Our 50 states (and provinces/territories)

Car?

Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas, Oklahoma, North Carolina, South Carolina, Illinois, Michigan, Hawaii, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Virginia, Nebraska, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Alabama, Washington, Ontario, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Mexico. Maybe more, too tired to think right now.

Anyone do a poop list, yet?

 

OK, states I've pooped in (19): Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Washington

 

Driven: Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Mississippi, DC.

Sex: Kansas, Missouri, Virginia, Illinois, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, West Virginia, Delaware, Pa, New Jersey, Maryland, DC.

Colleges: Kansas - KU, KSU, Wichita State, Fort Hays, Emporia State, Pittsburg State, Washburn, Kansas Wesleyan, Tabor, Bethany, Friends, McPherson, Baker, Ottawa, pretty much all the JuCos.
Oklahoma - OU, OSU, Central OK, OK Christian.
Texas - Texas Tech, UT, TCU, North Texas, SMU.
Nebraska - Nebraska, Crete, Hastings, Nebraska Kearney.
Missouri - Mizzou, UMKC, Northwest Missouri State, Central Missouri.
Kentucky - UK, UL
Tennessee - Vandy, UT
Illinois - Northwestern, SIU
Mississippi - Southern Miss
Florida - UCF
Georgia - GT
South Carolina - Clemson, SC Upstate, Coastal Carolina.
Indiana - Evansville
West Virginia - WVU, Charleston, Shepherd
Maryland - UMD, Towson, Hopkins, UMBC,
Pennsylvania - Penn, Lehigh, Shippensburg, Villanova, Wilson.
Delaware - UD.
New York - Columbia
New Jersey - Monmouth, Princeton, Rutgers
North Carolina - Duke, UNC, NC State, ECU, Elon, UNC Greensboro, Wake Forest, UNC Pembroke, UNC Wilmington, NC Central, Campbell, Meredith, Fayetteville State, Gardner-Webb, Shaw.
Virginia - UVa, VT, VCU, ODU, Radford, JMU, George Mason, William and Mary, Averett, Bridgewater, Eastern Mennonite, VMI, Washington & Lee, Liberty, Lynchburg, Roanoke, Sweet Briar, Richmond, Mary Baldwin, Mary Washington, Shenandoah, Ferrum.

 

I assume we're talking overnight sleep, and not including camping and naps?
My list is Texas, Louisiana and Tennessee.
Sadly, most of them were planned stays. Driving across Texas, I calculated that I would get to Fort Stockton around 10 or 11 p.m. and was too cheap to spring for a hotel room that late, so I made the plan to sleep in a parking area just short of there. Did the same in Tennessee on another long road trip. It's a miracle I lived to see 25.

 

Overnight, more or less, I'd say.

For example: after driving from Tallahassee, I spent one October night in my light truck in a parking garage at the University of Tennessee because the lady I was visiting couldn't sneak me into her dorm. Not only did I slumber (alone) with a great view of the Sunsphere, in the foreground of my sightline was a bank sign that reminded me it was 28 degrees every three seconds. Coulda been worse. I could have been driving back to Atlanta without showering the next morning to string a college football game at Georgia Tech.

Oh.

 

On one of those Texas trips, I was heading out to Arizona on spring break.
Day one goes according to plan. I get to the parking area outside Fort Stockton around 10:30, and since the place is in the middle of the desert it's actually a good place to bed down. Nobody really coming through there except me and truckers. In the morning I wash up and brush my teeth from a water jug and head on.
Make it to El Paso and wind up in the wrong lane on I-10. I get stuck in the line to go to Mexico, so I figure I'll go, turn around and come back to say I was in Mexico -- except my car overheats on the bridge and I limp it just across the border just after noon on Sunday.
Long story short, I spend the next eight hours walking back and forth between Juarez and El Paso, in a hopelessly futile effort to fix the car myself. At dark, around 8 p.m., I finally give up and call the tow truck and it takes six hours to get there (and the effort to get it there involved four or five more trips from one side of the border to the other).
Each trip across the border was about a mile each way, so I probably walked between 10 and 15 miles total on an 85-degree day in March.
The tow truck finally arrives around 2 a.m., with a Mexican driver, and we somehow communicate enough through mime to get the car towed back to Texas. I get it towed to the nearest Chevy dealership and it's dropped off at 3 a.m. Since the place opened at 7, I just cracked the windows, crawled into the back seat and fell asleep.

The dealership was right up the street from UTEP's campus, so I walked there (probably a half-mile or so) to kill time while the car was getting fixed. I was back on my way by early afternoon and finally stopped at a hotel off of I-10 in Benson, Arizona, around dinner time, about 18 hours after my ill-fated Mexican adventure began.
Between exhaustion, the beginnings of the worst sunburn of my life, the sweat and body funk from all of that walking, and some general grime from futzing around with the car (and wearing the same clothes as the day before), I can't even imagine what I looked like rolling into that hotel lobby. There are probably meth addicts on a five-day high that look better than I did.

 

Driven a Car:

• Alaska
• Ala.
• Ark.
• Calif.
• Colo.
  
• D.C.
• Fla.
• Ga.
• Ill.
• Iowa
• Kan.
• Ky.
• La.
• Miss.
• Mo.
• Md.
• N.C.
• Neb.
• Nev.
• Okla.
• S.C.
• Tenn.
• Texas
• Va.
• W. Va.

 

Driven a car: California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut Massachusetts, Rhode Island, D.C.

Driven thru (in a car or on Greyhound): Colorado, Wyoming, West Virginia, Virginia.

 

Driven a car: All states except Hawaii, North Dakota and Alaska.

 

Driven a car through:
Missouri
Illinois
Indiana
Ohio
Kentucky
Tennessee
Georgia
Alabama
Louisiana
Arkansas
Florida
South Carolina
North Carolina
Pennsylvania
W. Virginia
D.C.
Iowa
Minnesota
Nebraska
North Dakota
South Dakota
Wyoming
Idaho
Oregon
Washington
California
New Mexico
Nevada
Arizona
Oklahoma
Texas
Colorado
Montana

Pretty much missing most of New England and the non-contiguous states.

 

Driven a car: Maine*, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky*, Arkansas, Tennessee, West Virginia, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California*, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa.

*One of my goals in life is to set foot in all 50 states. Despite taking a number of road trips both as a kid and adult, this is not nearly as easy to do as it seems without a little extra effort. Kentucky, for example, is a very tough place to get to if you don't happen to be going there. So, during my younger years, I would sometimes do "drive-bys" of states I happened to be close to, just to cross them off the list.
After years of missing Kentucky, I finally made a side trip when I was heading to St. Louis. Crossed over where the Ohio River flows into the Mississippi, stopped for a Coke in the first town I came to, and resumed the trip to St. Louis.
On a trip to Boston with a friend, we drove an extra hour north to Maine to cross it off the list. Turned around at the first exit and came back.
On a trip to Arizona (the one that included the ill-fated Mexican visit I mentioned in an earlier post), I wound up with a day to kill and nothing planned so I drove from Phoenix to the California border. Got a Coke at a gas station in Blythe, turned around and headed back. I did make sure to set my car's clock to Pacific time for the 20 minutes I was there, though.

 

Good luck in your quest. I gave up. North Dakota escaped me, and I don't see circumstances that'll bring it back. Once they had the Frozen Four in Fargo (obviously this is way back when), but the Herald sent another writer.