50 United States: A Personal Journey

I just crossed off a major bucket list item of seeing all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. It was not an easy task. It took over 25 years to complete, an incredible amount of time and resources, and - in more recent years - the earnest support of my husband to pick up the slack when I took a few solo adventures.

This is the sort of bucket list most people push off until their retirement years, after the kids have left the house and they have unlimited vacation days. It is the sort of thing I would have probably waited to complete too until my 55-year old father died in a car accident about eight years ago. That experience made me realize that we have no promise of tomorrow and that every day is an important day to realize your dreams.

In many ways, this entire experience has been a largely symbolic endeavor to show myself that I can accomplish big things if I put my mind to it. It has been life-affirming and emotional. These trips – sometimes done solo with long periods in a car - have helped me process the grief I had and give me the mental breathing room to figure out my life goals. Too often, we focus on the day-to-day tasks of life and are not able to step back and consider the bigger picture. Traveling has always given me a chance to examine my life, what is important, and what I need to do next.

Traveling has also given me an incredible amount of appreciation for the beautiful country I live in. Every state is unique and in many ways defined by its natural features and the warm and wonderful people that live there. If you were to ask me which states to prioritize, I would say ‘all of them’. It would be a nearly impossible task to pick out my favorite ones. More than anything I have been struck by how diverse this country is.

I have had tears of joy from seeing the Grand Canyon in Arizona, witnessing a whale jump out of the ocean in Maui, Hawaii, and landing on a glacier at Denali National Park in Alaska (inside a tiny Cessna!). My life has been changed after walking through the red rocks of Utah, hiking amongst the Giant Sequoias in Muir Woods in California, and skiing down the white, shiny slopes of Colorado. I cannot say what the most beautiful rivers are in the country, but I had a very good time white water rafting down the New River in West Virginia, taking a mail boat up the Snake River in Idaho, and seeing vast untouched wilderness on an airboat along the Copper River Delta in Alaska.

Picking my favorite National Park would be impossible, but I will never forget my experience seeing Yosemite’s Old Faithful and the surrounding hot springs in Wyoming, driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway in fall in Virginia, or experiencing Jewel Cave and Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.

If I was hard-pressed to list my favorite museums, the Smithsonian Museums in Washington D.C. are amongst the best in the world, but I also personally loved The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, Biltmore Estates in North Carolina, the summer mansions in Newport, Rhode Island, Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, and the Japanese Gardens in Portland, Oregon. If asked what my favorite cities and towns are in the country, I would always pick Washington DC, Charleston, South Carolina, Asheville, North Carolina, San Diego, California, and Seattle, Washington.

Most beautiful mountains? Mt. Rainier in Washington State, Denali (Mt. McKinley) in Alaska, and the Teton Range (Grand Tetons) in Wyoming. Favorite desert? The Sonoran Desert in Arizona. Most beautiful lake? Lake Lure in North Carolina. Favorite football field? Death Valley in Clemson, South Carolina.

Best brewery meccas? Denver and Golden, Colorado, Portland, Oregon, and Salt Lake City, Utah. Best hotel and spa? Grove Park Inn, Asheville, NC. Best nightlife? Las Vegas, Nevada and South Beach Miami, Florida. Best beaches? I am not a beach person, but pretty much anything along the Pacific Coast Highway 1 in California is incredible. Also Hawaii and South Florida. Best food? That would be impossible and I am not going to try (Shealy’s Bar-B-Que in Batesburg-Leesville, SC holds a special place in my heart though).

***If I forgot something crucial on this list, please let me know so I can check it out too!***

These are only the tip of the iceberg though. There are so many other amazing places to see and experience. I often go on these trips and text my husband that we should live in ‘such and such’ place. He has grown accustomed to my fleeting bouts of longing for something different. I just want to live in them all. Perhaps I am better suited as a nomad.

Overall, I feel an incredible amount of gratitude that I can travel alone as a woman to all of these places and feel safe at all points in the journey. I am lucky that I live in an era where I have access to reliable and efficient transportation, paid vacation, my own financial resources, and a supportive partner.

I love a good adventure and I have others on my bucket list that I want to check off. For now, I will bask in the glory of completing a major life goal that very few people actually accomplish. At the moment, I’m feeling gratitude, love, and joy, but mostly pride.