Counting the states
Saturday 20 May 2006, 5:21 pm
One goal of this trip was to try to visit all the states we've never
visited before. So far we have been to 15 states; 7 of them we've been
to before, and 8 are new for us. Before this trip, I had been to about
33 states, leaving about 17 remaining to visit (don't forget to count
DC).
Let's see ... I was raised in California and childhood trips took the
family to Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.
A church choir trip took me to Hawaii in 1977. Business trips between
1985 and 1991 took me to DC, Virginia, Maryland, Minnesota, North
Dakota, and Texas. Square dancing events have taken me to
Michigan, Ohio, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Delaware,
New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.
In 1985 I visited a friend
in Des Moines, Iowa, and in 1997 I visited a friend near Boulder,
Colorado. in 1995, I visited Sedona, Arizona for the first time to
attend a concert.
In 2004, Mary and I visited Nebraska and South Dakota when we went to
Mount Rushmore. In 2005, we met Matthew in North Carolina when he
returned from Iraq; we went to Disney World in Florida; we drove
through New Mexico when we went to URDC in Texas; and we flew to
Mississippi to work with CityTeam in November.
So far, on this trip we have been to California, Nevada, Arizona,
New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, all of which we'd been
to before. Since leaving MS, we've been to Tennessee, Arkansas,
Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Alabama, and Georgia. That makes
eight new states for both of us. And it leaves only seven states we've
never been to.
It looks like we will go through South Carolina, West Virginia, and
Pennsylvania before we get to New England. And going through Wisconsin
on the way home is a no-brainer.
This all leaves 3 states we won't make it to: Oklahoma, Kansas, and
Alaska. It doesn't look like we'll have anywhere near enough time to
get to Alaska this trip.
Mary's not sure what all states she has been to, because she was born
in Michigan but lived for a time in Virginia before they moved to the
west coast. Of the states she's not sure about, the only ones we're
not sure we'll get to are Iowa and Colorado.
You can see that we're mostly traveling "around" the country but not
getting to the states in the very "middle" of the country.
