The Forty-Fifth State

December 29, 2007. A momentous day for me. Some of you know that Eric and I have been in an unofficial “race” to beat each other to all 50 states. Between the two of us, we’ve made it to all 50, but the ones that we have left individually, unfortunately, do not overlap. We were on our way to visit Eric’s sister in Chattanooga (starting from Nashville, where we had spent a delayed Christmas) and came to the realization that one of my remaining six states was only a TEN MINUTE DETOUR from our proposed route. Alabama, here we come! We turned off of I-24 and within minutes, found ourselves crossing over the state line into my forty-fifth United State of America!!! It wasn’t quite everything I hoped it would be…let’s just say the “scenic route” we chose to take was mostly trailer homes and scrub bushes (maybe there’s a reason this was #45 instead of #10 or something). But I can’t be picky.

States we have left are as follows: Eric—Hawaii, Maine, Oregon, Nevada, South Carolina. Rachel—Alaska, Vermont, Louisiana, Mississippi, West Virginia.