Seeing Every State

I love traveling.  I get to travel for work a lot, and right now I am in the middle of my busiest travel season.  I am currently out of town.  I come back for the weekend and then head out again next week.  This is my typical fall.  I am especially excited about my travel this fall.  Why? 
I have a goal in my life that I want to travel to EVERY state.  Prior to 2012 I had been to 32 States.  I really was proud it was over half.  This has been a good year for new places.  Before the year is over I will add 4 new states (2 already with 2 more upcoming).  I keep a map in my office to show all the places I have traveled, all the places Michael has traveled, and all the places we have gone together.  We pin each location with different colors to distinguish the difference.  There are a few cities we don’t include, but we include major cities.  If I included all the cities, I would have several hundred pins in Arkansas alone and around the Chicagoland area. 

I also keep a map on the computer where I color in each state I have visited.  I look at this map and can’t help but want to plan our next vacations.  This year we will be driving to Gulf Shores, and so I will get to pick up Mississippi and Alabama.  I have to go to Virginia again this fall and really want to drive up to West Virginia just to add that very random white state.  I want to ski Deer Valley some day, and I want to go to Yellow Stone.  I could add a few new states that way.  Who knows when that will happen.  Maybe we could drive to Wyoming and hit up several of my blank states.  That would be a long long drive.  By the end of this year I will have been to 36 states.  I can’t wait.  Once I hit 40 states I will definitely start trying to get the last 10.