Introduction 5/12/26

50 states. It truly is crazy to me that I finally got here. 

I can’t say I’ve had many life goals: something I dedicate over years to achieve. You know of course I’ve got a lot of personal and professional stuff. Getting married and completing college. I suppose I had getting every Super Smash Bros Ultimate character into Elite Smash. That certainly took me a few years. But nothing has been such an ongoing journey for my entire life like visiting all 50 states. 

In a way you could say it started when I was 3 months old, as I was brought by my parents on my first road trip from Missouri to Montana. And as I gained consciousness as I got older, every time I got to travel I would get so excited to see a brand new place. But it was when I got a US map puzzle when I was 5 years old that my love of traveling and interest in US geography really took off. 

I loved that thing! There was even one family trip to Florida when I brought it as my carry on item. I was so cool, I know. To this day I still cry over the lost South Carolina piece from that trip. Then that led me to make maps from the pieces, which of course I would fill in all the states I had been to.

And so I kept traveling. More states crossed off. Colorado, Minnesota, Utah. Then Ohio, Washington, Michigan. Every opportunity I would push my family to plan a road trip so I could cross off more states. By the time I was 18 I had visited 36 states, and my graduation present was a trip to the Northeast to get 9 more. And then post covid lockdown I got to get to 4 of my last 5. That brought me to only New Mexico. And after years to plan I finally got to complete my goal after an epic 2-week trip to the southwest.

Of course finally completing my 26 year journey was going to make me think about how much I liked them. And I am a sucker for Top ___ lists. So the time has come! What is the best state? What is the worst state?

I want to do a little level setting to provide a bit more clarification on how I rank these states. First off, to the best of my ability, I plan to avoid politics. Very difficult to do, especially for me since I am such a tuned in person to all of that. There’s a reason for this. 

Most US states have so much to offer, but to so many of us, they are just minimized to the color they appear on the map. I don’t care about whatever stupid people these places elect. Well, actually, of course I do, but all of those people are often such poor representations of where they’re from. They’re (usually) rich kids from established political dynasties, or corporate heads, or something to that account. 

What matters to me are the actual people who live there. Are they friendly? Could you trust someone to help you on the side of the road? Are they assholes? Are a large portion of the people just plain racist? That is what actually goes into my ranking. Not stupid people like Chuck Grassley who has held the same senate seat for 200 years and only continues to be elected because not enough people know enough about another candidate or the other candidate was just flat out worse. So if deep red South Dakota places high on the list, know it has nothing to do with known puppy-murderer Kristi Noem. The real question is if a large portion of the population are puppy-murderers.

92 year-old Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa

As many of you would expect, state beauty goes a long way in where I rank the state. I will say there is not a single state that does not have something truly pretty. And if you disagree you just aren’t looking hard enough or aren’t trying hard enough to appreciate what you see. But some states are prettier than others, and some states do have significant ugly portions (I’m looking at you, Illinois!)

City and town quality when relevant also plays a significant role. I say “when relevant” because some states just don’t have cities and the populated areas are such small parts of the state. So maybe Illinois is saved by Chicago? You’ll just have to wait and see.

Alright I think that’s all I have to say. It may have been a lot, but I’m making sure I get this done right! My goal is to update this list every day with a new entry. So stay tuned for tomorrow for state number 50!