State 45: Mississippi

Let me start out by saying…I did not intend on visiting either Mississippi or Louisiana this year. 

The plan for 2026 had been Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. (Idaho with the girls and Washington/Oregon with Mike)

At some point I learned that Oregon and Washington are the only two states that my dad still needs to complete his 50 states. I asked him if he wanted to come with us and he seemed interested… that got me to thinking… what if my dad and I could complete our 50th state together?! 

I’m now on a mission to get my other three done so I can complete my 50th state the same time my dad completes his. How special would that be!? 

There was a weekend of opportunity in which I wasn’t dog sitting so I planned that weekend for MS/LA. 

Mississippi:

Stupid me booked a flight for 6am so I had to wake up at 3:39am Friday morning. Not cool. 

I landed in Jackson, Mississippi around 10am which was nice because then I pretty much had the whole day to explore. 

I had an interesting seat mate who I thought was going to get herself arrested. As soon as the plane landed (we weren't even at the gate) she jumped up and sprinted down the aisle so she could be the first person off the plane. (she had a tight connection) They yelled at her over the announcements and a flight attendant eventually came after her. So bizarre. 

First order of business was getting my rental car which smelled very strongly of weed. Thankfully, they let me exchange my car. My new car had two different license plates on it. The front said Illinois and the back was Missouri. I wasn't going to go back in a second time so I just went with it and prayed I wouldn't get pulled over. 

The main thing I went to Jackson for was the Civil Rights Museum.  The museum itself was just okay. I think it was fairly well done, contained LOTS of information, but I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, I woke up at 3:39 that morning.... I had a hard time focusing and reading everything. Not to mention it was swarming with school groups. 

I ended up eating lunch at the museum - the Nissan Cafe by Nick Wallace. It took OVER an hour to get my food!! They didn't warn me when I first ordered so I bonded with some of the others who were annoyed at the wait. The food was good - just not worth waiting that long for! 

Civil Rights Museum- Jackson, MS

Civil Rights Museum- Jackson, MS

Next up, I drove almost 3 hours south to Biloxi, MS. I didn't have anything really planned there- I just wanted to walk around a bit. I saw the lighthouse and the beach and the Hurricane Katrina memorial. 

Biloxi Lighthouse

Sign at the beach- Apollo 13 astronaut was from Biloxi

Hurricane Katrina memorial 

Biloxi sign-proof I was there!

I was so tired by this point I checked into my hotel in Gulfport (20 min away) and probably went to bed by 8:00.

Next morning I woke up and went to TrainTastic. TrainTastic, for those of you who don't know, purchased EnterTRAINment Junction's American Railroad Museum and a few other things.  They have train displays in ALL gauges and it was better than I thought it would be. Unfortunately, I'm still incredibly biased because EnterTRAINment will forever be the best. 

I remember my dad always saying that he didn't want to just have a table with a train running around on it... and that's pretty much what TrainTastic was. EJ was immersive and you could never see what was coming around the corner. I really liked that aspect of our facility. 

TrainTastic was still good for what it was - and they had some cool things like a train simulator.  I took more videos than photos, but I'll post a few of the photos down below: 

One of many displays at TrainTastic

One of many displays at TrainTastic

This was from EnterTRAINment!

It was good being able to see some of our stuff - they only had a small piece of the American Railroad Museum on display, but hopefully they'll add the rest later this year!

That is all for Mississippi- next up: Louisiana! 

Indiana Dunes National Park

I was reviewing my 50 state list and was looking at the 15ish states that don’t have a blog to go with them. (Because I visited as a child/didn’t have a blog when I visited) 

Indiana was one of those states. 

Sure, I’ve crossed into Indiana multiple times since we’re so close to the border, but my only touristy memories were of going to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the The Children's Museum of Indianapolis. Honestly, I don’t remember much and most likely didn’t really care about either one.  

I was trying to find some other things to do in Indiana and I came across the only national park- Indiana Dunes! 

Roman and I left Friday afternoon and had a 4.5 hour drive. We stopped at Cool Creek Park Nature Center in Carmel, IN to break up the drive and stretch our legs. We did the Beech Trail which took about 20 min and wasn’t that exciting. 

We made it to our condo just as the sun was setting! 

On Saturday, I woke up to see the sunrise from the condo and it was beautiful! I couldn’t go back to sleep so we started our adventure! 

Our first stop was the West Beach Dune Succession trailhead. It was nice because at 7:30am no one was really there and it wasn’t too hot! 

I think it was my favorite trail that we did!

We then went to Calumet dunes trailhead which was kind of lame, followed by Mt Baldy. 

After that we went back to the condo, had lunch, and took a little siesta. 

We went back out around 2pm and tried the Tolleston dune trails, but it was hot, Roman was tired and we didn’t make it that far. 

We also stopped at Portage lakefront and river walk and then got Roman a pup cup from Dairy Queen for being such a good boy! 

The next day we drove back home, but not without making a pit stop at Albanese home of the BEST gummies !! 

State 44: Iowa

I’ve been putting off writing my Iowa blog because I was disappointed with this portion of the trip.

Originally, when I planned on going to Iowa, I thought I would be driving from Cincinnati which meant I could stop at Maquoketa State Park. This looked like a really cool stop with trails and caves to explore. 

Unfortunately, since we were not driving to or from Ohio, we couldn’t make it happen. (4ish hours in the wrong direction)

We basically just spent a day in Des Moines and sadly there wasn’t a lot to do. We went to Papa John Sculpture Park (which was not that exciting) and then went to Grays Lake in the evening to see the pedestrian bridge lit up.  (I’m guessing they also have trails and things to do at the park) 

Since Mike was with me we spent a good chunk of time at Rook Room game lounge and cafe. We could rent out games to play and they actually had decent food there! 

We spent an even bigger chunk of time at the Des Moines airport! Our flight kept getting delayed and I think we spent over 9 hours waiting for the flight! The kicker was that the gate agent told us we couldn’t get on any sooner flights so we went to grab a bite to eat. When we came back to our gate after dinner, everyone was gone… they let them board an earlier flight! Oh my gosh we were so mad, but also laughing because seriously?!  There were literally 10 of us on the flight out so they upgraded us all to first class for our flight to Chicago. We weren’t able to get home until the next day. 

Again, really wish we could have stopped at the caves so I guess we’ll have to go back to make up for this go round.  

50 States!

I wanted to visit all 7 continents by age 30 (and I did it!)
My (newer) goal is all 50 states by age 40 (working on it!) 

I've now been to 46 of the 50 states and this is my attempt at trying to put the states in the order in which I visited them. This might not be entirely accurate, but it's gotta be close! 

Sadly some of my first 16 states never got a blog post. Was blogging even a thing 30 years ago?? I will try and remedy that soon... 

1. Ohio (born and raised!)
   See blog here feat. Cuyahoga
   See blog here feat. Cedar Point
   
   
2. Kentucky 
   See blog here feat. Red River Gorge
   
   
3. Indiana 
   See latest blog here feat. Indiana Dunes
   
   
4. Michigan 
   No blog, but when I was little I went to Flint (Lake Fenton) for snow tubing and water tubing. If anyone has any suggestions on THE BEST of Michigan, let me know and I'll do a re-do trip and blog! 
   
   
5. Tennessee 
   No blog, but I've spent quite a lot of time in Nashville and then I've also been to Memphis, Gatlinburg, Chattanooga. I will do a blog at some point! 
   
   
6. Florida 
   No blog, but I think I've only ever been to Disney and Universal. (And visiting my grandparents in Ruskin) 
   
   
7. Virginia 
   No blog, but when I was little I went to colonial Williamsburg. If anyone has any suggestions on THE BEST of Virginia, let me know and I'll do a re-do trip and blog! 
   
   
8. Alabama 
   No blog, but I've only ever been to Huntsville where I took part in Space Camp. If anyone has any suggestions on THE BEST of Alabama, let me know and I'll do a re-do trip and blog! 
   
   
9. New York (2002, 2023, 2025)
   See blogs here and here and here from more recent trip in NYC
   
   
10. Wyoming (2002)
    No blog, but visited Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. 
    
    
11. California  (2003)
    No blog, but when I was younger. I went to Los Angeles and San Francisco.  I will do a blog at some point!
    
    
12. Illinois (2004, 2016)
    See more recent blog here feat. Chicago
    
    
13. Pennsylvania (circa 2004)
    No blog, but visited Philadelphia, Gettysburg, Shanksville
    
    
14. Alaska (2006)
    No blog, but visited Ketchikan, Sitka, Fairbanks, Anchorage,
    
    
15. Hawaii (2007)
    No blog, but visited Maui, Kauai, Big Island, Oahu 
    
    
16. Wisconsin (2010)
    No blog, but visited Wisconsin Dells.
    
    
17. Minnesota (2012)
    No blog, but went tubing on the lake and visited Mall of America. 
    
    
18. Nevada (2014)
    No blog, but visited Las Vegas
    
    
19. Arizona (2014)
    No blog, but visited the Grand Canyon and Hoover dam
    
    
20. Missouri (2016)
    See blog here feat. St. Louis
    
    
21. West Virginia (2020)
    See blog here feat. ACE adventure Park
    
    
22. Montana (2021)
    See blog here feat. Glacier National Park
    
    
23. Georgia (2021)
    See blog here feat. Atlanta, Senoia,  Lookout Mountain
    
    
24. New Mexico (2022)
    See blog here feat. Albuquerque, Santa Fe 
    
    
25. North Carolina (2022)
    See blog here feat. Asheville
    
    
26. South Carolina (2022)
    See blog here feat. Hilton Head
    
    
27. Oklahoma (2022)
    See blog here feat. Oklahoma City
    
    
28. Texas (2022)
    See blog here feat. Dallas, San Antonio 
    
    
29. North Dakota (2023)
    See blog here feat. Theodore Roosevelt National Park
    
    
30. South Dakota (2023)
    See blog here feat. Mt. Rushmore, Custer State Park, Badlands
    
    
31. Massachusetts (2023)
    See blog here feat. Salem, Plymouth, Boston
    
    
32. Connecticut (2023)
    See blog here
    
    
33. Rhode Island (2023)
    See blog here feat. Newport Cliff walk 
    
    
34. Maryland (2024)
    See blog here and here feat. Baltimore and Ocean City
    
    
35. Delaware (2024)
    See blog here feat. Rehoboth Beach
    
    
36. Maine (2024)
    See blog here feat. Acadia National Park, Baxter State Park
    
    
37. New Hampshire (2024)
    See blog here
    
    
38. Vermont (2024)
    See blog here
    
    
39. New Jersey (2025)
    See blog here feat. Six Flags
    
    
40. Utah (2025)
    See blog here and here feat. all 5 national parks
    
    
41. Colorado (2025)
    See blog here feat. Glenwood Springs
    
    
42. Kansas (2025)
    See blog here feat. Wichita and Wamego
    
    
43. Nebraska (2025)
    See blog here feat. Lincoln and Omaha
    
    
44. Iowa (2025)
    See blog here feat. Des Moines
    
    
45. Mississippi (2026)
    See blog here feat. Jackson and Biloxi
    
    
46. Louisiana (2026)
    COMING SOON: New Orleans
    
    BONUS: Washington D.C. See blog here and here 

State 43: Nebraska

After our stop at the Oz Museum we headed to Lincoln Nebraska! One of my favorite doggy clients moved out there a few years back and I always said I would stop and see them whenever I visited Nebraska! So good to see Norman and Luna and their parents! I miss them so much!! 

We also made a quick stop at the Sunken Gardens in Lincoln, but of course it was art in the park day so it was kind of crowded! It would be a lot nicer on a normal day without all the people. 

After that we continued our journey to Omaha! Mike wanted to go to another board game cafe and I really wanted to do Tree Rush Adventures. We parted ways and he hung out at the cafe while I did my ropes course! 

TreeRush Adventures has climbing and ziplining and is an aerial challenge course built on trees and poles in the Fontenelle Forest. There are varying levels of difficulty and I did only 3 of many courses. (2 novice and 1 intermediate) They have color coded courses based on difficulty/height of the course. I wish I would have been able to do more, but 1. I jammed my finger in one of the courses which was super painful and made it hard to grip things. 2. It was getting dark and bugs were getting bad- I started getting a bunch of bites! 3. I was hot and tired already and didn’t know if I had the strength to do more!! 

I had so much fun and I really enjoyed it!

Day: 3 Did you know the best zoo in the country is in Omaha, Nebraska?! I sure didn’t! We started out our day by going to the Henry Doorly Zoo. 

It is famous for largest-of-their-kind indoor exhibits, including the largest indoor desert, largest indoor swamp, and largest nocturnal exhibit. They also have an aquarium and huge exhibits! 

I LOVE animals, but I’m not a big fan of zoos. I would prefer to see animals in their natural habitat and not in captivity. All that aside, the Omaha Zoo was pretty well maintained and I enjoyed our visit overall. It was impressive and can see why it’s one of the top rated zoos in the world.