While on the 50 States: Veterans + Artists United tour, Noel sunbathed in the front door of the Airstream cheering us on as Kendra and I took to the basketball court at the KOA campground to play a competitive game of h-o-r-s-e. There may be some debate about who won, but that shouldn’t let us from enjoying everything Kansas City had to offer.

While on the 50 States: Veterans + Artists United tour, what could more Iowan than harvesting corn? Kendra’s dad grew up in Dyke and his childhood friend is a farmer who let me ride on the combine to pluck a few rows of corn. Meanwhile, Kendra was falling head over paws for a barn cat. Just your typical day. But to our pleasant surprise, Iowa had much more to offer.

Following a beautiful stint in Colorado on the 50 States: Veterans + Artists United tour, we went from the Rocky Mountains to the plains of Nebraska in a similar fashion as Harry and Lloyd, expect instead of freezing together on a moped, we had a cozy Airstream to keep us warm from an unseasonably wintery Fall.

While on the 50 States: Veterans + Artists United tour, we drove the Million Dollar Highway through the San Juan Mountains that was full of hairpin turns and switchbacks with pops of yellow Aspen leaves all around us. We were, however, not quite expecting to see a yellow river to match.

After a hurricane canceled our Hawai’i project on the 50 States: Veterans + Artists United tour, we had some extra time in Utah, so we headed south to Zion, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, and Arches National Parks. But first, we had to pull over to add our Utah license plate decal.

Due to a tight timeline on the 50 States: Veterans + Artists United tour, we opted to fly to Anchorage, rent a car, and stay in AirBnB cabins to conduct the [HAS HEART] project and explore a teeny tiny portion of the Alaskan wilderness that kept us wanting to come back for more.

Before we ever planned the 50 States: Veterans + Artists United tour, we made a trial trip in 2016 through Montana and Glacier National Park and immediately fell in love with its beauty, remoteness, and wonder. We couldn’t wait to make it back while on the tour, and now can’t wait to go back yet again, and again.

Without hookups for the longest stretch of a stay on the 50 States: Veterans + Artists United tour, we learned the hard way that once our Airstream battery got low, the carbon dioxide detector would start beeping. Loudly. And without stopping. No pillow could cushion the shrieking at 4am.

While on the 50 States: Veterans + Artists United tour, we love to stumble upon small towns and the hidden gems they may contain whether it’s restaurants, antiques, boutiques, or even a military surplus store in Caldwell, Idaho. Not to mention, how cool Boise was, even though it was actually hot — 100+ degrees hot.

Before we first hit the road on the 50 States: Veterans + Artists United tour in 2017, we first conducted two pilot projects in 2016, one of them being in one of our favorite cities, Seattle. But, we later discovered Washington had a lot more to offer than just the Emerald City.

Before we first hit the road on the 50 States: Veterans + Artists United tour in 2017, we first conducted two pilot projects in 2016, one of them being in another of our favorite cities, Portland. The icing on this cake was that we were partnering with none other than Nike, the Goddess of Victory herself.

Even though we conducted the Nevada project for the 50 States: Veterans + Artists United tour in Reno, that wasn’t going to stop us from making it to Death Valley National Park before the sun rises over the Black Mountains to best experience the Artist’s Palette.

Since we couldn’t pick which major city to host our 50 States: Veterans + Artists United tour, we conducted projects in three. That sense of excess spilled over in all that California had to offer, from San Diego on up through the Redwoods — we covered nearly all of it.

We never knew how large a saguaro cactus grows nor how old the tall ones really are until we visited Saguaro National Park after the 50 States: Veterans + Artists United project in Phoenix. Word to the wise: Don’t touch them.

En route to our 50 States: Veterans + Artists United project in Santa Fe after a fun stop at White Sands National Park, we arrived late at night at a Harvest Host stay. We woke up the next morning and realized we parked next to a very large pile of sh!t, but that was a small price to pay.

After we wrapped our 50 States: Veterans + Artists United project in Austin where we ate too many (yet not enough) street tacos, we headed as far southwest as we could to Big Bend National Park, one of the least visited, but one of our favorite, National Parks.

While it shouldn’t have taken the 50 States: Veterans + Artists United tour to get us to New Orleans, we’re certainly grateful it did — even if it did freeze one night that shut down the city and broke our water hose. But, that didn’t stop the music or the beignets.

Even though I had grown up visiting grandparents in Florida for much of my childhood, there were so many parts of it I hadn’t experienced until we had to make our way as far south as we could go to Miami for the 50 States: Veterans + Artists United tour.

It wasn’t until we made it to beautiful Charleston on the 50 States: Veterans + Artists United tour did we feel that we were in The South. And, as charming of a city as it is, that feeling did include a gut-wrenching awareness of our nation’s greatest sin.

If it were a couple of months earlier and 40-degrees warmer, we would have been in an ideal lakeside campsite. Instead, the trees were barren and the air had tiny white flakes floating down on us, something we thought we left behind in Michigan while on the 50 States: Veterans + Artists United tour.