Okay this is what happened: I have five major tours (and dozens of little ones) under my belt:

The first one is oft-repeated, every year basically in my youth. Start at home in CA, camp your way up through Nevada, Wyoming (Yellowstone, Grand Tetons), cut through Montana, hit Canada, visit the family in various cities and national parks, zoom home through Idaho, Washington, Oregan.

Then there’s the quick way, which is what we usually do nowadays, straight up 5, cuz across a little corner of Oregon to hit the gorge, skipping Portland traffic, turn north at the tri-cities, get on 90 to Coeur D’Alene, head north to Bonners Ferry, and you’re in Canada. Back the same way.

Then when I was very young we did the Revolutionary/Civil War tour, and visited New York so dad could visit Columbia and we could see where they lived. That’s when we got in most of those states that were later repeated by accident when I lived in Philly.

And there’s the midwest tour we did so dad could see all his friends from KU – flew to Chicago, stayed there a couple days, did the Great Lakes, Macinac and the dunes, down through Iowa to visit friends, Kansas, Missouri, etc. I’d been to Iowa before that for a wedding, but this was the big tour.

Then the southern and southwest states Peter and I did when we moved from Philly to Seattle: If you want the cities, they’re start in Delaware (Peter’s parents) to Ashville, Nashville, Oklahoma City, Santa Fe, Telluride, Moab, home (Bay Area) for a couple days, motel in Oregon somewhere, Seattle. And yes, we did get from Moab to home in one day. We killed the family records for driving times.

So, sorry, bubbles. Never had any reason to seek out Nebraska or the Dakotas. I hear they play football out there?

Also, you could fly out west and miss a bunch of states that way. My wife and I did this on our honeymoon. We flew to Seattle, which is how I crossed Washington, Idaho and Montana off my list. We visited Seattle, then drove up to Vancouver, B.C., and then drove to the Canadian Rockies before returning to Seattle via Montana and Idaho.