Fifty By Seventy — Welcome to DrBatten.com!

I was not a child that dreamed of travel. When shown a picture of the Cathedral of Notre Dame, my first reaction was “flying buttresses . . . wow!” not “I must go see that in person sometime.” I was pretty well satisfied with life in the (then) small town of Clayton, NC. My family did a little bit of traveling, usually to see relatives or to go on camping vacations, but we limited our travels to the southeastern portion of the US. By the time I graduated high school, I had visited only eight states: North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida.

College and graduate school kept me too occupied to travel. When I married the first time, the honeymoon added Maryland and Pennsylvania to my list of states visited, but the vast majority of the country remained unexplored by me.

My first professional job was with a company headquartered in New York. Between visits to the corporate office and projects in New Jersey and Delaware, I added another three states to the list. But it wasn’t until 1980 that the travel bug bit me. That summer we pulled a pop-top camper to Yellowstone National Park. We took a different route going to and coming from the park, and, while in the vicinity, added a side trip to Idaho. By the time we returned from that trip, I had visited an additional 13 states. My total was now 26: I had visited more than half the states.

That is when the idea of 50 by 50 hit me: my goal was to visit all 50 states by the time I was 50 years old.

My work involved some travel. Thanks to job-related travel, I was able to add all of New England and California to my list. After changing jobs to one with a heavier travel schedule, I barreled through the States like crazy. By the time I was 47, I had visited 46 states.

I then became a high school teacher, a job involving almost no travel. That did not matter. I was missing only four states: Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Alaska. A vacation to Las Vegas could easily knock out three of the states, leaving me only an Alaskan cruise away from my goal. Surely I would fit these two vacations in before hitting the half-century mark.

But I didn’t.

Fifty came and went, and I still was at 46 states. In fact, when all the fifties were in the rear-view mirror, I was still at 46 states.

At age 60 I remarried, and the honeymoon destination was pre-ordained: Viva Las Vegas, baby! After several days in Las Vegas, we rented a car and spent a week or so in Arizona and New Mexico. Forty-nine by sixty!

My life as a married man became very busy. We started a hot sauce company. We became involved in the rental property business. We became grandparents. We buried parents. Somehow or another, 50 by the end of the 60s just didn’t happen.

I turned 70 late last year. When Kathy brought up the subject of our 2023 vacation a few months ago, we locked horns. She wanted Greece, and I wanted Alaska. We compromised on Alaska.

I write these lines while on the MS Westerdam. We are three hours from docking in Juneau. Kathy scheduled a couple of excursions in Juneau, while I have plans for the obligatory meal. (A state doesn’t count as having been visited until I’ve had a meal there.) Later we will visit Sitka, Ketchikan, and Victoria, BC. Kathy is especially excited about Victoria, as she has never been to Canada. I assume the trip will go well, so I end this discourse here. I will probably post a few pictures with the blog.

Fifty by Seventy, at long last!