Where have you been? (A contest!)

One of the teachers at the elementary school at which I was a principal would take a vacation to a different state every year. Her family’s goal was to eventually visit all fifty states and so at the school year’s end she and her husband would pack up the kids and pets and take off for the next state on their checklist.

I’m not that methodical or ambitious with my travel plans, although there are a couple of places I’d like to visit, eventually. Frankly, I don’t “vacation” well, so spending weeks living out of my suitcase, sleeping in strange beds, taking in artificially-contrived amusements and putting up with other people—and other people’s children—is not my idea of rest and relaxation.

But I have been around some. Here are the states I’ve visited, stayed at, slept over, or driven through on my way elsewhere:

Looks I need to take Horace Greeley’s advice to “Go West, young man.” (The sentiment is original to Indiana newspaper writer John Soule in 1851 but popularized by and commonly attributed to Greeley).

You can generate your own map at the Visited States site. Go to the site, click on the state names and generate a map. Then, post the link on your response below—let’s see who has visited the most states. I’ll send a free book* as a prize to the person with the most states (honor system, people) who posts by July 20, 2007.

*Your choice of book prize:

Farnham, et al., Listening Hearts: Discerning Call in Community
Dalby, The Tale of Murasaki: a novel
Dunca, Calendar: Humanity’s Epic Struggle to Determine a True and Accurate Year
Bukiet, Signs and Wonder: a novel
Craig, The Good Men: A Novel of Heresy
Hibbert, George III
Wieder, The Poet’s Book of Psalms