Tomorrow morning Dallas comes to an end. My last night in Dallas ended on a sour night with a tough Michigan State loss to Wisconsin. I’m sure I’ll be getting some grief from the girls I stayed with in Madison who attend the University of Wisconsin. At mid-morning Debby and I headed to downtown Dallas via the Dart. It was a day of walking around seeing the city. The tour started with one of the most historical sites of the century, the site of the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. …

There are around 1,800 Michigan State alumni in the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area. That’s a lot! That’s more people than live in Baraga. I would have never guessed. Going to a school like Michigan State makes a big difference on a trip when you’re visiting all 50 states. There are fellow Spartans in every state and by the hundreds in any metro area. Bringing all of this up is watching the MSU vs NW basketball game in the Big Ten tournament today. …

At only 24 years old sometimes I feel too young to be on a trip like this, but I know that the timing is right. Everyday there are great people I’m corresponding with across the country, from state senators, business owners, distinguished professors and executives, and city mayors. There is all this information I’m trying to absorb that comes at me faster than anyone could absorb. I suppose sometimes I still feel young and naive. …

I still haven’t had my fix of college lately even though I spent some decent at and around Oklahoma State University. So to satisfy my urges I spent a part of this afternoon at Souther Methodist University at the Temerlin Advertising Institute. Michigan State University has given me a pretty big bug for advertising. That’s really what has lead me here to SMU. SMU has won the national title for the American Advertising Federation National Student Advertising Competition (sorry, that’s a long title) twice in recent years. …

This trip has brought me some once-in-a-lifetime experiences. As far as I’m concerned some of them make me the luckiest guy around. Tonight was cool. Way too cool to summarize. Once again I’m going to reconsider my degrees and think about going back to college for engineering, physics, or chemistry, that way I can actually work on cool stuff. So what kind of cool stuff am I talking about? ROCKETS! …

Last night I checked off my arrival to the 24th state, Texas. Here in Plano I’m staying with Bill and Debby. Debby is the daughter of some good family friends we attend church with back home. And it was great last night to visit with some fellow Yoopers. Although Bill and Debby have lived in Texas for a long time and raised their kids here, they both grew up in the Upper Peninsula. …

Jeanna, who hosted me as the Whispering Pines B&B, has given me a great list of topics to write about. And I encourage everyone to send me their ideas of what topic to attack. One of Jeanna’s latest questions is, “How do you wake up? Is there a ’time’ you decide to get up to face the day?” Wow, every week as this trip moves on it has become harder and harder to get up in the morning. …

I’m always encouraging people to give me some topics to write about. Well, it seems like people are always curious about romance on the trip (it especially came up a lot around Valentine’s Day). The idea of romance with travel has always gone together. The other night when I talked to some college students I knew it was inevitable, every class has a student that will ask, “Where have the hottest chicks been on the trip? …

The dynamics of this trip are strange. Really strange. To live in dozens of towns and houses and people that I’ve never met. Although I have no idea what to write about this I’m going to at least make a feeble attempt. Every few days I’m in a brand new town, most of the time it’s a town I’ve never heard of. Oh man it’s tough. I never know my way around town. …

At six months it’s about time for a vacation… of some sort. My vacation was going to be in Dallas with my old buddies from MSU. However, plans change, weather changes, and change is the story of life. So here in Oklahoma City I think I might just chill. Maybe write all day in my journal until my fingers fall off, or else sleep all day. Hmmm… the sleep sounds a little more intriguing. …