While in travel planning mode, one of my most favorite things to do, I daydream about all the places I want to go. I had only visited 13 states and one continent up to that point, but I was getting more and more intrigued with seeing as much of the world as I could, and I thought it would be a great goal to see the whole of The United States of America and the seven widely recognized geographical regions of the world.
I created a map of the places I’d been and then started on my journey. When I met my late husband in 2016, we learned we had a mutual love of travel so although he had visited the 48 contiguous states plus Hawaii he would travel with me helping me collect states. Road tripping was our desired travel method. Jimmy was a retired truck driver who now did short haul driving for a living and he absolutely loved to drive. It was very interesting to me because although I love a road trip, I hate to drive long distances. Three hours max is my go to although I’ve done longer stretches I tell everyone I got you for three hours. He and I took many trips, a few day trips, some small, and some massive before he passed.
Travel has always been my happy place so to not focus on my grief, I leaned into travel. I went back to solo travel and took a few trips on my own. In fall 2021 my now bestie joined me on my quest and we’ve been taking trips together ever since. When planning our first trip, she made her list and we compared it to mine. I had visited 27 states with 23 to go and she was the exact opposite. Life truly is amazing at times and this was definitely one. She set out to catch up so we could tackle the states we needed in common together. She eventually caught up and then blew past me. Our last trip as of this writing was an extended weekend visiting Philadelphia and a one day road trip spanning six states. I added three new states to my list to catch up to her. We both now have a total of 44 states visited. The six states to finish our goal are North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Alaska.
- The states I had visited as of 2015. In order of visit – California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Massachusetts, Illinois, Nevada, Maryland, Virginia, Washington, and Florida.
- February 2016, I added Oregon.
- November 2016, I took a road trip and added Tennessee, Arkansas, and Alabama.
- 2017, Kansas and Missouri.
- 2018, I took a road trip through Tennessee, Alabama, and added Georgia.
- 2019, I took a road trip spanning nine states including adding new states Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
- May 2021, I added Utah.
- June 2021, I added Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska.
- August 2021, I added Oklahoma.
- October 2021, my bestie and forever favorite travel buddy joined in my quest, and we took a road trip to Montana, Wyoming (new for her), and Idaho.
- March 2022, we visited Hawaii. New for me but not for her.
- July 2022, we took a family road trip spanning eight states – Massachusetts (not new for me), Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.
- October 2022, we added Michigan.
- Our latest trip, in early September, included Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. No new states for her, I added PA, DE, and WV. West Virginia was the 44th state I visited.