I don’t think I really appreciated travel growing up. At the very least, I took it for granted. We took family trips in the summer – not every year, but when we did, they were pretty ambitious. One year we went to Montana and Washington D.C. in the same summer – all in our 1986 Dodge Caravan. Digital entertainment was in its infancy, and you could only play so many hours of Gameboy before going crazy (or having to share with your brothers). By high school, I just wasn’t interested in those long drives and preferred to stay home in Kansas.
College trips with the cross country and track team were fun because I was with friends. We went from Arizona to Illinois and everywhere in between, but I didn’t really think of that as “travel.” We were there to compete and any sightseeing was incidental or non-existent. My last season was the spring of 2000 and I don’t know how often I even left the state until 2005 when I went with my parents back to Montana to visit family for the first time since 1990.
I definitely wanted to travel more, but didn’t really make it a priority until 2008. A friend was graduating from West Point so I saw that as a wonderful excuse to head east and visit New York City on the way. That winter, the same friend got married in Florida, another place I had never been. Through some good fortune and finally realizing I wanted to experience all these new places, I’ve gone on a trip or two every year since.
Hawaii in 2009 after my dad retired was great, but Europe in 2010 with my brother was a life-changing experience. I became a bit obsessed with researching locations ahead of time so I’d know what I wanted to see and do without missing anything (or missing as little as possible, as you can never do it all). One of the biggest things Europe actually gave me was an even greater desire to explore the U.S. I had researched all these European cities but it hadn’t really occurred to me that doing the same thing back home could be just as rewarding. Thanks to those family road trips, I had already visited a good number of the fifty states, but decided I wanted to try to hit them all. 2011 found me in New England, 2012 in the Pacific Northwest, 2013 in the Carolinas. I’m down to just five states to go: Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota (I’ve been to the Minneapolis airport, but not counting that), Delaware, and Alaska.
I’m hoping to hit the Great Lakes area this summer and check off two or three of those. I figure I can do a D.C., Philadelphia, Delaware trip and finish with grand Alaskan adventure. Of course, scheduling and funds are the primary limitations, but it’s been a blast and I’m excited to continue exploring.
