All 50 US States in a Year
What a wild gift of 2024
It really all started off as my idea for my 2024 Christmas card. While the first half of the year held a fairly standard amount of travel for me, the second half of the year unfolded into a wild and surprising adventure. As I was brainstorming for a way to represent this year’s travels I thought it would be fun to cross stitch my US routes across the country and it seemed like a little needlepoint would be a fun way to commemorate.
I’d bought a car in June in Nashville when I thought I was going to be moving back to live in Tennessee. I was working remote, with nominal work travel to Los Angeles, and Nashville was my last home base and still felt like home. When the house that I was going to move in to with my friend fell through I embarked on a new chapter of life. And at the end of July hit the road from Nashville with no real long-term living plan.
At first I took advantage of my geographical nimbleness (my preferred term) and chose to stay in a place over the summer to see if things with a guy had any future potential. They did not, and my work contract was not renewed at the end of September so October 1st found me at the precipice of the unknown.
I would be lying that it’s always been no-stress, but for the most part it’s been an amazing showcase of how many incredible friends I have. I’ve only slept in my car once and I’ve seen so many friends and towns all across America! It truly has been an adventure of a lifetime.
Last month my brother who lives in Texas came up to Nashville to spend Thanksgiving with me. I enlisted his sounding board help as I brought out my whiteboard and markers to help plan out the rest of 2024 with me. I told him I’d been to 39 states this year and was toying with the idea of rounding it out to the full 50.
He made some great points and I decided to full-send and commit. All 50 US states in one calendar year. I’m doing it. I’ll share a year in review next week - melding it with the essay I started this summer about the state of America (a surprisingly uplifting take!) I’ve got one last stretch of road to finish up the North Eastern tip. At the time of this writing I’ve been to 43. Just missing:
Connecticut
Delaware
Maine
Massachusetts
New Hampshire
Rhode Island
Vermont
With the exception of Delaware these are all states I’ve been to before - just not this year. It’s been fun to craft the route and be in touch with the friends I’ll see along the way. As much as I have enjoyed the opportunity to travel this year I am wholeheartedly ready to give the road a rest. 20k plus miles solo-driving the many hours of in-between landscapes has given me more than ample time to reflect.
Some of the things I have pondered have been a kind of overview/assessment of my life. And as the final week of 2024 is upon us and we are between Christmas and New Years I am reflecting on the past twelve months. This year has been hard for me in many ways but also filled with surprising aspects. I don’t know about you but I’m sincerely looking forward to starting a fresh year.
Merry Christmas - see you in 2025!
xo,
A.L. Mills