The "Family Closing In On Quest To Visit All 50 States" Story

It was an ordinary day.  My family and I have been lucky enough to travel throughout the United States.  When my two girls were young, my husband did triathlons.  The first one was in St. Augustine, Florida.  The whole family went, and afterwards we visited Disney World.  Next, he competed in Ironman Lake Placid.  On the way there, we drove through Binghamton, New York, stopping at the city parks to ride the carousels.  Our daughters were 4 and 6.  And so, it became our tradition to turn his races into our vacation, by visiting different places along the way.  See, it was my goal to visit all 50 states during my lifetime.  My great-aunt had done that, and I wanted to follow in her footsteps.  Next, we went to Ironman, Louisville, stopping in Illinois to see the Abraham Lincoln sites, with my favorite being his presidential library.  Then it was Ironman Wisconsin in Madison, and we stopped on the way back in Indiana Dunes State Park.  My husband's last triathlon was Beach to Battleship, in the area of Wilmington, North Carolina.  When my husbands' triathlon days were over, I figured it was my turn to decide where to go on vacation - keeping in mind, of course, my goal to see all 50 states.  So in 2013, we drove to Yellowstone National Park, stopping in eight states that we had never been to before.  I wanted to say I was boots on the ground in each state.  Two highlights of that trip for me were the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium in Omaha, Nebraska, and Mount Rushmore.  In 2016, we took the southern route to the Grand Canyon, going as far west as Nevada to visit friends.  We skipped Florida, since we'd been there before, and we skipped Louisiana, as it would have added two days to our trip.  We had fun at a flea market in Gallup, New Mexico, and enjoyed the views in Sedona, but the highlight of the vacation was visiting Antelope Canyon in Arizona.  In 2018, we toured the Northeast, stopping at Ellis 

Island along the way after being rained out the last time we tried to go.  My girls liked going to Boston.  I liked the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.  My husband liked touring the Ben & Jerry's factory in Vermont.  In 2022, we went to the West Coast; we hadn't been to Washington or Oregon, and my girls hadn't been to California.  We liked the little towns along the coast, and the out-of-the-way beaches.  I would like to go back and spend more time there. A highlight for me was going to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, and seeing Air Force One.  So our list of states to visit has dwindled.  I've been to 48 states, as I was in Louisiana on a work-related trip.  My family has been to 47.  I want to go to Alaska next. My husband wants to go to Hawaii.  The girls are along for the ride.  Of course, my husband doesn't let me forget that we didn't visit Louisiana in 2016, and he is constantly saying he would want to stop in Myrtle Beach along the way.  So to appease him - and since he celebrated a big birthday this year - I told him in May that we would be going to Louisiana for vacation.  With our schedules, our vacation got pushed back to November.  I imagine it would be too cold to go in the water in Myrtle Beach in November.  Good thing we left last month for Hawaii.  We told my husband about our real plans right before the trip.  He was dumbfounded.  The author of this story lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.