You may not be aware but, I recently decided to camp all 50 states before the end of my 50th year on this earth (50/50). I don’t have many states in the books and I certainly don’t have much time left to complete this dream, this goal I’ve created for myself. I have roughly 22 months, so I really need to map this out. That’s what I’ve been trying to do for the last couple of weeks.
Of course, I’m very cognitive that funds, weather and real life may get in the way of my plan but, for now…….I have something to drive towards or is it fly towards?
I grabbed different colored highlighters and made what I’m calling Plan A: Rough Draft. With the help of my trusty highlighters, I colored in the states that I’ve already camped in (pink). With the other highlighters, I grouped states together based in their geographical closeness and outlined those states by color. It looks something like this….
Hold up, wait a second…….. I also needed to decide, what state was going to be #50 and since I was giving myself until April 2016 where was I going to spend my 50th birthday. These were some big decisions I needed to make while planning Camp50.
Here’s my plan……………
Next up: Washington, Oregon, Idaho & Montana
- The two closest states to me, Rhode Island & Connecticut
- Nevada, Florida, Virginia, each could be done over a weekend
- Looks like I’ll be spending my 50th birthday exploring North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming & Colorado
- Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin on another round. perhaps a long weekend exploration.
- Texas, Oklahoma & New Mexico
- Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri & Kansas
- Ohio & Kentucky another weekend
- Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana & Mississippi
- South Carolina, Georgia & Alabama
- #49 = Hawaii
- #50 = Alaska
Well that’s my rough draft for now. Having a bit of camping withdrawal but, my next big adventure is just around the corner. Really looking forward to my camping trip to the Pacific Northwest along with Idaho and Montana.
Some days I think that it would be nice to have someone to share this experience with but, then I remember that camping, exploring, spending time with nature is the only way I know to heal my heart and find myself. It’s been a solo journey so far, no sense in changing things now but, there are definitely a few special friends I’d like to have by my side in Alaska for #50.