50 States by 18

A Little Housekeeping Before We Get Started: This is a Mother/Daughter dialogue. Robin(Mom) will be writing in blue and Emma(Daughter) will be writing in orange.

How Our Love of Travel Started

“Just can’t wait to be on the road again!” First off stop singing your hurting my ears and secondly it’s, “get on the road again” not, “be on the road again.” I do not think you are capable of singing the words right to any song. Hey! Anyway, Always on The Road Again is the section of our blog devoted to travel. 

This section will feature all things travel, and we love to travel! I had traveled a fair amount growing up and then sporadically in early adulthood. My employment in my 20’s and 30’s gave me the opportunity to live from the beach on North Padre Island in Corpus Christi, TX all the way to Anchorage, AK. At only three years old my first cross country road trip was from Texas to Alaska; this trip inaugurated the first of many American road trips.

After three and half years in Alaska, I ended my employment with the company I had been with since graduating from college. This resulted in us moving to Colorado for 2 years before we finally made our permanent home in my home state, Oklahoma.

When we made the move from Alaska we got the opportunity to take one of the most amazing road trips we have taken to date. We traveled from Anchorage, AK down the Alaska Highway through Canada and all the way to Oklahoma. I was 7 years old, and this was the first major trip that I have clear memories of. 

I think that the “inconceivable” Alaska Highway sparked something in all three of us. Mother you said it again! That word does not mean what you think it means.

The Dream of all 50 States

When I was around 9 or 10, just after our first trip to Orlando, Mom suggested that we should try and visit all 50 States before I was 18 years old. Seeing that we had lived in 4 states already (Oklahoma, Texas, Alaska, and Colorado) and we had traveled to each by car on looooooooong road trips. It just made since to turn this idea into a long term goal.

We sat down and started thinking about all of the places we had been. At that time we had been to Canada, Mexico, and Ben had been to 26 states while Emma had 31 states. I had been to a few more states at that point. 

I should have thought to throw myself into that goal. Because now those little stinkers have shot past me in the number of states they have visited.

Dad loves to travel and he decided this was a great goal. He would make his own personal goal to visit all 50 by the time he was 50, and between travels with Mom and Dad we are nearly there. 

Six years after setting that goal, Benjamin and I have 49 states and 2 countries under our belts. Now all we lack is the beautiful and tropical Hawaii. 

I plan to get those last few states that I need by the time I’m 50. I have a few years yet.  We all hope to get Hawaii in 2021 before Emma hits 18.

Sharing our Travels

So we have decided to share our continental travel tale here. We want to break our travels up by sections in a series of posts we will publish every few weeks. We will take you along on each big road trip and a few small ones that we have enjoyed over the years.

Along with this series I would like to post my own take on how to survive long plane rides and how to not smother your loved ones with a pillow on road trips. Along with other things like posts on which are the best gas station chains, how to break up road trips to avoid exhaustion, and how to pack neatly and functionally, etc.

International Plans

Next we will start working on the rest of the world and hope to see as much as possible. Emma had Europe with her Dad and school planned for spring break. Unfortunately, the current situation has delayed that trip, but we remain positive that it will happen soon and that we will see much more of the world.