While I was doing the original series of state posts, somebody (I think butterandjelly) said it was their goal to have visited one state for each year that they were alive, so that they would finish all 50 states by the time they turned 50. This seems eminently reasonable, so how am I doing using that standard? Let's see the graphical breakdown.


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On my first pass through the states, I marked Maryland as partial credit because I had driven through it but never really stopped. As of June of 2012, I can now safely move Maryland into the full credit category.

I never actually posted about my big summer baseball road trip, but it did happen, and it included an overnight stop in Baltimore. Mike ( Read more... )

Last Sunday I posted the last of 51 summaries of my travels (or in some cases, my failures of travel) around the United States. Fittingly, this was almost exactly one year after my first post. My original plan was to post every Sunday, and with the exception of one Sunday back in March that I lost to traveling I hit every single one, which is not ( Read more... )

Washington, D.C. isn't a state, so it doesn't really fit coherently into the order I've been using for this series. However, it's too important to ignore, so we're going to take it on as an epilogue. Fortunately, I've actually been there, or this would be awkward.

My first trip there on the epic 1989 road trip that knocked off North Carolina, ( Read more... )

I have never been to Hawaii. I'd certainly like to go. There are all sorts of mountains and pretty scenery and beaches and all that kind of thing, but alas this doesn't make it more likely that I'll be there any time soon ( Read more... )

As with so many things in my life, my visit to Alaska was totally my sister's fault. She lived in Anchorage from 2008 to 2010. At that end of that time she needed help moving back lower 48, so I flew up to help her drive all the way back along the ALCANThe flight up to Anchorage was nightmarish and was quite easily the worst plane ride I've ever ( Read more... )

If you've been paying attention, you know that I've got at least partial credit for Arizona, because I've been to Four Corners National Monument, which also covered my initial visits to Utah and Arizona. On the same trip my family went to the Grand Canyon, and since that day I have never returned to Arizona ( Read more... )

If I had written this just three months previously, my only experience with New Mexico was the previously mentioned trip to Four Corners National Monument as a toddler. Aside from that, I hadn't even really been close to the Land of Enchantment.

That all changed at the end of September when I went to visit pussygalore66, who has worked in Santa Fe for the past ( Read more... )

I have never been to Oklahoma, and just as was the case with Arkansas, it's totally my sister's fault. A thirty minute detour on our cross-country trip in 2008 and maybe some lunch and I could have moved this to the 'Full Credit' category. Not that I'm bitter, but short of driving through I really can't think of any other reason that I'd visit ( Read more... )

I don't recall my very first visit to Utah. When I was still an infant my family went to Four Corners National Monument. I'm sure that somewhere in my father's vast collection of slides there is a picture of me standing (or more likely, being held by Mom) at Four Corners ( Read more... )