Biography

Elphie has spent her whole life aiming to accomplish all fifty states, even as a kid she started checking off license plate states she’d ride passed in her parents’ car on family road trips growing up. Those license plates of course didn’t technically count, but as she got older she was able to actually visit friends and live in various states, and that started legit counting. Then in 2011 she met an amazing partner who also loved to travel. As their relationship budded and grew they travelled to more and more states together starting around 2013. We married in 2015, and soon after Elphie had high hopes to hit her 50th state… Alaska! We celebrated in a parking lot with balloons, party hats, confetti, the works, and Elphie’s best friend came to join them from Seattle! Then Elphie got back home to mark off her years for each state and realized, she had no actual set memories of stepping foot in New Jersey and Rhode Island, (it may have happened when she was 16yrs old, but the people to confirm that were long passed away). Joel and Elphie continued to travel throughout our marriage, then it became clear, we were marking off states together as a couple! So, we’ve spent the last few years knocking those off, and now, we’re set to accomplish our 50th TOGETHER in 2025 in Rhode Island for our 10yr wedding anniversary year! We’re going to do a two week road trip along the six states we’ve yet to visit together, then party it up for three days in Rhode Island! We never meant to end in the tiniest state, but hopefully we’ll at least have another confetti party in some random parking lot while there, haha!
*Sidenote: We’ve been to eight Canadian provinces! We’ve also been to 12 countries together, three more and we can be bronze level in the Traveler’s Country Club!