So we have this map in our trailer of the United States, its a scratch off map. However this scratch off map comes with rules. We needed to come up with a way to “earn the state,” so to speak, before we have our kids reveal the image of the state below. There is really only two rules, but they aren’t always that easy to accomplish.
Rule One: Visit enough of the “main sights” in the state, (ie: National Parks, Musuems, Cities, etc.) to say we’ve experienced it.
Now of course this is somewhat arbitrary and relative to what we think is enough, but c’mon…we only have so much time…and money. So sometimes we may just say, “it’s good enough.”
Rule Two: We have to visit the state capitol.
Before we began our adventures around the country our oldest daughter said she wanted to visit every state capital building in the country…as homeschool parents, how could we say no to that? There is no compromise with this rule. This is actually the most important rule, so I guess it should be number one, but I digress.
This rule or task may seem pretty easy to accomplish, but being that’s it’s so specific, it’s not. Sometimes our planned route doesn’t have us traveling through the capitol city, so we may miss it, and with certain government buildings being locked down during this time it puts a damper on the scratchy-scratchy.
We almost had Nevada in the bag. I knew it was a gamble when we arrived in Carson City (because of the aforementioned lockdowns), but we were driving through anyway so it was worth a shot…and it turned out to be a bummer. Locked down…of course. But hey, onward we go to the next one, and when we get back up this way we’ll try it again.
Stay tuned for a future post with an updated image of our map…with more states revealed!