Start with the freeway?

[theo]

I haven't spent much time on this particular puzzle, but it looks like people here have done great work.  It seems like there might be some modern resources that could crack it all the way open.

Start with what everyone seems to agree is the second verse:

Chose a City, then proceed to this rhyme,

Miss Muffet's meal didn't cost a dime.

Travel 3 leagues plus 2/3's more west,

Before you decide to exit and rest.

We can make a few educated guesses about what this is saying:

• We're supposed to start with a city,
  
• we should get on the freeway and head west,
  
• we should go 3.66 leagues (12.6 miles), and
  
• we should get off at some place that has a connection to rest (probably a rest area).
  

And let's make one other guess: the "8 states" note on the map could be telling us that we're looking for an interstate highway that passes through 8 states.

Back when this book was published, it would have been an enormous chore to go through all of the interstate highways, looking for a spot that would match those conditions.  (And maybe that's why there's a big "Road Atlas of the United States" on the table in the page 6 illustration.)  But now we can make things easier with a few internet searches.

There are only 2 interstates that pass through exactly 8 states, and they both run east-west: I-10 and I-40.

Here are the 39 rest areas you would pass if you were heading west through the eight states on I-10:

Florida

Mile Marker 318 – Lake City
Mile Marker 295 – Lake City
Mile Marker 265 – Lee
Mile Marker 233 – Monticello
Mile Marker 194 – Tallahassee
Mile Marker 162 – Quincy
Mile Marker 133 – Cottondale
Exit 96 – Ponce de Leon
Mile Marker 59 – Crestview
Mile Marker 29 – Milton

Alabama

Mile Marker 65 – Seminole

Mississippi

Mile Marker 75 – Moss Point
Mile Marker 63 – Gautier
Exit 2 – Pearlington

Louisiana

Mile Marker 270 – Slidell
Exit 121 – Breaux Bridge

Texas

Exit 880 – Orange
Mile Marker 815 – Winnie
Mile Marker 692 – Columbus
Mile Marker 619 – Seguin
Mile Marker 514 – Kerrville
Mile Marker 394 – Sonora
Mile Marker 308 – Bakersfield
Mile Marker 233 – Fort Stockton
Mile Marker 144 – Van Horn
Mile Marker 51 – Fabens

New Mexico

Mile Marker 164 – Anthony
Mile Marker 61 – Deming
Exit 20 – Lordsburg

Arizona

Mile Marker 388 – San Simon
Mile Marker 320 – Dragoon
Mile Marker 183 – Sacaton
Mile Marker 86 – Tonopah
Mile Marker 52 – Salome
Mile Marker 4 – Quartzsite

California

Exit 222 – Blythe
Mile Marker 159 – Indio
Mile Marker 113 – Whitewater
Mile Marker 91 – Beaumont

Wikipedia has (very) detailed pages listing all the onramps to I-10 through all of these states.  It wouldn't be too much work to go through all the pages and see if any of these rest areas are 12 to 13 miles west of an onramp.  And if there are no matches for I-10, do the same thing for I-40.

If no one else is up for trying, I'll probably research it myself later on.

[theo]

Same concept, but here are the 35 rest areas you would pass if you were heading west through the eight states on I-40.

North Carolina

Exit 364 – Warsaw
Mile Marker 324 – Benson
Note: I-40 below runs concurrent with I-85 (follows I-85 mile marker numbering)
    Mile Marker 139 – Burlington
Mile Marker 177 – Clemmons
Mile Marker 136 – Claremont
Mile Marker 82 – Marion
Mile Marker 10 – Waterville Lake

Tennessee

Mile Marker 446 – Hartford
Mile Marker 425 – Dandridge
Mile Marker 326 – Crab Orchard
Mile Marker 267 – Buffalo Valley
Mile Marker 170 – Dickson
Mile Marker 131 – Holladay
Mile Marker 73 – Jackson
Mile Marker 44 – Stanton
Exit 1 – Memphis

Arkansas

Exit 278 – West Memphis
Mile Marker 242 – Forrest City
Mile Marker 199 – White River
Mile Marker 72 – Big Piney
Mile Marker 36 – Ozark

Oklahoma
Mile Marker 314 – Sallisaw
Mile Marker 197 – Shawnee (permanently closed now, but may have been open when book was published)

Texas

Mile Marker 131 – Alanreed
Mile Marker 76 – Amarillo

New Mexico

Mile Marker 373 – Bard
Mile Marker 302 – Newkirk
Mile Marker 252 – Santa Rosa
Mile Marker 207 – Moriarty
Exit 102 – Acomita

Arizona

Exit 359 – Lupton
Mile Marker 235 – Winslow
Mile Marker 23 – Yucca

California

Mile Marker 106 – Essex
Mile Marker 28 – Newberry Springs

[catherwood]

California, I-10, Mile Marker 113 – Whitewater

Miss Muffet's meal was curds and whey, which is cottage cheese in a white water.

[theo]

Interesting idea, but it doesn't look like there's a matching 12.6-mile onramp for that one.  The closest fit I could find was getting on I-10 at Date Palm Drive in Cathedral City and going 13.3 miles west to the rest area.

I'm thinking now that my hunch about the "8 states" clue might have been wrong.  I-10 and I-40 are both southern freeways, so they're out of the apple-producing areas.  If we open it up to other interstates we can include the apple-producing areas like Washington, Oregon, and New York.  I'd still keep the same approach, though, of looking for rest areas and using Google Maps to trace the distance back to the on-ramp.

[goldhunter]

"Chose a city"...Since armchair treasure hunting is in the land of double meanings, keep an eye out for a city where the name is related to the word "chose." For example, if you came across a city named Picked, Indiana, it would be a possibility.

[goldhunter]

I tried starting with Alto, Indiana because of the first letter of each line in one of the stanzas spelled "alto."

Then, I chose my city- Gas City. It was 30 miles east. Gas rises. Also, the sun is a gas and it rises in the east.

Then, I traveled (on map) approximately 10-12 miles southwest of Gas City and three miles west to Leisure, Indiana (to rest).