22 Alabama [Updated to Full Credit]
It has been a long time since I went to a new state. My goal, more or less was to do 51 by my 51st birthday (counting DC, obviously), and right now I'm on track with only 8 states left to visit after my brief trip to Alabama for breakfast.
On January 1, M and I woke up in Bremen, Georgia. We actually woke up sufficiently late that breakfast at the Holiday Inn had already shut down, although in our defense it ended at an absurdly early feeling 9:30am. In any event, as we had no pressing business back in Atlanta, we decided to drive west in I-20 into Alabama to find breakfast.
Most of the local places we identified via the magic of the internet were closed for the holiday. We actually got off in Heflin and took a side road farther west, ultimately ending up in Oxford, which had a large number of chain places off the interstate. We selected a Cracker Barrel and had a pleasant breakfast. From there, we drove back to east to my sister's house.
Alabama therefore becomes the third state covered by the "eating a meal there" part of "you have to sleep there or eat there," joining Arkansas and Delaware. Since the meals in those states both involved locally known independent restaurants and this one was a standard chain, it feels a little cheap, but it still counts. Interestingly, the comments on my original partial credit post indicate that we may have eaten at a Cracker Barrel then too, although I don't recall it.
Scoreboard
Full Credit - 43: Delaware ( partial credit post), Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Massachusetts, Maryland ( partial credit post), New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama ( partial credit post), Missouri, Arkansas ( no credit post), Michigan, Florida, Texas, Iowa ( partial credit post), Wisconsin, California, Minnesota, Oregon, Kansas, West Virginia, Nevada, Nebraska ( partial credit post), Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona ( partial credit post), Alaska, Washington D.C.
Partial Credit - 2: Connecticut, Idaho
No Credit - 6: South Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maine, Oklahoma, Hawaii
On January 1, M and I woke up in Bremen, Georgia. We actually woke up sufficiently late that breakfast at the Holiday Inn had already shut down, although in our defense it ended at an absurdly early feeling 9:30am. In any event, as we had no pressing business back in Atlanta, we decided to drive west in I-20 into Alabama to find breakfast.
Most of the local places we identified via the magic of the internet were closed for the holiday. We actually got off in Heflin and took a side road farther west, ultimately ending up in Oxford, which had a large number of chain places off the interstate. We selected a Cracker Barrel and had a pleasant breakfast. From there, we drove back to east to my sister's house.
Alabama therefore becomes the third state covered by the "eating a meal there" part of "you have to sleep there or eat there," joining Arkansas and Delaware. Since the meals in those states both involved locally known independent restaurants and this one was a standard chain, it feels a little cheap, but it still counts. Interestingly, the comments on my original partial credit post indicate that we may have eaten at a Cracker Barrel then too, although I don't recall it.
Scoreboard
Full Credit - 43: Delaware ( partial credit post), Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Massachusetts, Maryland ( partial credit post), New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama ( partial credit post), Missouri, Arkansas ( no credit post), Michigan, Florida, Texas, Iowa ( partial credit post), Wisconsin, California, Minnesota, Oregon, Kansas, West Virginia, Nevada, Nebraska ( partial credit post), Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona ( partial credit post), Alaska, Washington D.C.
Partial Credit - 2: Connecticut, Idaho
No Credit - 6: South Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maine, Oklahoma, Hawaii