I am in North Dakota tonight, one of the states on my list that I had never visited. I updated the rest of my list tonight. It looks like I have 6 or 7 states left to go (Hawaii, Alaska, Nevada, Montana, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Mississippi). I have to check on MS and SC, I'm not sure about those. But here is a continuation of the list I posted last month, me trying to remember the first time I visited each state.
KENTUCKY – many trips to visit friends in Louisville over the years…can’t remember the first time, but probably late 1980s.
LOUISIANA
MAINE – 2005 I went on a work trip to southern Maine. I got to eat fresh lobster at the home of a lobster fisherman – the highlight of the trip! Oh, and the L.L. Bean flagship store in Freeport.
MARYLAND – I think I visited Baltimore for the first time in the late 1980s on a choir tour. Maybe? More recently I visited Annapolis and Baltimore with a friend from PA.
MASSACHUSETTS – 2005 after my trip to Maine I rented a car and drove to Boston and stayed in a great hotel (my first venture into priceline.com) and walked the Freedom Trail. I loved Boston!
MICHIGAN – mid 1990s I made several trips to visit my friend Char. When I lived in Illinois we made annual trips to the sand dunes in Michigan every August to kick off back to school and camp on the beach with the youth group.
MINNESOTA – my first and only trip to MN was in college when I worked for the National Center for Fathering. We drove to Minneapolis to hold our first national fathering convention.
MISSISSIPPI
MISSOURI – many trips to Kansas City, Branson, St. Louis, Columbia, etc over the years. Next thing I want to do in Missouri is visit President Truman’s library.
MONTANA
NEBRASKA – many trips to Lincoln and Omaha over the years to visit friends.
NEVADA
NEW HAMPSHIRE – 2005 I visited this state on my whirlwind tour of new England and stayed two days in Concord and drove through beautiful mountains in the north.
NEW JERSEY – 2007 my first and only trip was last year when I met Julie and her family in NJ (after a VERY expensive cab ride from Manhattan) to go see the Statue of Liberty and then sat in a horrible traffic jam on the bridge trying to get back.
NEW MEXICO – Many drives through the state on my way to Phoenix and one stay during a choir tour trip in 1989, I think.
NEW YORK – mid 1990s I made my first trip to the state by driving with the youth group from Illinois to Poughkeepsie, NY where we spent a week doing a VBS for a church plant. I had to drive a 15 passenger van through downtown Manhattan on our tourist day…that was a little scary. Then in 2007 I spent a crazy three days with Julie and her family touring the city. Here's a photo of Lizzie in front of the Statue of Liberty.
NORTH CAROLINA – I’ve attended several Smart Start conferences in Greensboro, NC. Also spent some time in Elizabeth City at Roanoke Bible College doing presentations when I worked at AIM.
NORTH DAKOTA – Never been until today! I’m spending three days in Bismarck doing a training for work. It’s really cold.
OHIO – Annual trips to Cincinnati when I lived in Indiana. We always ended the summer by taking the interns to Kings Island and Cincinnati Bible College.
OKLAHOMA – lots of trips to Stillwater as a kid to see my Uncle Jack and his family. And lots of trips all over the state since then.
OREGON – mid 1990s I spent two weeks in the northwest visiting churches and doing presentations with some coworkers from AIM. So pretty….I loved driving up the Oregon coast.
PENNSYLVANIA – my first trip was in the 1990s to visit a church near Williamsport. A few years ago I visited friends in Carlisle and went to Gettysburg, which was really interesting to see.
RHODE ISLAND – 2005 on my tour of new England I spent about 5 hours in the car trying to navigate this crazy state. It was bumper to bumper traffic from the time I entered from Massachusetts until I finally made it over to Connecticut. I visited one mansion in Newport, which was amazing.
SOUTH CAROLINA - ? (I need to look at some old journals to see if I have ever been here)
SOUTH DAKOTA – as a kid we rented an RV and went with my grandma, aunt, uncle and cousin to see Mount Rushmore and the badlands. It was a really fun trip.
TENNESSEE – first trip was in 1988, but I can’t remember what city. I’ve been to Nashville and Memphis since then.
TEXAS – Dallas in high school for a girls shopping trip. I think that was my first time. Oh wait. I lived in San Antonio for a year when I was 2 or 3. I don’t remember it.
UTAH – 1989 or 1990 went to Salt Lake City on choir tour. I remember touring the morman tabernacle, which was really cool.
VERMONT – 2005 again on my new England tour. I drove through lots of small towns in Vermont doing some shopping and site seeing. I didn’t get to stay for more than a day, so I didn’t see that much.
VIRGINIA – My first trip was to Virginia Beach on a trip with AIM in the 1990s. A few years ago I had a work trip to northern Virginia and spent an afternoon driving through Shenandoah National Park, which was beautiful!
WASHINGTON – mid 1990s on my trip with AIM coworkers we visited several churches in Washington, both in the Seattle area and in the eastern part of the state.
WISCONSIN – late 1990s when I worked in Illinois we took our youth group to Wisconsin to go skiing every winter. The hills weren’t as good as Colorado, but it was still fun.
WEST VIRGINIA – 1988 on choir tour we went to visit the home of Alexander Campbell and all I remember is that we had a birthday cake to celebrate his birthday (he is dead) while we were there. It was a little creepy. It was near Bethany, WV.
WYOMING – Sometime in college I went to Colorado with my friend Rebecca to stay with her family, and we traveled to their cabin in Wyoming for a few days. I can’t remember for sure where it was though. I really want to go to Yellowstone National Park sometime.
After the flea market, the kids played at a playground near downtown Homburg where we parked, while Lesa and I rested on the bench. Then we drove about twenty minutes to some town in France which I don't know the name of. It was very anti-climatic crossing the border from Germany into France because no one even stopped us, much less stamped my passport :( We went into France to go to a large grocery store called Cora to pick up a few things. The store had a very large liquor department (mostly wine and beer), including this wine in a juice box Lesa is holding. Nice!
After pizza for lunch, we headed back to Germany and drove an hour or so to Heidelburg. This was a great city to visit, although it was packed with visitors out enjoying the beautiful day. We walked through the shopping district, stopping for ice cream of course.
