I’ve seen this meme in a few places the last couple of weeks and it piqued my curiousity about how many states I’ve visited. I don’t think my personal total is of much interest to readers of his blog, but you might want to try the link and create your own states visited map — you might be surprised when you see the graphic representation.
I don’t think of myself as having traveled a lot, but it turns out I’ve been in 32 of the 50 states. Some of the travels were due merely to life its ownself; born in Texas with a father in the Air Force, I lived in Puerto Rico (not included in the map), Arkansas and Missouri before he left the service. After that we lived in Indiana for a time before moving back to Missouri. After college, my career took me to Arizona and then Minnesota were I’ve lived for longer than any other stop along the way (nearly 26 years). That accounts for six states; the other 26 came about through tourism and business travel. (Some of these places are described on the right hand side of this page under the heading Nights on the Road.)
Otherwise, don’t ask me for a lot of information on things to see or places to stay. I saw many states from a pallet in the folded down back section of a Plymouth station wagon when I was a kid and my parents would set out in a different direction every summer for our annual vacation. I know we visited some amazing places, but the main interest for my siblings and I then was whether or not our hotel that night would have a swimming pool. I’ve only attempted one similar multi-state excursion since I’ve been married, and I’ve done it with two pretty well-behaved daughters and a car with cruise-control and air-conditioning. It’s hard to ken the depths of wanderlust and/or masochism that prompted my parents to try this annually with our bunch of yahoos. Thanks, Mom and Dad!
The map also highlights for me one of the travel desires I have yet to fulfill. I would love to take a month some autumn to travel through New England, driving up the Hudson River Valley and traipsing through Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and on into Massachusetts, finishing up in Boston. Some day, some day …
For now, however, travel thoughts are coalescing around Europe and the idea of The Big Family Trip The Kids Will Always Remember in what may conceivably be one of our last summers where we’re all together.
visited 32 states (62%)
