Our mid-western adventure

September was a month of travel for me and Rick.  I'm now very much behind in many areas in my life, including blogging, but I enjoyed every minute of those trips and activities.

We enjoyed a visit from Chelsea's grandparents Ralph and Sandie at the end of August and we all got Andy and Chelsea loaded and ready to move to LA.  We hated saying goodbye to our kids because we have enjoyed having them in town and we have enjoyed our frequent visits and outings together. I'd be lying if I didn't admit to some tears being shed.  Even though I want my kids to get on with their lives and move on, I still miss them when they do!  It's such a happy/sad emotion.  We wish them well as they move on to their next adventure, but they will be dearly missed.

My sisters Ann and Carol came to town to attend and observe the trial of the year.  We entitled it the "tampon trial" and suffice it to say, it was a very interesting day in court as we started the day watching the jury selection and stayed well into the evening to hear the verdict.  It was so fun to spend that time with Ann and Carol.

Rick and I left for Kansas City on Thursday, September 3.  We took Frontrunner/Trax to the SLC airport and avoided the extra expense of leaving a car at the airport for nine days.  It worked out so slick and we will definitely do that again.

September 3
Arrived in Kansas City and had dinner with my friend Terri N. from my hometown of Rupert, ID
Enjoyed a delicious mid-western BBQ meal at Joe's

September 4
Drove to Lawrence, Kansas and visited KU Phog Allen field house.  It meant little to me, but Rick was very excited to see it.
Visited the fascinating Harry S. Truman presidential library.  I had just finished watching the 16 hour documentary by Ken Burns entitled "The War" so I was very interested in learning more about the part that President Truman played in ending WWII by authorizing the use of the atomic bomb against Japan.  In my humble opinion, it was the use of this deadly force that ended the war and was a necessary evil.  I'm so grateful that he had the courage to act.

Visited Independence, MO and saw the LDS and Community of Christ sites

I loved eating at some out-of-the-way places along the way
Saw Liberty Jail
Picked up Jake and Ellie from the Kansas City airport
Went to the Royals/White Socks  baseball game

September 5
Drove to Lincoln, Nebraska
Visited the state capitol

Attended the BYU-Nebraska game.  It was extremely hot and humid, but the Nebraska fans were so kind and classy.  Truly, they were amazing both before the after the game.  We had such a fun time with Jake and Ellie and met up with our Philipp friends afterwards.  Wow!  What a finish!

Drove to Omaha for the night after the game.

September 6
Attended church in Omaha, saw a young man from our ward who is attending dental school there, Richie L.
Visited Winter Quarters and saw the temple and visitors center
Crossed into Iowa, went to Council Bluffs and Kanesville and associated visitor's center and LDS church sites
Drove across Iowa listening to the Mormon Channel

Stopped at the Des Moines, Iowa state capitol building
Arrived in Keokuk, Iowa for the night

September 7
Nauvoo, IL
Finally!  I got to attended the Nauvoo temple!  What a great experience.

Went on a wagon and buggy ride around town
 to see the sites.  These missionaries were delightful.

I got to spend the rest of the day in Nauvoo by myself exploring and learning to my heart's content.  I pretty much had the place to myself. I only wish I had friend Tiffany T. to guide we around since she knows everything about Nauvoo.
Rick drove Jake and Ellie to catch their flight in St. Louis

September 8
Went to Carthage Jail
Drove to St. Louis, MO
Saw the spectacular Gateway Arch

I loved attending the visitor's center and learning
more about how this architectural  marvel was built.

View from inside the arch on the west side showing St. Louis

View on the east side showing the mighty Mississippi

Inside the little cars that took us to the top inside the arch.

Loved, loved, loved seeing this marvel.

View at night.  It looks black.

Attended the Cardinals/Cubs baseball game

September 9
Drove most of the day from St. Louis to Oklahoma City, OK
Crossed the boarder of OK and met my goal of visiting all 50 states!

 Relaxed that evening at the hotel.  Went swimming and hot tubbed.

September 10
Spent most of the day at the Oklahoma City bombing site learning more about what happened that fateful day in the heart of our country.  Heartbreaking.

and we visited the Oklahoma State Capitol building where an active oil rig was pumping oil on the capitol grounds

I love learning about Native American history.

Visited OU in Norman, OK
Drove to Wichita to spend the night and relax.

September 11
Left Wichita, stopped briefly in Topeka (a shout out here to Mark P., I finally made it to visit his home town!) and arrived back in Kansas City to turn in our rental car and catch our flight to return home.  We ended up putting almost 2400 miles our Nissan Altima rental car!  We listened to My Antonia by Willa Cather on CD while driving through the mid-western states and enjoyed that story set in Nebraska.

We got home just hours before Andy and Chelsea flew back into town to attend the BYU-Boise state game and pick up the Nissan.  Needless to say, we were very optimistic about the BYU football season with two big wins under our belts against Boise and Nebraska.  Little did we know what was in store at that time and that disappointment was coming.  Again.  We said good-bye to them the final time as they left Utah headed to CA.

We always like to chase after our visitors and
family members and say good-bye in this traditional way.

50 by 60

Hooray!  I've now visited all 50 of the states in the United States of America!  It has been an exciting goal to achieve and I'm so happy that I have been able to see so many beautiful sites in this great land of ours.  We have been impressed with the kind people we have met and the history we have learned.
This whole quest started in 2006.  We took Rick's parents to North Dakota so that they could visit their final state and get all 50 completed.  They were both in their 80s and wanted to visit that last state while they were still able to get out on the road.  The thought hadn't even occurred to me that I too might be able to visit all 50 states in the USA.  With their encouragement, along with Rick, we set out to finish visiting all 50 states.  We took inventory of how many states we had visited.  He had visited many more than I had because he had driven across much of the US on several occasions.  I had a LONG way to go.  We set our goal and hoped to achieve it by the age of 60.  Rick finished his goal by age 58.  

I've tried to reconstruct the years that I visited each state.  To the best of my knowledge, it went like this:

1.  Born in Idaho in 1955

2.  Visited grandparents in Utah that same year and every year thereafter.

3.  Went on a family trip to California to visit family in Menlo Park, CA when I was in third grade in 1963 

4.  Traveled through Nevada to get there.

5.  Visited Yellowstone National park many times in my childhood, going through West Yellowstone, Montana 

6.  and Wyoming during the 1960s. I traveled around ID, UT, and Yellowstone National Park in WY, MT for about 19 years.

7.  Flew on an airplane for the first time when I was 19 years old going to Oregon with my sister Janet in 1974.

8.  Traveled to Tucson, Arizona to visit my brother Gary and his family in 1978.

9.  In 1979, Rick and I flew to Colorado on our honeymoon, visiting Denver, Colorado Springs, Boulder and Fort Collins.

10.  Flew to Hawaii in 1983 after my dad died with Rick, his mother Pat and my mother Mary.

Went to Hawaii again in 2011.

11.  Flew to Amarillo, Texas to visit my sister Mary Ann and her family in 1985 and drove to TX with our family in 1999 to visit our friends the Coils in Dallas for Thanksgiving.

12.  Traveled through New Mexico on that trip and stopping in Albuquerque (which would later become the home of one of our children.)

13.  Flew to Virginia in 1988 to visit my brother Gary and his family, with Janet and Dave.  

14.  Also visited the Amish country in Pennsylvania and Gettysburg, and Washington DC. 

15.  Rick and I flew to Florida in 1997 and took a cruise out of Miami to Key West, Cozamel, and Tulum, Mexico.

16.  Our entire family flew to West Virginia in 1998 to visit Rick's parents Pat and Vern who were serving an LDS mission there

17.  by way of Baltimore, Maryland.

18.  Visited places in Virginia

19.  Drove through Delaware

20.  Stayed in New Jersey and took the ferry to

21.  New York City.  Later drove to Palmyra and Niagara Falls.

22.  Rick and I flew to New Orleans, Louisiana in 2001 where I attended a convention with the Orem City Planning Commission.

23.  Went on a family trip in 2003, driving to NV, CA, OR and Seattle, Washington when Jordan returned from her LDS mission in Venezuela. 

24.  We went to a BYU football game at Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana

25.  and visited Chicago, Illinois with our dear friends the Philipps family in 2005.

26.  Took Pat and Vern to South Dakota in 2006 to see Mount Rushmore and then on to

27.  North Dakota where we stayed for a short time, eating lunch and chatting with a few locals.

MADE THE GOAL TO VISIT ALL 50 STATES.  HALF DOWN, HALF TO GO!

We drove to Calgary, Canada in 2008 and passed through the entire state of Montana, seeing Glacier National Park among other sights.  Spectacular! 

28.  Went on a cruise to Alaska for our 30th wedding anniversary in 2009.

29.  We  took Rick's parents back to visit some of the sites they loved in the east where Vern had served his mission many years before and and visited Boston,  Massachusetts, New York City and Washington DC, driving around that beautiful country in the fall in 2009.   

MAKING PROGRESS, ONLY 21 MORE TO GO!

30.  Flew to Jackson Mississippi in 2011 to attend a BYU football game at Ole Miss with Jake, Jordan and Andy.  Rick and I then spent the next week traveling through the south in our rental car visiting sites in:

31.  Tennessee

32.  Kentucky

33.  North Carolina (little did we know we would be returning to visit another of our children who live here)

34.  South Carolina

35.  Alabama

36.  Georgia

37.  Arkansas, finally ending up at another BYU game at Texas.

38.  Another BYU football game in 2012 (funny how that worked out) took us back to Notre Dame where we also set out to visit neighboring Ohio.  We met us with Dave, Courtney, Jordan, Jake, Andy and Chelsea.  Rick and I then rented a car and drove to 

39.   Michigan

40.   and then on to Minnesota and 

41.  Wisconsin with Andy and Chelsea tagging along.  I was doing through chemotherapy during this trip and didn't feel that great, but I wanted to continue to see the sights in these neighboring states.

42.  In 2013, Dave and Courtney moved to Boston, MA and we decided to take that opportunity to visit more New England states.  Rick and I rented a car in Boston and drove around to visit more of New England including Rhode Island,

43.  New Hampshire

44. Vermont (Rick's 50 state and birth place of the Prophet Joseph Smith)

45.  Maine where we went to Acadia National Park.  Amazing!

THE GOAL WAS IN SIGHT!

46.  Coincidentally, BYU announced that they would start their season playing Nebraska in 2015, so plans were made to finish off my last five states by visiting the mid-west while also attending the game. How convenient!  Besides being a great game against Nebraska, (BYU won in the last second) we were able to visit some amazing places.  Jake and Ellie drove around with us in Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska.  We drove around to LDS church history sites.

47.  We flew into Kansas City, Missouri and rented a car and off we went to visit

48.  Kansas

49.  Iowa

50.  And finally, OKLAHOMA driving nearly 2400 miles in 8 days!!

Our goal criteria was that we had to set foot on the soil of any particular state, talk to a local and buy food or something else if possible.  Landing in airports didn't count.  We visited many state capitol buildings along the way, presidential libraries, national parks and other points of historical interest. We learned so much about the history and the people of our great land.  We listened to books on tape that were unique to a particular area and enjoyed passing some driving time that way.  

I've got to give a HUGE shout out to my husband who made this happen.  He bankrolled the trips with air fare, rental cars, hotels and food.  It isn't an inexpensive goal considering all the distances that must be covered traveling from state to state.  He really wanted us to enjoy our time together and to meet this goal.  I love and appreciate him for making it happen, especially because so many of our trips did coincide with BYU football games!  We ate wonderful local food, trying to avoid the national chains as much as possible.  We also shopped in grocery stores and found healthy food ready to eat much of the time. We bought a case of water and put it in the trunk of the car so that we always had a good supply on hand.  We used a Garmin GPS system early on and then reverted to Google Maps to get around.  The only down side to this much travel was the need to use so many public restrooms.  Not a fan.

There were a few states that we only passed through briefly that I would like to revisit.  We only briefly visited Kentucky, Minnesota, Ohio, Michigan and Florida.  I would love to return to visit more of those states and spend some more time in Maine.  Of the 25 largest cities in the USA, I would still like to visit Houston and San Antonio/TX, Detroit/MI, Tampa and Orlando/FL, Louisville/KY and  Cincinnati and Cleveland/OH and get off the beaten trail to see some other smaller areas in MN.   I've been to 20 of the 25 largest cities in the US and hope to get to see a few more. 

One very wonderful thing that comes from traveling around the US, is that now I can visualize what that area is like when I hear it mentioned.  I know where all of the 50 states are on a map and I know the state capitols and have visited many of them. 

Rick and I love to travel! We are proud members of The All 50 States Club! It was been absolutely a joy to meet this goal!

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