48 Down

As you may or may not know, Emily and I just returned home from a whirlwind trip to Fargo, North Dakota. Spring Break 2010!! As most people would, you might be wondering what in the heck is in Fargo. Well, not much. The exciting part of the trip wasn't the city itself, but the reason for the trip instead.

A few years back, I became obsessed with road trips. Every chance I got I was hopping in the car and getting out of town. More often than not, I travelled for concerts. Sometimes I did it just for vacation. I try to make as little plans as possible and just figure it out as I go. Some of my most memorable road trips are as follows (in chronological order as best as I can remember)......

1. Cincy > the Rockies > the Tetons > South Dakota > back to Cincy

2. New Orleans (3 times)

3. Cincy to Vegas.

4. The East Coast, to Bar Harbor, Maine. This trip included a pilgrimage to a bar called Nectar's in Burlington Vermont - a college bar where Phish played and recorded many of there first shows.

5. A flight in to San Francisco, a drive up the coast with a flight home from Seattle.

6. A flight in to Reno, Nevada with some time spent in Lake Tahoe, Yosemite National park with a flight home from Los Angeles.

7. A round trip flight in and out of Denver with a road trip though Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and New Mexico in between.

8. And, most recently, Cincy to Fargo with stops in Iowa City and a brief tour of Emily's childhood town, Champaign, IL.

These are just a few of my big trips. Sprinkled throughout are numerous small trips and mini-Phish tours.

Let me get to the point. A few years ago, I realized that I had a lot of states under my belt and decided that I would make sure to hit all of the lower 48 states by the time I was 30. I think I was about 25 at the time. I made it to all of them except North Dakota. Honestly, I had no idea why I would go to North Dakota, and I kinda doubted that I would pull it off.

That's where Emily came in. A while back, I told her about my goal, and she said "so when are we going to North Dakota?" She was immediately on board to help me finish it. Being that I turn 30 in a couple months, we decided that it was time to get on the road. We planned on going up back in February. The day before we were to leave, we realized, well, that it was February and we would be insane to go to Fargo in the middle of the winter. We opted for a weekend getaway in South Carolina instead (another great trip to the only other state that I was yet to visit). We made plans to hit North Dakota this past weekend.

So, there you have it. A goal met with not much time to spare. I have a million stories I could tell about the time I've spent on the road, and I plan to have a million more before I'm done. The continental united States is done. Now, it's on to the rest of the world.