Accomplishing A Lifelong Dream: Visiting All 50 States

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One year and one month ago on this day, I was sitting in the RV in Austin, stuck because of the pouring rain outside and chomping at the bit to hit the road and start traveling to all 50 states. Heath and I had no idea what to expect. Would we actually make it to all fifty states? Would the RV survive the journey? Could we afford it?

Well, after all the doubts, all the hard work, and all the moments where we had to decide this goal was worth all the money and all the trouble, we visited our 50th state: Alaska.

WE DID IT!

We actually visited all 50 states together in a little over a year’s time!

I’m going to have to write that down a few more times before it sinks in that we accomplished our goal. Can you believe it? I still can’t.

I’m trying my best to savor this moment and reflect on everything Heath and I have done together in our first year of marriage. This past year has been filled with experiences I never thought possible. When in Alaska, we crossed even more items off of our bucket list beyond just visiting our 50th state.

√ White water rafting

√ Fly in a small airplane

√ Ride in a helicopter

√ Swim in hot springs

√ Finish filming documentary

Upon arriving back in Texas, I found our bucket lists (or life lists, as they are labeled in my notebook) and we crossed off the goals we spent the past year working toward. (And consequently started dreaming about our next adventure).

There are so many things that I want to tell you about our trip to Alaska. We drove from Seattle, through British Columbia and the Yukon. This was Heath’s first time to ever leave the country. We spent five days driving through some of the most beautiful parts of North America. We saw three bears, one black, one brown, and one grizzly. We saw half a dozen moose, even a mom with her two babies. We saw dozens of bald eagles soaring around us–and it was just as majestic and America as I imagined.

We visited Fairbanks, where we panned for gold and drove out to swim in some hot springs. We explored Denali National Park and even worked our 50th job there (more on that adventure later!). We rafted down a glacier-fed river and Heath even swam in it! He wore a dry suit of course, since the water was roughly 35 degrees. We choppered up to Denali base camp and flew in a plane around the Alaska mountain range. We spent countless hours driving around the state, pulling over on the shoulder of the small roads to jump out and take pictures of the mountains or the ocean.

The entire trip was breath taking. Everyone says oh, Alaska is so beautiful. You’ll love it! But the best part of visiting Alaska is all the time it took to get there. Not just the five day trek across bumpy, winding roads in Canada, but the months of preparation and the year of traveling to the first 49. All together, it made visiting the largest state a little more captivating.

We are now officially done filming Hourly America. We’ve visited every state.

In a lot of ways, achieving this goal is anticlimactic, kind of like graduating high school. Once you get close to finishing a goal, in your head you already start planning the next big thing. I’m already dreaming about traipsing across Europe or cruising around the Caribbean. But I know the next big thing for us is producing and premiering Hourly America so I can share with you all of the breathtaking footage of Alaska and the rest of America.

Thank you to everyone who reads my blogs and has supported Heath and I in this adventure! We couldn’t have made it to state 50 without your constant encouragement. You’re wonderful.

For now, I’m still on Alaska time and struggling to re-adjust to this concept of “night” which definitely did not exist up north. Next week, I’ll be sharing some stories from our Alaska trip, including what it’s like to sleep on a glacier and what do when it’s 2:37AM and you can’t sleep because the sun is in your eyes. (Plus, there is some exciting news coming your way soon too!)

Love,

Alyssa