50 States in 50 Weeks

In the summer of 2006, my wife and I drove across country to pick our son up from Physics Camp. Yes, there is such a thing as Physics Camp and my son wanted to go. He flew out there but we insisted on coming out to pick him up. It took us a week to get to California and then another week to return. When we got back we realized that between that trip and other vacations we had taken, we had been to over half the of the United States.

That made us wonder what it would take to visit all 50 states. The first issue to resolve was what counted as 'visiting' a state. There had been several on our road trip we kind of just blitzed through. For our purposes, we agreed that to truly count a state, we had to spend a night and eat a meal in it.

With that criterion in mind we set out over the next several years to plan vacations which would take us to different regions of the country. Finally, in 2013 we were down to just Idaho, Arkansas, and Alaska left. We saved Alaska for last because it was most spectacular state we still had left and we had a high school friend living there.

Now that we have done this, people ask us what is next. Obviously, the provinces of Canada would be a good challenge. We have been to half of those. Countries in Europe would also be a more ambitious goal. For now we are going to rest on our laurels and take things as they come.

However, for myself, I have set another goal: To recall and document what was interesting and notable in each state. For that I have set a deadline of doing this for every state by the end of 2014. That requires covering about one state a week, hence the 50 states in 50 weeks of the post title. 52 weeks if you count the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, but that is not nearly as catchy.

Some states will be easier than others. There is really not all that much notable about Kansas or Nebraska. Others may take more than one post to do them justice. I'm not sure what if any order I will do them in. Definitely not alphabetical or chronological.

Most of the photos will come from my Flickr account, so if you follow that or my photo postings on Facebook, they will look familiar. Some states may require some digging for photographic evidence because our visits to them predate digital photography.

But it should be fun. Here is a list of all 50 states which I intend to hyperlink to as I write the posts.

• Alabama
• Alaska: Denali and Coldfoot, Glacier Coast, and Anchorage and Eagle River
• Arizona
• Arkansas
• California: Bay Area and Los Angeles
• Colorado
• Connecticut
• Delaware
• District of Columbia
• Florida
• Georgia
• Hawaii
• Idaho
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Maine
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• Montana
• Nebraska
• Nevada
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• New Mexico
• New York
• North Carolina
• North Dakota
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania - Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Alabama
• Puerto Rico
• Rhode Island
• South Carolina - The Low Country and Upstate
• South Dakota
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Utah
• Vermont
• Virginia
• Washington
• West Virginia
• Wisconsin
• Wyoming

So here is to a great adventure. Feel free to travel vicariously with me as I relive a quarter century of travel.