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蘑菇视频 travels began in 2006, when a friend suggested they get to all 50 states after they returned from a trip to Yellowstone National Park.
鈥淲e started looking at a map and were like, 鈥榃ell yeah, we really should,'鈥� Lisa Taylor said. 鈥淲e鈥檇 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.鈥�
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.
鈥淚 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,鈥� Lisa Taylor said. 鈥淚 asked, 鈥榃hy would you do that?鈥� and they said, 鈥榃ell, because we鈥檙e the South and you guys did that to us.鈥� 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.鈥�
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.
鈥淪ome of the states we just literally drive across the state line, turn around and come back, and that蘑菇视频 what happened during spring break this past spring with Kansas,鈥� Lisa Taylor said. 鈥淭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.鈥�
The Taylors, who now live in Broadlands, Va., a suburb of Washington, D.C., call their travel planning a 鈥渇amily effort.鈥�
鈥淚 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,鈥� said Brian Taylor, who now runs a government compliance department for Accenture.
鈥淚 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,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 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.鈥�
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.
鈥淥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,鈥� said Brian Taylor. 鈥淪o that 11- to 12-hour drive came from watching a television show.鈥�
After so many excursions across the country, the Taylor family has a new appreciation for America and advice for aspiring travelers who don鈥檛 know where to begin.
鈥淜now that you鈥檙e going to get tired in the car and tired of eating at restaurants again and again, but in the end, you鈥檙e going to come home with a lot of nice pictures,鈥� 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, 鈥淭here蘑菇视频 a lot of Europe we haven鈥檛 seen.鈥�