If you aren’t aware of my plan to visit three states a year, from reading other posts, now is your time to learn more about it. Visiting all the states in the United States is part of my bucket list. Visiting three states a year is doable. Once I am on the east coast, I will increase the number, since the states are smaller.
At this moment I have made it halfway. I have 25 states to go. If you calculate that out at three states a year, I have a little over eight years to go. I hope to finish it in five years.
Have you ever considered visiting every state, country, or province where you live? It’s a fun adventure, that I think you should start now.
Why the United States?
I was born and raised in the United States. I visited several states as I grew up. As our children got older, we visited a few more. Each state has interesting places to go and beautiful sites to see. I’m not trying to see every city in every state. We go to get a view of the state.
We have visited gardens, rock formations, interesting museums, a salt mine, very high bridges, deserts, waterfalls, statues, and interesting sights on Route 66. My husband and I will never see it all, but we are getting a great overview of the country we call home.
I could have added Europe to my bucket list, but I would much rather visit the United States.
Deciding the future states
In 2022, we have already been to New Mexico. My plan is to visit North Dakota and Wyoming later this year. We turned those three states into two trips since they are quite far apart. Since we are retired, taking a few trips a year is possible. Most of the trips are by plane with a rental car. The trip to New Mexico was with our truck and trailer. We decided that was a lot of time for traveling. We spent time in three different campgrounds so we had to travel between them. Plus the travel to and from California.
Here is my current plan, but it’s not set in stone. Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas are close together, and we will go to them on the same trip. We will fly from California. Because there is no state nearby Alaska, I might have to add Alaska to that year. Not on the same trip.
Wisconsin and Michigan might be added to Ohio. I think we can combine Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, Delaware, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey.
And then another trip could be to Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, and West Virginia.
Keeping track of your progress
Whether you decide to visit every state in the United States or every country in Europe, I suggest getting a scratch-off map. The one I purchased years ago was from Amazon and it is very simple. It’s the one in the photo at the top of this post. I have seen fancy ones, that are displayed out in the open. Mine is in my writing/guest/sewing room. I’m really the only one that cares to see it.
The scratch-off map is a useful tool to see where you have been and where you haven’t. We have already done a trip to Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Kansas. Plus another to Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri. By scratching off where you have been, you can group the remaining states into trips.
Some of my favorite places
This is a list of random places that I have visited and really enjoyed. It’s not everything, it’s a list to get you thinking about places to go.
- The Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC.
- Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, Missouri
- Giordano’s, Chicago, Illinois. I had to have a deep-dish pizza in Chicago.
- Hastings Museum, Hastings Nebraska. We went to see the history of Kool-aid, but there was so much more.
- Kan-O-Tex Cars on the Route 66. Old cars and gas station includes the inspiration for Mater in the movie Cars.
- Holy Family Shrine, Gretna, Nebraska
- Sunken Garden, Lincoln, Nebraska. So beautiful.
- The Salt Mine in Hutchison, Kansas. A local suggested this, and we changed our plans to see it, and we were amazed.
- The Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge, in Omaha, Nebraska. Stand in both Iowa and Nebraska, near the center of the bridge.
- Pawhuska, Oklahoma, is the home of the Pioneer Woman. Great food and a nice gift shop.
- Oklahoma National Memorial and Museum. I had forgotten the horrors of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Be sure to allow at least two hours for this.
Visting three states a Year
Have I convinced you to see three states a year? I found a lot of the recommendations for places we visited on Pinterest. Here is the connection to the blog post about planning a trip: (click here) 7 Steps to Plan Your Next Road Trip – Growing Older Everyday If you were going to start visiting states in the United States, where would you start? Or would you rather visit Europe or the provinces in Canada? Or maybe somewhere else? Please leave a comment below.
