We’ve Played this Game Before

Posted on January 5, 2020January 5, 2020 by Dusty Roads

We’ve Played this Game Before

Have you ever seen those games of lists on Facebook. You know the ones. They ask you things like how many of the following list of books you’ve read or how many classic films you’ve seen. There’s even a list of foods you hate! Well I was trying to visit all 50 states but I kind of got off track. So let’s play another version of the game called How Many states have you visited?

Rules of the Game

For a state to count you must have spent time there. You can’t count changing planes even if you do have a long layover. No you need to spend at least one full day there. Even better is a weekend or a vacation. For example, I had changed planes in Washington DC many times but I couldn’t cross Washington DC off the list until I spent a long weekend exploring the National Mall and looking at frozen cherry blossoms. If I truly want to experience the Cherry Blossoms I’ll need to go back but I can put a check by Washington DC.

The List of States

Alabama – No
Alaska – Yes- Breathtaking and majestic. Loved the glaciers
Arizona – Yes- Sedona and Red Rock Country. I took my first helicopter ride in Arizona.
Arkansas – No
California – Yes but not for vacation (I spent 3 days in San Diego at a business convention)
Colorado- No
Connecticut – Yes (I spent a weekend in Old Saybrook but I don’t remember why)
Delaware – No
Florida – Yes- Love Florida, too bad it’s going to be underwater because of Global Warming. I go often to enjoy it while I can.
Georgia – Yes The Georgia Aquarium is huge and don’t forget to go to the World of Coca Cola
Hawaii – Yes Oahu, Big Island and Maui. Still need to go to Kauai. Best time is February when the whales put on quite a show. I also snorkeled with Manta Rays and watched Kilauea prepare to blow her top.
Idaho – No
Illinois- Yes But I need to go again. It was a business trip to Chicago, one of the first times I’d ever been on an airplane (a long time ago) I don’t remember much.
Indiana – No
Iowa – No
Kansas – No
Kentucky – No
Louisiana – Yes, New Orleans. Great food!
Maine – Yes Saw my first wild Moose there
Maryland – Yes Went to the Navel Academy in Annapolis when my brother was a midshipman.
Massachusetts – Yes I guess I can say Yes. I live in Massachusetts
Michigan – No
Minnesota – No
Mississippi – No
Missouri – No
Montana- No
Nebraska – No
Nevada- Yes – Vegas Baby! Great Shows Great Food Fun Times
New Hampshire – Yes I explored the White Mountains
New Jersey – No
New Mexico – No
New York – Yes My childhood home plus I have visited Niagara Falls several times
North Carolina – No
North Dakota – No
Ohio -No
Oklahoma – No
Oregon – No
Pennsylvania- No
Rhode Island – Yes- Walked the cliff walk and visited the Mansions. Even went to a black tie ball in one
South Carolina- Yes My brother’s wedding
South Dakota – Yes That was an awesome vacation- So much to do there!
Tennessee – Yes – Stayed in Gatlinburg and visited Pigeon Forge. Skipped Dollywood
Texas – Yes – San Antonio. Stayed right on the River Walk
Utah – No
Vermont – Yes Maple Syrup anyone?
Virginia – Yes Colonial Williamsburg and Busch Garden Christmas Town
Washington State- Yes Spent a week on a business trip in Seattle. Took pictures from the top of the space needle and visited Chihuly Gardens
West Virginia – No
Wisconsin – Yes Say Cheese. Actually My brother’s retirement party from the Navy was held in Kenosha
Wyoming – Yes One of my favorite places. Jackson Hole (Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone)
Washington DC – Yes, On a frozen , icy weekend (as mentioned above)

Now Its Your Turn

What does your list look like? How Many states have you visited? Which of my “No” States should I visit next?

Bucket List of the States

Posted on November 9, 2013November 9, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Well my little exercise of reviewing the 50 states was interesting. It took so many posts and so much research that I think it needs a summary list just so it’s all in one place.

Visited To Be Visited

Alaska Alabama

Arizona Arkansas

California Colorado

Connecticut Delaware

Florida Idaho

Georgia Illinois

Hawaii Indiana

Maine Iowa

Massachusetts Kansas

Nevada Kentucky

New Hampshire Louisiana

New Jersey Maryland

New York Michigan

Rhode Island Minnesota

South Carolina Mississippi

South Dakota Missouri

Texas Montana

Vermont Nebraska

Virginia New Mexico

Washington North Carolina

Wisconsin North Dakota

. Ohio

. Oklahoma

. Oregon

. Pennsylvania

. South Carolina

. Tennessee

. Utah

. West Virginia

. Wyoming

So there’s the bucket list. I will be in San Diego, CA for a few days in January for a business meeting so I’ll have another notch on the California side but that doesn’t work off the pending list.

I was thinking about a visit to Williamsburgh, VA for my vacation in 2014 but now I wonder if I should “rethink” that and aim to go to one of the remaining states. I will have to think on this .

Thanks for taking this journey through the States with me. 🙂

New Jersey and New Mexico

Posted on September 27, 2013September 27, 2013 by Dusty Roads

New Jersey…YES

I debated about New Jersey but in the end I had to say yes. My experience with New Jersey isn’t the typical vacation experience but I think I was there enough for it to qualify as a YES state.

I had an uncle that lived in New Jersey and I went to visit him several times. He lived in Clifton Park and we’d sit on his enclosed porch and look across the Hudson River at the skyline of New York City.

When a friend got married in New Jersey, another friend & I took the opportunity to visit Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty located in upper New York Bay. The state border of New York and New Jersey runs through the bay’s midpoint. The original islands remain New York territory despite their location on the New Jersey side of the state line. The ferry we took to the islands left from the New Jersey side.

Another reason I felt I had spent enough time in the state to cross it off is Atlantic City. In the years I was affiliated with the Arthur Murray Franchised Dance Studios I spent many trips attending dance competitions which were always held in one of the casinos in Atlantic City.

Not much of a gambler I spent any “down time” walking the boardwalk.

Of course we aren’t counting flying into airports. I have made the flight into Newark airport many times most recently on the return trip from Alaska. But changing planes in an airport doesn’t count. 🙂

Recently New Jersey has had more than its share of trouble. The coast was devastated by Hurricane Sandy. Boardwalks and arcades were rebuilt in time for the summer season only to be destroyed all over again by a raging fire, the cause of which is attributed to corroded wiring because of the water damage from the hurricane. But, like a phoenix I have no doubt New Jersey will rise again from the ashes.

I am certain that I will visit the state again. It is close enough to Massachusetts that it can be a weekend get away and there are still more things that interest me in the state.

New Mexico …NO

This is a state I keep flirting with. There is so much that I want to see and do there but I prefer to use my timeshare and that’s the problem. New Mexico is a pretty big state and there is only one timeshare exchange and it’s located in Santa Fe.

There’s a huge hot air balloon festival every year in Albuquerque and I’d love to take that in.

But Roswell is way to the south of Albuquerque and how can I go to New Mexico and not explore Roswell, the heart of the UFO phenomenon?

Even farther south is Carlsbad Caverns National Park. That’s been on my must visit bucket list from day one! the pictures I’ve seen of these caves are amazing. I’ve visited caves before including Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota but each cave is different.

A 2.5 hour drive from Santa Fe will get me to New Mexico’s land of Fire and Ice. The Ice Cave and Bandera Volcano are located in the west-central, Zuni Mountain range of New Mexico, where NM State Hwy 53 crosses the North American Continental Divide. This cave and it’s neighboring volcano sound really interesting too.

I also heard about an amazing railroad trip. I thought it took you through the Chihuahua Mountains crossing into Mexico and Texas but I may be confused because when I tried to find it again struck out. But I did find The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad which was originally constructed in 1880 as part of the San Juan Extension of the Denver & Rio Grande Western.

Needless to say, I need to take that train ride too.

I’ve gone on a bit more than I wanted to. But the tally now is 11 visited/ 20 to go.

H & I

Posted on September 16, 2013September 16, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Oh no, the numbers are stacked against me here. I haven’t been to the “Heartland” of America.

H is for Hawaii

YES! With an asterisk of course.Hawaii is still my favorite state. Just thinking about it makes my heart flutter. 2 trips so far and hopefully more in my future. The first trip was to the Big Island. This trip was amazing. It was the first BIG trip I’d ever taken. The first trip where I’d used my time share. The first Luau I’d ever been to…The Island is amazing, half rain forest and half desert. We explored both and I loved Volcano National Park. In Hilo we explored the Tsunami Museum and went to the Zoo. Just north of Hilo was a beautiful botanical garden.

We even got to walk on a black sand beach.

Trip two was to Oahu where we made a visit to Pearl Harbor, beautiful and emotional. This is a must- see stop on anyone’s bucket list. We visited Waikiki and the Polynesian Cultural Center. We climbed Maka Pupu Point and shopped at the International Market Place. We drove up to the crater of Diamondhead but didn’t climb to the top. Maybe another trip. 🙂 Next up is Maui and the road to Hana!

I is for Idaho

No. But it sounds like there’s couple of must do things. Lava Hot Springs for one and Craters of the Moon National Monument, 618 square miles of lava field.

I is for Illinois

NO. Although I did go to Chicago once for a work seminar. It was probably 30 years ago and I don’t recall much about the city at all.

Of course there’s Chicago itself and many travelers get into Illinois via O’Hare International Airport, one of the busiest in the country. I do remember being there. I was stuck on my way to Wisconsin. My plane out of Boston had been delayed so I missed my connecting flight. At the time OJ Simpson was still a football hero and was running through airports in a Hertz Commercial. I remember thinking I felt like that as I raced to my gate only to see the plane taking off as I got there. It’s one of those moments seared into your brain! 🙂

RT 66 is in Illinois. I saw part of the iconic highway when I was in Arizona. I’ll have to look up how many states it crosses or maybe I should say crossed as many parts are closed now.

There seem to be a lot of scenic drives in Illinois and I saw something about a Japanese Garden. So More research needs to be done to plan the visit to this state.

I is for Indiana

No. Once again I have to say I don’t know much about this state. The tourism web site lists National Parks and Monuments, and I know racing is big there; Indianapolis Speedway. It’s the boyhood home of our 16th president so I could certainly include a visit to the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial.

I is for Iowa

No. I am really lost when it comes to Iowa. It’s broken up into so many sections it’s almost like states within states. 10 different sections to research just to decide what I want to visit! This too will requires some digging and reading on my part.

Boy, I didn’t do well in the “I” category at all!. I’d say that breaks the tie. It’s now 6 visited and 9 on the “not seen” side of the ledger. I really need some suggestions of the not to miss places for the “I” states. Have you been there? Or maybe you live in one of those states? What is the most important thing to see/visit?

But on to J, K & L.

How many States Have You Visited?

Posted on September 10, 2013September 10, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Here I am in a traveling “lull”. I’ve been so busy getting acclimated to my new job and my new schedule that vacations and travel haven’t been “TOM” (top of mind). Even now that I’m getting settled in I’m still figuring out the finances. There were bills that I didn’t have before that I now have to pay, bills that I did have that have gone away, bills that were “automatically deducted” that I now have to remember to pay and so on. Plus a big change is that there is no overtime with my new job. I’m earning pretty close to the same hourly rate but a lot of my “fun” money was what I earned by working “OT”.

So while I figure out what I can spend on travel and prepare for next year’s vacation I’ve been playing a little game with myself. There’s a survey/game that goes around Facebook every now and then. It lists all the states and you click on the ones you’ve been to and it gives you a “traveler’s rating” or some such thing. Of course most of the people I know are counting states their plane landed in even if they never got off the plane. I don’t think that’s really the intention but I could be wrong.

Back when I started traveling for fun I thought it might be nice to spend a week in every state. That means 50 weeks of vacation. Of course I would have to “double up” a few years because I doubt if I have 50 years left to take one week a year. I thought I’d like to sell my condo and buy an RV and travel the US that way but the downturn in Real Estate values put a damper on that plan, at least for now.

But I am not going to give up. I met a couple whose goal was to visit every National Park once they retired and they did it. Since there are about 388 National Parks in the U. S. it makes visiting each state sound like a measly goal.

So back to the little game I’ve been playing with myself…I’m trying to cross states off my list but I never seem to get very far before I get side tracked.