visit all 50 states

I’ve seen ‘em all, after my weekend roadtrip through Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota! The prairie is pretty amazing, and I was surprised how long sunrise and sunset take out there. Here the sun just pops up, but out there there was just so much space that the sun could just take its sweet time.’

I’m a little sad that I can never step foot in a new state, but I love that I’ve done this! Go see ‘em…

because it looks like it’s going to rain over the weekend. My dad is flying up in a small plane, and if he doesn’t get up there, I’m going to be a bit stranded. We’ll see…

For good weather the weekend of the 6th of October! I just booked a ticket to Omaha, and my dad is going to pick me up there and fly me to somewhere in Iowa. From there, we’re going to travel on to Rapid City, SD. If the weather is too rough for his small plane, I can at least get to Iowa and Nebraska, and SD will just have to wait.

Those are my last three states, so with any luck, I’ll actually have finished this one off!

makes 47! I just have those three mid-western states to go…

I’m trying to figure out how and when to see my last four states, but Alaska was great…

I bought my tickets last week and today I’m going to look up hotels and a car rental. I’m going to Charleston in early June! Then I’ll just have 5 to go…

My boyfriend and I are debating doing a kamikaze trip down to Charleston and Savannah for a weekend. I don’t quite know how this will all work, but at least we’ve started thinking about it. I remembered last night that I did briefly set foot in South Carolina—as a kid, I went to Carowinds, which is a theme park set across the Carolina borders. Still, that’s not really a satisfying “state” experience, and it took some time to bring back that particular jaunt down memory lane…

I got back from my train trip last night and really enjoyed my adventure… On this trip I spent a few days wandering around Minneapolis, MN and then took the train across North Dakota and Montana, stopping in East Glacier for a few days, then continuing on to Portland, OR. I tried to send The Robots a postcard from my 43rd state, but I didn’t have their address, so I mailed them a Montana postcard from Portland—hey, it’s a little lame, but hopefully it’s the thought that counts… If you get a chance to take a sleeper on Amtrak, do it. Some of the routes are more congested and you’re likely to get in moderately to majorly late, but it’s a cool way to see the country without driving across it. I took a ton of pictures, and I’ll have them up on my flickr page pretty soon…

I’m definitely a walking-around-a-city girl—I felt kinda cooped up in Montana, since the park guides warned me about wandering off on my lonesome for a hike. I was on my own, so while I got to see a lot of the park on the guided tours I took, I didn’t really get to do the whole great outdoors thing. Next time I go to a state park, I have to either rent a car or bring a friend. There’s a lot I didn’t get to do with my free time that I would have enjoyed, like meeting a glacier and going up to the Canadian border…

I have IA, NB, SD and SC left in the lower 48 and then have to figure out Alaska and Hawaii, which are looking awfully expensive… For those last midwest/plains states, I think I’ll drive up to them from my parents’ house and then wander around hitting a couple of things from my big fat guidebook. For South Carolina, I noticed that there was an overnight sleeper train from NYC to Charleston, so I may try to incorporate that into my plans. I don’t know when I get outta here next, but I can’t wait…

I bought my plane and train tickets earlier today! I’m going to see four states I’ve never seen before and spend a few days in three of them…

Hey - everyone who’s listing the states - you can just go here on listsofbests.com and check ‘em off:

http://www.listsofbests.com/list/214/

It’ll also make a handy-dandy map for you over on 43places.com…

I posted a few questions about my trip over on 43places and got a lot of good travel advice. If you’re looking into doing a specific state or trip, ask locals over there. Who could possibly know Montana better than real live Montanans?!