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. 🙂

Oregon

Posted on October 12, 2013October 12, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Oregon is high on my list of “need to visit”…”must see”…”can’t wait to go”…states. Why?…In a few words…Cannon Beach, Columbia River Gorge, Crater Lake National Park, Mount Hood, The Oregon Coast, and Steens Mountain & Malheur National Wildlife Refuge!

Ok so I need to slow down.

Lets start with one of the most well known and photographed locations in Oregon, Crater Lake.

Crater Lake is widely known for its intense blue color and spectacular views. During summer, visitors may navigate the Rim Drive around the lake, enjoy boat tours on the lake surface, stay in the historic Crater Lake Lodge, camp at Mazama Village, or hike some of the park’s various trails including Mt. Scott at 8,929 ft. .

Next the Columbia River Gorge.

Vertical basalt walls along the Gorge are graced with the greatest concentration of waterfalls in North America, especially on the Oregon side of the Gorge.

Cannon Beach…with the distinctive Haystack Rock and Needles marking its shoreline, Cannon Beach is one of Oregon’s quaintest and most picturesque destinations.

Nine miles of beach make a perfect setting for strolling along the seaside, watching diverse wildlife in its natural habitat and building a sand castle in the annual sand castle competition.

Mount Hood….I love Native American legends and the one surrounding Mount Hood and Mount St, Helens is a perfect one.

The Multnomah name for Mount Hood is Wy’east. In one version of the legend the two sons of the Great Spirit Sahale fell in love with the beautiful maiden Loowit who could not decide which to choose. The two braves, Wy’east and Klickitat, burned forests and villages in their battle over her. Sahale became enraged and smote the three lovers. Seeing what he had done he erected three mountain peaks to mark where each fell. He made beautiful Mount St. Helens for Loowit, proud and erect Mount Hood for Wy’east, and the somber Mount Adams for the mourning Klickitat.

Mount Hood is often in the news because of the many climbing accidents each year and of course Mount St. Helens became a household name May 18, 1980 when it blew it’s top (I mean side)becoming the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in the history of the United States.

Fifty-seven people were killed; 250 homes, 47bridges, 15 miles (24 km) of railways, and 185 miles (298 km) of highway were destroyed.

There is a scenic train ride to Mount Hood that may figure in my eventual travel plans. Something to think about.

Oregon Coast…Scenic , breathtaking, awesome are some of the adjectives used to describe the Oregon Coast. There’s another scenic train ride or you can drive highway 101 and take your time with the sights. I’m running out of space so any more details will need to wait for another post but I think you get the idea. Maybe my next one will be chronicling my own visit! That would be nice.

So Oregon may be on a must see list but it hasn’t been visited yet. So my tally still stands at 12 visited but is up to 25 still waiting for me.

Maryland and Massachusestts

Posted on September 20, 2013September 20, 2013 by Dusty Roads | 2 Comments

Maryland is the 2nd “M” state and Massachusetts is the 3rd.

Let’s start with Maryland first.

No… Not really. Maryland is part of what I think of as the political area…It’s close to Washington DC and Annapolis is in Maryland and I can remember going to the Naval Academy with my family to visit my brother.

That’s what I remember the most, that and how impressive it was to see all of the young cadets marching past. I can’t even begin to put into words what I was feeling but I can remember it to this day and it was about 40 years ago, maybe 42. I really don’t remember much else about the visit except seeing my brother and being so proud of him. It was a very emotional visit. So I suppose I could cross it off but I think it needs another visit to be official. 🙂

M is for Massachusetts

Yes..I better say yes. I’ve been living here since 1974. Hard to believe it. I originally came out for company training for 6 months. Once the training ended the only openeing was right here in Malden, MA so I stayed.

Massachusetts has everything you could want; mountains, ocean, cities, rural area, summer sun and winter snow.

We’ve got National Parks and history. My word, we have history galore from Minuteman National Park with it’s Patriots Day Reenactments to Boston’s Freedom Trail. There’s Salem, MA of the historic witch trials, Old Ironsides, Bunker Hill, Faneuil Hall.

As if that wasn’t enough we have nature! We have Whale Watches and Deep Sea Fishing, we’ve got seals and zoos and aquariums.

And we’ve got Old Cape Cod with a scenic train and the National Sea Shore and the annual scallop festival. We can even boast great white sharks now!

And we have Lighthouses.

Maine does not have a monopoly there! I believe there are 63 in all.


Annisquam	Baker’s Island	Bass River (West Dennis)
Bird Island	Bishop and Clerks	Borden Flats
Boston Harbor	Brant Point	Brant Point (Old)
Butler Flats	Cape Ann (Thacher Island)	Cape Cod (Highland)
Cape Poge	Chatham	Clark’s Point
Cleveland Ledge	Cuttyhunk	Deer Island
Derby Wharf	Dog Bar Breakwater	Duxbury Pier
East Chop	Eastern Point	Edgartown Harbor
Fort Pickering (Winter Island)	Gay Head	Graves
Great Point	Hospital Point Range Front	Hospital Point Range Rear
Hyannis	Lightship Nantucket I WLV-612	Lightship Nantucket II WLV 613
Lightship Nantucket LV 112/WAL 534	Lightship New Bedford LV 114/WAL 536	Long Island Head
Long Point	Marblehead	Mayo’s Beach
Minot’s Ledge	Monomoy Point	Nantucket Cliff Range
Nauset	Ned’s Point	Newburyport Harbor (Plum Island)
Newburyport Harbor Range Front	Newburyport Harbor Range Rear	Nobska Point
Palmer Island	Plymouth (Gurnet)	Point Gammon
Race Point	Sandy Neck	Sankaty Head
Scituate	Stage Harbor	Straitsmouth Island
Tarpaulin Cove	Ten Pound Island	Three Sisters
West Chop	Wings Neck	Wood End

Head west on RT 90, from Boston and you’ll find Springfield, home to Dr. Seuss and The “Big E” (Eastern States exposition) and the Basket Ball Hall of Fame.

Speaking of sports, Massachusetts is a pro sports kind of place. We have the Boston Bruins, The Red Sox, Fenway Park and Red Sox Nation. Out in Foxboro we have the New England Patriots and we’ve got the Revolution..not the 1776 revolution but the pro soccer team.

We host golf tournaments like the Deutsche Bank PGA tournament.

Heading back to Western Massachusetts Rt 90 rises upward to the Berkshire Mountains. The Appalachia Trail winds it’s way through here and we have Tanglewood and Jacobs Pillow for culture.

There’s still more. Massachusetts loves politics. You can find a political discussion almost anywhere and everyone has an opinion. 🙂 And we have higher education, Colleges and Universities abound.

Harvard Yard

There are too many to list.

Don’t get me wrong, Massachusetts is not all peaches and cream. After all, we had the “Big Dig” too and are still dealing with the consequences.

Talk about a major screw up! Traffic is worse now than ever. And we’re starting to head back to the bad old days of “Taxachusetts”…just when we thought it was safe to take our hands out of our pockets good old Governor Deval Patrick put his hands right in!

But even with all that I still am pretty pleased with my adopted state. It’s a great place to visit and not too bad a place to live.

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.