Completing all 50 States.
 

I'm assuming most American citizen's on here will have done this, but I'm curious to see if there's any other non-USA citizen/solo travellers on here that have accomplished it?

I have two more USA trips planned in both February and March and provided nothing goes wrong in February's trip, March's trip will have me completed them all.

February's new states - Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia and Indiana.
March's new states - Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming and Alaska to finish all 50 (then with a few days left to spare doing Vancouver, Montreal and Ottawa).

It's going to feel like a real achievement and something I've wanted to do since I was younger.

I don't fly between every state, if there's an Amtrak train I am happy to do that (doing that in March from Milwaukee through Chicago, down through Nebraska and Iowa. Very long day, think it's an 11-hour journey but I'm not bothered - I bring plenty beers and snacks and I'm good - done Oklahoma to Little Rock, Arkansas in the summer and that was a 12-hour day on the train but enjoyable).

I have been to 49 states but not North Dakota. I cannot find an excuse to go to North Dakota. For a few of the states, I drove through them but stopped to take a break and drove to a town.

You'd be surprised. I know Americans (man of them) who have been to myriad countries but only a couple dozen states, or are missing a handful--often from random regions. This was a goal I set for myself as a child. I finished during Covid when travel resumed but was still affordable, as I had Alaska and Hawaii left.

The Amtrak is, sadly, not like any UK or EU train I have traveled on. This is not to make UK/EU trains sound over-wonderful, but in the States, cargo trains take priority, so Amtrak is often late. Some are better than others, but at the end of the day, a train ride is a beautiful way to see a nation. Milwaukee through Chicago will be stunning. And I happen to love the Midwest--cornfields and all.

Your trip sounds wonderful! Take time and enjoy. Please consider trip reports from your vantage point. It would be fun to read!

I doubt that many US citizens have seen all 50 states. I traveled extensively for work and still haven't been to all 50 states. Not even something I aspire to.

Many have not in the central part of the country even if they have been to 30+ countries overseas.

The only states I have not been to are the dakotas ( both) and parts of New England ( Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine) that will be part of future trips over the next 5 years.

RBW - surely the excuse to go to North Dakota is to complete all the States? no? maybe it's just not that big of a deal to some folk (going off a couple of the posts).

travelingdrsuz - yeah I noticed that with the Amtrak trains.

I've done a few of the journeys and whilst I enjoy them (and some of the scenery) they do seem prone to delays as cargo trains get priority on the routes, crossings, junctions etc. I've seen me on an Amtrak, stopped at a junction or light for 2-hours before whilst a cargo-type train literally miles long spends 15-minutes passing next to me. It's quite interesting if nothing else.

When I went to New Orleans summer of 24, I booked the Amtrak to take me across to Picayune in Mississippi to knock another state off. It was only an hour journey, but I slept in. It was the second last day of my trip and had spent 2-weeks being in a new city/state every day so it was probably everything catching up with me. I didn't want to miss out so booked an Uber (very reasonable price was only 60-dollars) and he took me across and my thinking was to spend the day and get the train back at night.

Had a great day in Picayune going round the little gang hut bars, browsing the antique shops etc. As it was a Sunday everything closed early but it was OK as my train was at 7pm anyway. A thunderstorm hit. The train that was due at 7pm arrived at almost 1am in the end, but long before this time I had no network data, then no battery in my phone, nowhere opened to charge my phone and then install data to check for updates.

The place turned into a ghost town almost within minutes when everything shut.

I was standing on the Amtrak platform, myself, in a thunderstorm, no taxi offices, no-one around, with no phone, no screens for updates and no ticket office open. Was starting to fear the worst as I had a flight back up to New York to fly back home to the UK at about 7am and then around midnight this little old man appeared on the platform - his grandkids and wife were on the train I was waiting on and he was phoning them on his old 1999 style mobile phone for updates and relaying them back to me and that put me at ease.

I didn't care about the delay anymore, I was just relieved that a train was actually going to show up haha.

Regarding North Dakota, we visited the Theodore Roosevelt National Park and the Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile State Historic Site. We tend to visit portions of a state that help define the region like Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in Kansas, and a coal mine tour in West Virginia.

In my opinion, you cannot truly visit the US without driving on multiple road trips. The journey is the destination.

I think it’s awesome that you have seen so much of the US. I think your method of travel allows you to experience the US as few people have. I think you might understand our country better than many Americans.

I grew up never having left the state of Florida. I was completely ignorant of most of the country until I got a chance to really explore. I still haven’t been to Alaska or Hawaii, and I am missing the ‘ho’ states (OK and ID), but my explorations of the states west of the Mississippi didn’t even begin until I was well into my 50s.

Kudos to you for your explorations. You have probably seen more of the US than most Americans. Enjoy the rest of the visits.

Did most Europeans visited all 48 countries in Europe? I doubt it. There are FT from US that probably did that :)

Thanks for the kind words. I love travelling around the US. What fascinates me most, is that a lot of the States themselves are like different countries in a way as they have their own cultures, traditions, laws, lingo etc etc. Obviously there's States that are similar to each other but some of them are so different by contrast. The past couple of summers with my state hopping, I've seen me in 3 states in the 1 day or 24-hour period. Love it :D

FWIW, I've done every country in Europe with the exception of Belarus - which has been too difficult to do just now because of the war with Russia and Ukraine as most flights are suspended in and out - you have to go to Dubai or Istanbul and fly in from there. I will do it though, there's a flight I have my eye on that's a very reasonable price it's Edinburgh to one of the London Airports (need to double check what one) then to Istanbul then to Khazakstan (spelling) and then into Minsk, Belarus. It involves over night layovers in Istanbul and Khazakstan but that's fine by me, I love Istanbul and Khazakstan would be an adventure :)

There was another option for Belarus, last time I was in Lithuania if you can find a taxi driver willing to drive you over the land border after you pay a fee and have an accredited hotel in a certain part of Belarus give you a letter sponsoring you but I think the average time spent at the border to get in and out is 4-5 hours each side so no taxi driver will find it worth his while to do so. I may have some of that slightly wrong, it's complicated - but that's my understanding of the situation, so I left it and have my eye on the Istanbul and Khazakstan flights instead :D

I use mob-rule.com to track my counties visited. I'm up to 618. Feels like a lot until you put it onto a map.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...50b57adc03.png

There's the old joke (not necessarily false...) that the US is 50 third-world countries in a trench coat.

I'm still missing South Carolina, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, and South Dakota. I'll get at least a couple of those next May when I go see my cousin graduate from college in Montana. I know many people who have unfortunately never left the state where they were born.

To me that's an incredible shame. All that country to explore for a citizen.