[April 7, 2005]
Welcome readers, family and friends! As some of you know, I my husband of almost 20 years lost his long battle with head and neck cancer on November 30, 2004. In his honor I will be attempting to ride through all 48 states this year. In March I collected the first three states, TN - GA - FL. There are three more trips planned, each one more aggressive than the last.

[November 7, 2005]
Well, the adventure is over and the trips are now history. The first consisted of three weeks on the road, the second of five weeks and the last of ten weeks (although three of those weeks were spent volunteer vacationing on the Blackfoot Nation Reservation in Montana).

My initial plans had been to just fill in my rider map with those states that I had yet to ride in. Then someone mentioned the Iron Butt Association's National Parks Tour Master Traveler Award. This consists of getting a National Park Passport stamp in at minimum of 50 parks across at least 25 states. Well that seemed pretty easy to do, what with all the states I had left open on my map. After reading a bit more, the next level (Silver Award) consists of including all four corner states. My plans already included WA, CA & ME so adding FL seemed like a no-brainer. From there it was a short leap to riding in all 48 states. I ended up skipping the IBA Traveler Tour for several reasons.

[click any photo to see a larger view]

All in all, it was truly a once in a lifetime experience, one that ended up with my riding 42 states and 27,000 miles by myself. While I fell short of my goal of 48 states, I knew that I had still ridden 41 more states than some people. I'll never forget it and hope you enjoy some of the photos I took along the way.

FINAL TOTAL:
42 states, 7 months, 27,000 miles, two sets of replacement tires, no major problems, 3 weeks spent volunteering on the Blackfeet Nation reservation, 4 major gatherings of on-line friends attended, all in all, a once in a lifetime adventure!