*Update. I’m going back and re-posting some earlier blog posts as I get back into writing. I’m enjoy it and look forward to writing more. I originally wrote the below in December, 2013. Enjoy!
In June of 2012 I took a job in Iowa with a state political party, a job I have currently. Though the job did not require the 18 hour days and the 7 day a week campaign that I had previously come from, I knew it wouldn’t involve much travel and I’d be in one place for my time here, (more or less.) I had not set a new challenge for myself in a few months, so I decided this was an opportunity. So I set one. My goal? To have visited all of the lower 48 states before my 30th birthday.
Now having traveled a decent bit in the past, I came in having already visited approximately 30 states. I’m not sure exactly where I was in June, 2012, but 30-35 rounds about right. With this goal in place, I was now set. Everything about my free time and money was set on this goal, and making it a reality before 30. There was no real reason it had to be 30. I suppose if I were younger or older it could have been 29 or 31, but I thought it was a worthwhile goal and something that would be a good conversation starter. So I decide, yeah, I’m just going to do it.
The only stipulation was that driving through or spending time in an airport didn’t count. Other than that the only requirement is that I needed to do something, “Memorable.” What does that consist of? I’ll cover that too, heck I’ll even cover it for every state. But it could be anything. From meeting an old friend for dinner to skydiving, (just an example, I haven’t done that yet.) Just anything that, when asked, “What did you do that was memorable in ________?” You can say, “I did THIS!”
I’ll go back and cover some individual trips with pictures in other blog posts. But as of now I stand at having visited 47 of the lower 48 states. I’ve never been to Alaska or Hawaii. And lucky number 48? Drumroll please…
Maine. Though I grew up in the Northeast for nearly 20 years, I had never visited Maine. (It’s a bit farther from downstate New York than you think, haha.)
Stay tuned for updates on my tentative Maine visit, and then my goal to visit all 50 states.
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