Family closing in on visiting every state
After many frequent flyer miles and travel itineraries, the Taylor family is closing in on their lofty sightseeing goal.
Former Fayette County residents and current Virginians Brian and Lisa Taylor and their 14-year-old daughter, Elle, have recently completed traveling to all 48 mainland states in the last five years and already have plans set to visit Alaska and Hawaii to round out all 50.
The family无毛视频檚 travels began in 2006, when a friend suggested they get to all 50 states after they returned from a trip to Yellowstone National Park.
无毛视频淲e started looking at a map and were like, 无毛视频榃ell yeah, we really should,'无毛视频� Lisa Taylor said. 无毛视频淲e无毛视频檇 been to Florida and obviously Pennsylvania and some of the East Coast states and so at that time we decided that was going to be our quest before our daughter graduated high school.无毛视频�
Brian and Lisa Taylor, 1985 graduates of Laurel Highlands and Uniontown Area high schools, respectively, welcomed the opportunity to see what every state in America had to offer.
无毛视频淚 am a teacher and I just studied the Civil War from the Virginian perspective, and when we were down south, they called it the War of Northern Aggression,无毛视频� Lisa Taylor said. 无毛视频淚 asked, 无毛视频榃hy would you do that?无毛视频� and they said, 无毛视频榃ell, because we无毛视频檙e the South and you guys did that to us.无毛视频� My husband and I grew up in the Uniontown area and the most either one of us as a child had done was go to the shore in Maryland or Delaware or New Jersey and back home again. Once we did that first road trip in 2006, we just saw how different America could be.无毛视频�
Although their tour of the states has included such highlights as the Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Las Vegas and Mount Rushmore, some of their state visits have been less memorable.
无毛视频淪ome of the states we just literally drive across the state line, turn around and come back, and that无毛视频檚 what happened during spring break this past spring with Kansas,无毛视频� Lisa Taylor said. 无毛视频淭his year for spring break we needed to do Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Kansas, so we got in the car, drove up, crossed the state line in Kansas, turned around and came home.无毛视频�
The Taylors, who now live in Broadlands, Va., a suburb of Washington, D.C., call their travel planning a 无毛视频渇amily effort.无毛视频�
无毛视频淚 used to travel a lot as an accounting consultant for Ernst & Young and I accumulated a lot of frequent flyer miles, hotel points and rental car discount coupons, and I know Lisa takes those into consideration,无毛视频� said Brian Taylor, who now runs a government compliance department for Accenture.
无毛视频淚 do all the research to see what cities I can get into the cheapest and then I just Mapquest everything, figure out what our duration in the car could be per day and try to pick out highlights,无毛视频� he said. 无毛视频淚 start the itinerary and I go through 25 to 30 copies before I get to the final one, and I even alter it as we go.无毛视频�
But even though they often improvise on the fly, the Taylors also plan some of their travels from the comfort of their own living room.
无毛视频淥ne time we were watching the Travel Channel and we heard about how the glaciers in Glacier National Park were going to melt within the next 30 years, so when we took a trip to the Pacific Northwest, we shot from Seattle to Glacier National Park in Montana to see it,无毛视频� said Brian Taylor. 无毛视频淪o that 11- to 12-hour drive came from watching a television show.无毛视频�
After so many excursions across the country, the Taylor family has a new appreciation for America and advice for aspiring travelers who don无毛视频檛 know where to begin.
无毛视频淜now that you无毛视频檙e going to get tired in the car and tired of eating at restaurants again and again, but in the end, you无毛视频檙e going to come home with a lot of nice pictures,无毛视频� Lisa Taylor said.
And with only two states to go until they can lay claim to having visited all 50 states, the Taylors already have their eyes on another travel adventure.
Brian Taylor said, 无毛视频淭here无毛视频檚 a lot of Europe we haven无毛视频檛 seen.无毛视频�