Melissa Dewalt caught the travel bug a decade ago when she drove from her home state of Pennsylvania across the country to California to visit her then-boyfriend. She then road-tripped north to Seattle. "That was my first trip out west, and I was hooked," Dewalt told Business Insider.
Dewalt said she prefers spending her money on stateside travel rather than hopping overseas because she is most drawn to natural wonders across America. "I've never really had the desire to go to Europe. I'm very much a mountain girl," she said.
Alaska was her favorite state, but Florida didn't impress her. Growing up, Dewalt didn't think much of Alaska because it was so far away. Going into her 50-state journey, she expected Montana to be her favorite destination, but the landscapes of The Last Frontier captured her heart.
In 2018, while in Louisiana on a trip for her sister's birthday, Dewalt realized she had traveled to her 37th state - and resolved to make it to all 50. She carefully mapped out which states she would hit over the next few years and aimed to visit her last state, Hawaii, on vacation to celebrate her 30th birthday.
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