Our Big Little Adventures: Traveling 50 States

Richard and I met in 2004. You can read more about that here. From 2006 - 2008, we began to ramp up our travels. And something ~~crazy~~ fun shot through our minds in 2010! "Hey, how about we travel all 50 states?! I mean...How hard can it be? We've already hit a few..."

San Fran

Why 50 States? Some people have asked why we didn't start country-hopping. Why the 50? Well, that's a great question. Maybe it's because I still couldn't draw an accurate map of the United States by memory, or maybe it's because we just really like flying with Southwest Airlines. We were also on a pretty strict budget ... college loans will do that to ya. So the 50 just seemed to work for us. Besides, it is our country - we should know all parts of it! Yes, even North Dakota. Even. North. Dakota.

Rock climbing in Alaska

Timing and Sequence To be honest, we really didn't have a strict plan. And that worked great for us! Some of our travels were mapped to friends and family living in different states, and others were strategically planned with the time of year and how much vacation time we had. And others were tacked on to work trips! However, we did know one thing. We wanted to save the Northeast for last because we had already decided (you all just thought we were talking), that we were moving to NYC. We didn't know when or how, but we did know that we would, and it made the most sense financially and geographically to explore the Northeast while living in it! The only trip we would have changed would have been the Grand Canyon - we should have coupled it with Vegas. Because we drove...from Texas...and you know how large Texas is.

Seattle

Rules We only had 2 rules with our 50. We had to visit the state together and do something in the state. Anything. But something. Since we had to travel to all 50 together, that meant that sometimes we would "double dip" a state (and of course, we've been to several states multiple times). Our activities during our travels included everything from swimming in Hawaiian waterfalls, enjoying the wine and cheese festival at Disney World and climbing Alaskan mountains to eating our way through Chicagoland and playing checkers on the state line of North Dakota (Montana versus North Dakota). Again...Even. North. Dakota.

On the beach in The Hamptons!

Planning and Process Typically, each trip would start with me having a grand idea for our new adventure and Richard saying, "I'm not sure we can hit that many states this year"... and then us finding a way together to make it happen. We made our vacation days count, created a monthly savings specifically to fund our travels and stuck to a strict budget. We also always created a detailed travel itinerary that tracked our adventure by the hour and cost by the day. Travel websites and blogs were fantastic and helped us plan every single trip and we now have quite the collection of photos thanks to our love of photography! I also love that some trips were together, some with others, and a few were to visit friends and family in other states - it was quite the variety.

That big ole' White House...

Pickle and Sundae Travels The traveling doxie-duo. Our little Texan Pickle (aka Muggins, Pickle-Jean, Picky, Pickle Pants) and Oklahoman Sundae (aka Roo, Sunder-buns, Reuben, Rooster) have quite the impressive footprint. They have each been to 21 states! They have been to: Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Rhode Island, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Arkansas, Nashville, Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, New Jersey and Massachusetts! Fun fact: They have never been on a plane... we drove when we moved to NYC. I know, that's just crazy.

New Port, RI - Cliffwalk

Would We Do It Again? In a heartbeat. I learned more traveling through the 50 than any history book ever taught me. It was so fun planning adventures with Richard, eating our way through so many different flavors, meeting quite the array of personalities, feeling the difference in seasons and understanding how different and rich in culture the United States truly are. We live in a pretty amazing place. Praise God for allowing us to have this crazy, amazing, and unforgettable adventure. I never thought I would be able to tell you why I like Portland on the East Coast and the West Coast, what fall looks like in the Northeast, just how proud Idaho is of their potatoes, and how undeniably thick the accents are in Alabama.

Surfing in Hawaii

“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” -Terry Pratchett