What would be the quickest way to drive through 5 counties?

I'm looking at Kent - East Sussex - West Sussex - Surrey - Greater London as one possible solution.

Merseyside - Lancashire - Greater Manchester - Derbyshire - Cheshire is another possibility.

But the favourite right now involves Leicestershire, Rutland, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire. Or possibly Peterborough, which is a Unitary Authority. Does that mean it's a county? I may have to make an executive decision on this one at some point!

More later, when I've had time to get my piece of string out.