Some travelers keep a bucket list of items to check off – such as visiting all the national parks, visiting every state or seeing every ball of twine.
We really never had a list when we set off full timing. But we did have the ambitious intentions to ‘visit most of the lower 48, Alaska and Baja’ in our first year.
Hah. Crazy new nomads. Rookie mistake.
10 years later, on September 15 – we finally rolled into Rhode Island, checking off the 50th state for each of us.
We couldn’t let this little milestone go by without a little pomp and circumstance!
But is it Really 50 States?
If you’re going to count states, you have to ask the question – what determines if you’ve been to a state?
Do you just have to breathe air in the state? Do you need to have spent a night? Walked outside an airport? Done something touristy? Taken your picture with a ‘Welcome to’ sign? Done cartwheels down the street?
Does it count if you visited as a kid, but don’t remember it?
For couples, there’s also the question of – do you need to have visited all of the states together?
And that’s where it can get tricky.
Rhode Island is each of our individual 50th states we’ve stepped foot in outside of a transportation port as adults. No doubt. We can each claim the milestone. Woo-hoo.
But it’s not our 50th together. We’d need Hawaii for that distinction. We’ve each been there multiple times before knowing each other.
And then for RVers, there’s also the count of states you’ve RV’d in, which is typically when the map posted on the outside of a rig gets colored in.
At the time we crossed into Rhode Island, we technically still needed to cross into Connecticut to claim all lower 48 in an RV we own (now done). We’ve only rented an RV in Alaska (does it count if it’s not our own RV?). And we don’t really have aspirations of RVing in Hawaii – but we WILL get there. And there are states we’ve been to as RVers, but not in our current RV (do we have to re-visit them in the bus to count?).
Eh. Technicalities.
It’s not like there’s an official accreditation board who will come peel stickers off your map if you can’t prove you were there. Use your own rules, and have fun with it!
(TMI Alert: Really want to know our rule? We don’t consider ourselves to have visited a state as a couple unless we’ve had sex there together. So there ya go, feel free to adopt it as your own.)
Thoughts on 50 States
When you announce you’ve been to all 50-states, some immediate questions tend to get asked. I thought I’d take a moment and share our thoughts on the obvious ones.
Do we feel like we’ve seen all of the US now?
Heck no! We quickly realized early on in our journey that there’s way too fricken much to see in this country, and there’s no way we’ll ever see it all. 10 years later, and it still feels like we’re just scratching the surface.
Heck, this is the first time we’ve RV’d in the northeast. And let me tell ya, one summer ain’t even close to enough.
If you figure we average 65 locations a year, we probably have about 600 unique stops we’ve made over our 10 years on the road (I haven’t actually tallied it up, I’m totally guessing.) There’s a heck of a lot more country than that out there.
That’s one reason that visiting all 50 states was never a specific goal of ours.
We’re about quality experiences.
Other than saying we’ve crossed all the state lines, it really doesn’t mean much. There’s so much diversity within a single state, that just crossing into each doesn’t mean we’ve really experienced them all. Heck one of them we only crossed into long enough to meet our rule (traveling in your home DOES have its perks).
Suffice it to say, we still have a LOT more of this country to see.
What’s our favorite state?
State of Joy? State of Exploration? State of Curiosity?
Oh, not what you were asking?
We really don’t have a good answer for this question. Mostly because it’s about people and experiences for us.
We tend to find the awesome in everywhere we visit, making our current location our favorite – and when that place no longer feels like our favorite, we move on.
Hmm. That’s actually a pretty good answer.
Any States We Want To Go Back To?
Heck yes!
We definitely need more time exploring Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Idaho. All places we’ve mostly just passed through, and fairly early on in our journey.
We need more time in the northwest – Washington, Oregon and of course Alaska all feel like states calling us back.
We need more time in the northeast – this is the first time we’ve RV’d in this area of the country. We’d return to any state we’ve visited these past months in a heartbeat. We haven’t technically left the region, and we’re already sad to be heading south.
But that’s ok, because we need more time in the southeast – as usually we’re ‘making miles’ between St. Louis, Florida & Texas for family visits – skimming over all the awesome in-between. So we’re looking forward to the new adventures ahead in the weeks to come.
And even though we’ve spent two marvelous winters in the southwest recently, we still crave returning for more. So much more to New Mexico, Arizona and California to explore.
And that’s just a start, we really could add all 50 states to the list of places we want to return and spend more time in. Yes, even Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas.
And that doesn’t even get us into our complete lack of RV time in Canada and Mexico.
Suffice it to say, it’s really hard to get bored on the road. There’s always something new around the bend.
So, how was Rhode Island?
Not only was Rhode Island our 50th state, our purpose for being there officially kicked off the preparation phase of the next evolution of our nomadic adventures. Kinda fitting, eh?
We honestly didn’t get much time to explore around (the little we saw, was absolutely lovely!).
We stayed at Meadowlark Mobile Home Park (our review) outside Newport, which was a basic & simple park for our needs. But very convenient location wise.
We explored the coastline when time permitted, and ran a few errands. We did laundry (wheee). We ate sushi (yum).
Soon… we’ll reveal what’s brewing for us and why we routed to Rhode Island.
Love your rule on whether you have visited a state! We have only been RVing 15 mos, and since we are 80+ we obviously won’t make 50 states in our RV together, so we have to include all the states we had been to before our RV time began. We need 4 or 5 more, and figure that is doable.
Truly enjoy reading your blogs, and the recent ones especially since we have spent fall in New England. You really MUST get back to upper New England in the fall. Even tho this year is not the best (drought) the fall color show is truly amazing, and cameras just can’t do it justice.
Congrats! That’s awesome.
Congrats on your great start! We took off on our full time adventures out of San Francisco BA with a two week cruise to four Hawaiian Islands. Counted for us even by your criteria. Then on the road across the US & Canada. Hard to believe we saw all those balloons at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta just a year ago. Saw you there too. Now in Santa Cruz, CA for the time being hope to haul the RV up to Alaska in two years. All our best,
Stephen & Rhonda
Cruising around Hawaii sounds amazing! We’re having lots of pleasant memories this week of ABQ and seeing all our friends posting pictures. Cheers!
So cool and I can sense the excitement in your post about what’s coming. Can’t wait to hear more!!
Nina
Can’t wait to talk each other’s ears off soon! 🙂
I love my little State thanks for visiting…..there are so many other things to see and do besides the cliff walk….which is stunningly beautiful. Come back again sometime soon and we’d be happy to be your concierge or tour guides…. safe travels!
I so wish we could have inserted a few more weeks into our season up here, and stuck around longer.
Sushi? What — no clamcakes and clam chowduh? 😉
So rare to find some local specialities in a gluten free form factor 🙂
You can rent VW Vanagon’s on Maui – I highly recommend it as you can sleep on ANY beach for free as long as you have a fishing line out! 🙂 Also, in my humble opinion (which you didn’t ask for of course), you haven’t really RV’d Alaska until you have driven there from the US border. That is at least half of the adventure. You can’t appreciate how FAR away Alaska is until you do that. Well worth it, by the way! Thanks for sharing your stories and advice.
Yup, definitely a difference between RVing TO Alaska and RVing IN Alaska. We took our path last summer precisely because we did have a handle on the distance, and it’s still far getting there by train & boat 🙂 It is something we intend to do one day however, but not likely in our current RV.
Love your blog just wish I had found it sooner. Have your Mobile internet Handbook and have read it twice! Ok- took twice to absorb the techy info. Just about to click buy on the WiFi Ranger and waiting for house to sell and start full timing! Thanks!
Would recommend waiting on clicking buy on WFR, and keeping an eye on upcoming announcements on the RVMobileInternet News Centers (our members know more about what is up 😉 ).
It is absolutely about the experiences. Thanks for sharing yours from the heart!
Especially experiences served with wine 🙂
We meet a couple in their late 60’s who stated their requirement to put a state on the map on the RV was to have had sex in that state while staying overnite. They were a fun loving couple who had 40 plus states marked off.
We think it’s a fun criteria to have 🙂
As always, your write up of your visits make us want to pack up and hit the road full time. You have a way of “sparking” the dream! Can’t wait until we can take the plunge. Thanks again for sharing your journey across our Great Nation. May you continued to be blessed with safe travels!
May your dreams turn to reality!
That is so awesome. We have only been on the road for a year and still debating on how we count states. We spent 2 nights in Arkansas, but never left a friend’s house…does that count? We didn’t even go to a grocery store!! We haven’t been very far and there are so many places we want to return to. It must be so hard to move onto the next…I love hearing that you all still feel like there is so much left to explore. 🙂 Thank you for sharing your experiences, adventures, and knowledge with us!! Happy travels!!
Amazing how the time flies, how many places there are to visit and how quickly you feel a yearn to return somewhere. Enjoy it all!
What a great post. I really enjoyed it. I think it’s cool it took 10 years to hit all states and I loved your comment about doing it for the quality experience!! Thanks for sharing. …Trace
Experiences, not checklists 🙂 That’s our goal. Thanks for stopping by Trace!
I cannot imagine what we have in Georgia that piques your nomadic interest. But… come ahead.
I like the technical stuff best of all Tin Man.
Georgia has so many gems to discover.. we’ve loved time out on the coast, visiting Atlanta and various state parks scattered throughout.