Takeaways
- Get outside while you’re here! There is so much to see and do outdoors.
- Maybe don’t try to see the entire state like I did, it’s exhausting.
- Definitely visit door county, and everyone should eat more fish cheek, it is SO GOOD. Also make your way to Washington Island (someday I would like to return to Rock Island) and join the Bitter’s club
- I don’t know if Oshkosh B’gosh is from Osh Kosh Wisconsin, but if you have nieces and nephews like me, stop at the store, its an adorable present.
- Everyone should SLEEP more than I do. I can not stress this enough.
I think I could start almost every one of these blogs with “I wasn’t sure what to think about (insert State name here), but ended up falling in love with it. I don’t know how
you feel, but I am confident there is something, someone or someplace special absolutely everywhere in the world. It might just be a mindset, I suppose, but while traveling the U.S. I realized this country has some amazing travel destinations that are often overlooked. So if you are looking for something new and wonderful to experience, but don’t have a lot of time or money, I guarantee there is something in your backyard you just haven’t found yet. GoYouGo! ☺
I flew into Chicago and started driving toward Madison. I had originally planned on being there a day earlier and was going to attend a concert. Unfortunately the work trip I had the day before diverted and ended up lasting an extra day (sad face-the glam life of a flight attendant) . I knew it was kind of on the way to one of the attractions I most
wanted to see though, so I just kept my plans the same. Since I didn’t have a concert to get to, I decided to meander (I almost always meander) and found my way to the Alp and Dell Cheese Store in Monroe. When in Wisconsin, you MUST cheese, correct? I picked up snacks for my journey and continued on until I ran into New Glarus Brewing Company (and then I RAN IN to New Glarus
THIS IS WHERE WORDPRESS DELETED MY BLOG FOR TWO PARAGRAPHS AND I DON’T HAVE THE MOTIVATION TO REWRITE IT ALL – who else faces issues whenever they decide change everything on you mid blog?
The next day I struggled out of bed not nearly as early as I had planned to get on the road for one of the things I was SUPER excited about, House on the Rock. I had 
never heard of it before looking into Wisconsin travel, but it is incredibly fascinating. I don’t think my explanation could possibly suffice so I suggest you read about the gentleman who built the house and take a trip if you can. Good to note, give yourself more time than you 
think. I had planned on a couple hours and then heading to another activity but there is SO MUCH to wander through. Post drive I ended my way discovering where the Ringling Brother’s winter headquarters. I would love to go back and tour this area. Old circus stuff fascinates me. I also ended up in a hotel that upgraded me to a room with a giant tub where I was able to enjoy the meat, cheese and wine I had been collecting along the way and it was the best way to end an Autumn evening.
The following day I headed back south to Devil’s Lake State Park. I was able to connect a couple different hikes and work my way around the entire lake. The West side of the lake was much more mellow, a rolling trail along the water’s edge through the trees, the other side not so
much. However it was significantly more satisfying because the hiking was challenging an
d there were lots of short offshoots so visit different rock formations and 
lookouts. Is there a better feeling than a strenuous hike that leads to a stunning view? I’m not sure I think there is. After I finished the hike I had a nice lunch 
and headed out because I had a long drive ahead of me to get to Door County (with of course an adorable stop at Oshkosh B’gosh in Osh Kosh, Wisconsin.)
When I arrived in Door County, I was able to find a room at The Beachfront Inn (which I would highly suggest) and they suggested a restaurant down the street I could run to to grab dinner before closing. Harbor Fish Market and Grille. Not only was the food AMAZING, but the service was stellar and the one other couple who was still there (I came just before closing) made it a point to say hello, welcome me to their town and send me a glass of wine. I am writing about this experience close to three years later and these people, the food and those moments are etched in my mind as if it were yesterday. Just thinking of it makes me smile and think it may be about time for me to return again.
The next morning for a awoke to a beautiful sunrise over the water before heading out on my adventures for the day. It alllll staaarted at Stone’s Throw Winery (which was wine much more my style) for a fun tasting before beginning my drive through Door County on my way to Washington Island. I made many stops along the way, enjoying different look outs and all the fall colors. 
Once on the Island (you must take a ferry) I went to the Mountain Park Lookout Tower for a very Autumn excursion (one of my favorite kinds) before making my way to Nelsen’s Hall and Bitter’s Club where I joined the Bitter’s club (and had lunch). Nelsen’s is the oldest (legal) continuously operated tavern in the state of Wisconsin. During prohibition, Nelsen applied for and received a license to distribute Angostura Bitters for different 
ailments. Sneaky, amirite? You can now purchase a shot of bitters (Nelsen’s is the largest purveyor of Angostura Bitters) allowing you to become a card carrying member of the bitter’s club. I had to grab the last ferry off the island to end my final evening in Wisconsin.
Written in New Mexico (November 2016): New Mexico is my new favorite place. That’s right. It is giving every other state a run for it’s money in the race to becoming my new home.
I mean, I crossed the border from Texas, ran into a winery (
it could be a sign that this is a place that just works with me to make everything wonderful. I mean how do you get to watch this beautiful of a sunset, then get to camp in that place under the stars, only to start the following day with an amazing sunrise, ALL on accident. What do you think? Do things happen on accident? Or is there some ultimate reason why I was able to have such a perfect day to start out my trip through New Mexico?
I need to get back there. From Elephant Butte State Park we continued North through Albuquerque, stopping at the Petroglyph National Monument which was a very warm walk through the desert. Somehow we were lucky enough to run into a man who professionally photographed petroglphy. He had therefore done research on these specific petroglyph and could tell us the history of some and how many are from different times and tribes that were passing through or lived in the area. History is amazing and fascinating, is it not? (side note: I would end up with a 30 hour layover in 
Albuquerque later in the year and hike the La Luz trail in the Cibola National Forest up to the top of the Sandia Mountain range, then taking the tramway down to the bottom. I was able to time it just in time to grab dinner at the top and watch the sunset on my ride down. It wasn’t part of my 50 in 52 . . . but it was so amazing and beautiful I still highly suggest. Will post more photos soon.
We then continued our trip to camp in Bandolier State Park. Visiting the cliff dwellings for a short hike the next day. The way this tribe was able to survive in such difficult landscape is pretty impressive. I found an appreciation of 
how the humans built larger and lower versions of cliff dwellings that the birds did higher up. Humanity in harmony. Visiting again is on my list so I can climb the ladder to the Alcove they have set up. It’s over 140 feet of ladder. It looks dangerous and necessary to cross off my (ever growing) bucket list.
The difficult part of New Mexico was by the time we crossed the border into Arizona, I was considering ending the journey. Both the one I was on as well as the relationship I had been forming. Travel is so important to me and I realized through this trip we weren’t compatible travel companions let alone life partners. I wouldn’t take back the trip though, we all live and learn, right? Without the trip I may have never found out we were so different (and not in the good way). It does just make me feel the need to visit again, though. This trip felt like it was cheating on the 50 in 52. I need to visit again so I can find the pieces of me that were hiding away there that I maybe missed because I was distracted.
It’s time to talk about Maine! Maine Maine Maine! Now technically my friend Chelsea was supposed to write this portion (Hi I hate you Chelsea) but she is less into writing this blog than I am (I know, it’s hard to believe).
realized we are pretty great road trip partners. Neither of us mind driving long distances and are both into stopping and jumping out whenever we find something interesting. One of my favorite examples ever, is 
We still managed to get to the most Easterly point in the United States (it’s so far North-East that you can see Canada and my phone was convinced I was leaving America). 
There you will find 
We arrived when it was almost dark, just in time to grab a meal and find a place to stay. Now, this is where we learned we are REALLY great travel companions. Since we knew we wanted to wake up to watch the sunrise and feel the first rays to touch the U.S. and by the time we finished dinner it was already close to midnight . . . it didn’t make much since to get a hotel room, right? So instead of finding a place to stay, we drove to the top of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park, emptied out the trunk, put the seats down to the back seat and turned it into a bed. I definitely would NOT suggest this, we couldn’t have gotten much sleep, it was super cold and possibly illegal. But we WERE the first people out to grab a seat for the sunrise. The mountain would later become packed without us realizing bc it was so dark and we were so bundled all we could see was the sunrise and some shadows moving in front of us every once in awhile. This was the first sunrise I’d purposefully seen since my birthday sunrise in 
Post sunrise we were tired, cold and exhausted so what did we decide to do but go for a walk across the Bay of course! In Bar Harbour, there is a land bridge just off the coast that is accessible by foot depending on the tide to Bar Island. We looked up when low 
and high tide were so we knew we could get out there and back safely. It’s a pretty short, easy hike, but it is fun to wander around and look at all the items that have washed up during high tide.
On the way to our final destination for the night we stopped at another lighthouse. SO many lighthouses, so little time and honestly I would love to go back and see many more. This one was different and fun because it sits a mile off the coast situated on the Rockland Breakwater which was built from 1890-1899. The lighthouse was added in 1901 and makes for an eerily beautiful place out there on it’s own.
about eating lobster. She swore we weren’t eating a baby. The live music was fun and we went ahead and ordered a pitcher of beer to help Chelsea get through her lobster. I’m sure it was great, but neither of us are lobster fans and to be honest I was probably the worst person to have taken her because I’m pretty horrible at cracking a lobster. Funny enough, I haven’t had lobster since then and I am pretty confident Chelsea will never have lobster again. A second pitcher was needed.
(#lifeofaflightattendant) so we were able to extend our vacation. We made a quick stop at 
There are a few words that come to mind when I think of Vermont. Trees, ice cream and Chelsea chasing cows – also 
changing of the leaves must be an incredible site to see. We arrived at 
the Chocolate Factory vibe because there are portions where you can’t film or take pictures and I loved every single second of their secretive nature. However, the end of the tour is obviously the best because you get a free taste tester and learned there is someone out there who has the job of an ACTUAL taste tester. I am not 
sure how I can apply for the job but it is one I might actually give up flight attendant-ing for. You hear that B&J? I’m ready for the change. I have a big tolerance for dairy and I have strong opinions on ice cream. There is more to do on the Ben and Jerry’s site so we wandered through. It wasn’t a high travel time so we were pretty much alone as we
back on a happy sugar-high and wandered around towns stopping in Montpelier to look at the capital building and get a sense of the town. It was absolutely beautiful. We slowly made our way through Montpelier looking at cute houses and imagining our lives there, which we had been doing (and still do) in every town we had gone to since coming up with our genius business idea. In my first draft I actually TOLD you what our
Technically our trip to New Hampshire started and finished our (my and Chelsea’s) drive through Maine and Vermont. We had a lot of good food and good beer. We had stopped in Portsmouth to wander the cute streets and window shop before stopping for dinner at 
find the beer tour quite difficult to accomplish since we were there on a non-weekend. We couldn’t find a single brewery near our dive to and from Vermont that was open, especially someplace that was a brewery vs. a bar. So we visited only that first brewery on the brew trail (but twice). I promise it was a valiant effort that involved lots of googling and phone calls by Chelsea while I drove us around the state in the general direction of Vermont. Turns out if we want to get any more breweries knocked off the list, we will just have to return I guess. Unfortunately this means New Hampshire was pretty much just Portsmouth, but that’s ok because Portsmouth is pretty fun. 
drinks at an Irish pub. Here we came up with another exciting business opportunity (you haven’t read Maine or Vermont yet, so you will later find out this is something that happens often when Chelsea and I are driving long distances together) and laughed as a new friend (so new that they literally were JUST hopping into our photo) biffed it down the stairs RIGHT as I was snapping the 
photo. Man, I still chuckle a little when I
Day two was dedicated to Chicago things. We went downtown to the Bean, he was smiling and welcoming me to the city the same as everyone else in Chicago. We continued to 
dad trying to get a French visa. I was unsuccessful, but the roadtrip was fun and the pizza is always delish). I love Chicago style pizza and I mean I LOVE Chicago style pizza. If you have never had any, you must try, although it’s not always the same if you aren’t actually eating it in the city. This Chicago style day was followed by a 
good to note the bar outside the stadium, that serves their beers by filling them from the bottom is a great place to stop on your way out of the stadium – it is also good to note it is NOT a good idea to try to see how it works. You WILL end up spilling beer all over yourself and others. It IS a good idea to go to 
Day three started with coffee (of course) and a ride on
the train
learning he is horribly afraid of 
heights. Sorry to call you out Simon, but it was a little bit
Takeaways:
I was visiting Columbus, Ohio for a pretty long layover so decided to find something memorable to do while I was there, checking Ohio off my list of 50 states. I did a little bit of research and polled a couple people from Columbus (here’s where tinder came in) and
BEAUTIFUL. I spent a long time at the conservatory but I also walked around the park and gardens outside. On their ground they have a community garden, an apiary and they work with the community during classes and outreach programs that vary from private horticulture consultations to edible gardens to city beautification projects! I am very into it.
f you are in the area I would suggest a visit, especially during the Blooms and Butterflies exhibit. Wandering through the butterflies makes me so happy no matter where they are. And wandering here is especially beautiful, but I also found the viewing window where you can watch the butterflies during metamorphosis and emerging from their cocoons. Each butterfly has a different cocoon and while I might be a bit older than the average guest, I still love to learn. Should you want to have a first hand experience of metamorphosis you can also purchase a Painted Lady caterpillar in the gift shop and 
watch it happen at home.
Whenever I asked people what I should do when it was time to visit Montana, I always got the same answer . . . Glacier National Park. Each and every person who told me to go there was right. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, the people were wonderful and I had a relatively easy time getting around by myself (of course I did fly into Calgary and then drove down, so that part was a little messy but once I was there, easy peasy). I flew in late and stayed the night in Calgary, driving down to Montana early the next morning. By the time I reached the park it was closer to noon than I wanted it to be, 
so I rushed to catch a campsite before they were full. I found one of about three open spaces in the Southern area of the park (the Northern side of the park was open, but battling fires). After setting up camp, the next important thing to check off my list was getting bear mace. I wound up finding a store where I could rent some and they also suggested a couple of hikes. The one he suggested for that day
was “easy” so he also pointed me toward a grocery store and a distillery to visit before the hike. A couple hours later I had successfully filled my cooler, wet my whistle at the Whiskey Barn and was two miles into my extremely vertical hike when it became clear that his idea of easy 
and my idea of easy were NOT the same and I was REALLY regretting the whiskey tasting. By the time I made it to the top of the mountain, I was happy to sit 
down for a bit (it was a BEAUTIFUL view) before I needed to race the sun 
down the mountain. It was close but I won. I also took a couple moments to really LOOK where I was and it was overwhelming. I especially couldn’t believe I was there alone, the ONLY person on the side of a mountain with my bear mace. I am only slightly embarrassed to tell you it was this moment I broke down. I suddenly realized what I was doing, the journey I was on and how different my outlook on life and myself was from just two months before when I was starting my trip in Georgia. For the first time in a long time I actually felt light, free of fear and self hatred and I was really REALLY proud to be me. It was the best I had felt in a long time and the rest of the trip only got better.
looked like people were hiking right on the side of a cliff edge and I knew I wanted to also, so I decided to wake up early and grab the shuttle up to the beginning of the hike at Logan’s Pass. It is an approximately 12 mile hike and I was slightly concerned how long it would take me, so I wanted to get an early start. Turns out I hike a lot faster than I thought, but either way, better safe than sorry. If the previous day’s hike left me feeling proud, this hike left me feeling like wonder woman. There are not words to describe the beauty I experienced. Not a single one of my pictures does justice to the views I saw, but check them out anyway. 🙂 If it doesn’t make you want to get up and go directly to GNP then you are just a monster human and we can’t be friends :-b .
Chalet, you will find a turn off to a measly half mile detour that takes you above a glacier. Now, of course I suggest it but I warn you this was absolutely the most difficult part of my over 13 mile hike. It took a loooong time. I also
with a stranger, 
which . . . ok it WAS the right thing to do, but later on I was really wishing I’d had more. (Water is sold at the Granite Park Chalet, but they sell out early in the day). Anyway, when you reach the top, it is absolutely breathtaking. Without a doubt, this view was worth a flight to Canada, drive to Montana and putting my out of shape body through excruciating pain.
I got back into the park just in time to watch the sun set and take another moment to appreciate the beautiful place I was in (both figuratively and literally). I wandered to a
restaurant for dinner because I DESERVED a night out. I chose buffalo meatloaf and a local beer which ended up being the most 
delicious thing I have ever eaten OR I was famished, you decide. The only thing I slightly regret is both nights I had planned to get out and watch the stars as I happened to be there during a meteor shower. Unfortunately each night I would lay down to watch the stars, plan on giving my eyes time to adjust and end up falling asleep instead. I did see a couple shooting stars, but unfortunately probably missed out on a pretty amazing view. It’s ok, though. I am sure I will see one or two more before my 20s are over.
Takeaways:
for you. Or just go to 
guides. (For info on amounts to tip, visit 
Layover numero dos sent me to the Inner Harbor again where I just
the 
handsome boat captain who will befriend you, make you an assortment of sea food and give you a local’s tour of the harbor over the next month, eventually taking you on a trip to his hometown AND letting you bum a ride on a cross country road trip (see North Carolina, Virginia, Arkansas, New Mexico and Arizona – coming at a later date).
vodka & pickle juice shots (you can also have whiskey with a pickle back, no I did not try that one) and the traditional Baltimore beer, 
I visited Baltimore a couple more times the following month and found the city absolutely charming. I learned a bit on my boat tours, including it is the location where the National Anthem was written. I also visited the 
are self taught and they have interesting, rotating exhibits. The building and sculpture gardens are also beautiful and the top floor boasts a bar/restaurant with some delish choices to revive you after exhausting the exhibits and yourself.
Go Johanna Go 