visit all 50 states

WOW!!!

I might have to spend a month in Missouri—or maybe even a summer! There’s so much in Missouri that Branson would be a mere “maybe” on the huge list of things to do and see.

Lewis & Clark’s first camp
Bits of Route 66
Amish and Mormon Historical sites
Mark Twain’s boyhood home (Hannibal)
Walt Disney’s boyhood home (Marceline)
Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Ozark home (Mansfield), where her books were written.
The Mississippi River
Water (river) Activities
Horseback Riding
Caves to Explore
Baseball or Football (even though WE got their sucky football Cardinals instead of a decent expansion team)
A Giant Butterfly House
U-Pick farms, which are fun
Lots of small towns and authentic Americana

Then, after all that, we could spend some time in Dogwood Canyon Park, which is right near Branson, so the entertainment there would not get left out after all.

Clydesdales, watersports, fishing, and a real Wagon Train. Yee Hah! Sign me up. The Fort Peck Lake area, as well as Jordan and the Sand Creek Clydesdales would SO be my dream Montana vacation!

So… the only limit is that we would have to go over Memorial Day or Labor Day because that’s when the Wagon Trains go.

I think a fun trip through Nebraska would include spending a day or two in or near Gibbon to check out the Windmills, play for a day at the Platte River, and spend the night camping. I’d love to see the Sandhill cranes and go horseback riding across the plains. Oh ~ that rhymed.

“There’s the DAM sign,” someone laughingly says, every time we pass it on our way into Nevada from Arizona.

You see, until they finish The Mighty Overpass, Hwy. 93, the road connecting these two states, goes right over Hoover Dam. Therefore, there’s the dam inspection station, the dam bridge, the dam giant clock, and the dam gift shop. It’s a family joke. Lame? Maybe. Who cares, it’s funny.

I’ve been to and through the southern tippy-tip of Nevada more times than I can count, mostly to Las Vegas, but also including staying a night or two in Mesquite on the way to or from Utah. We’ve been to the bathrooms in many, many of the casinos over the course of our little-kids-in-the-car years.

Done Vegas tons of times, but I don’t really want to count that by itself, since that is the only part of Nevada I have seen and I don’t think Sin City could possibly represent an entire state.

So for now, I’m leaving the sign up instead of posting some random photo of The Strip.

When I really go to Nevada, I want to see the Reno/Lake Tahoe/ Sparks area of the state, and do some outdoors-y stuff like fishing and horseback riding. We might have to go in September so we can go to the Reno Air Races, the Balloon Festival and Sparks’s Rib Nugget Cookoff. I would like to see some of the “Old West” part of Nevada, but would also like to go to some of the shows in Reno.

Oh yeah! What did the fish say when he swam into the wall?

Dam! :D ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha aaaaaaaah…

This may be the most genuinely (and wonderfully!) quaint of our states. There are so many things to see and experience! I want my trip to New Hampshire to include “Pickety Place,” the original setting for Little Red Riding Hood; Rhododendron State Park; Canterbury, the Shaker village; and tons of cute nook & cranny-type places to explore or get a bite to eat.

Sounds absolutely enchanting!

I think when I go to New Jersey, I’d like to stay in Cape May for a couple of days. That way, I could see the Delaware Bay side of the state as well as the Atlantic Ocean side. There are lighthouses to take pictures of, Boardwalks and piers to wander about, whales to watch, zoos and aquariums to explore, and beaches to relax upon with my dearest.

I don’t know how New Jersey ever got such a bad rap in the media. It sounds like a wonderful place. My trip there will be loads of fun!

I’m sure the part of NM that I saw wasn’t indicative of the ENTIRE state. I’ve heard that Santa Fe is beautiful, so I don’t really count this, but technically, I spent a day in New Mexico, so it’s not like I can just deny it. Dirt is all we saw. For hours and hours. Miles and miles.

We were on our way home from southwestern Colorado and went through Four Corners. The road that leaves to go into Arizona heads almost directly south, but my husband insisted we were heading west. When we got to a T, he turned left, into NM, instead of following directions from his navigator ~ ME!

Half an hour later, we were in Shiprock, New Mexico. Our six hour trip home ended up being 10 hours and all we saw was dirt. And maybe a few sheep.

I have always wanted to visit New York! My trip there will be so much fun! I want to explore the boroughs, of course, but I also want to go upstate—maybe to Buffalo.

I don’t even know all the stuff I want to do in New York City: see a Broadway show, take pictures of tunnels and bridges and skyscrapers, experience the view of the city from the Empire State Building, eat New York food with real New Yorkers. All of that sounds so amazing!

But then I would need to cross a bridge and go into the rural parts of the state, too. I also want to experience the difference between the towns of New York and the city of cities.

I think the Tennessee Valley area of North Carolina looks the most fascinating to me right now. We could camp along the AT and hike in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Of course, the opposite end of the state, with all the water and the historic places and the seven LIGHTHOUSES would be awesome, too. I especially want to tour Cape Hatteras Light. It is so majestic.

Wow. North Dakota sounds amazing to me. I’m a 4th generation Arizonan, but if I were ever to leave my beloved Arizona, I might want to move to North Dakota.

It seems more like a place that would take a long time to experience, not just a few days.

There are some really good relaxing things to do there, though, like chill in a cabin on the lake, or go fishing or horseback riding along the Missouri River. I will also have to go see the Lewis & Clark stuff when I go there and see if there are any caves to explore.