Sticky Map of USA and Canada You've probably all seen them--those U.S. maps on the side of RVs, proudly displaying the states they've conquered. Well don't knock it. It's a great way to motivate a goal-oriented family into visitiring places they probably wouldn't have otherwise gone to. If it wasn't for our attempts to fill out the map, we might never have visited such wonderful places as Tishimingo State Park in Mississippi or Devils Lake in Wisconsin. It's also a great way for the kids to learn some U.S. geography.

We personally don't like to display the map on the side of our RV, but rather we have placed it on the inside of our side coach door, which makes it visible only when we are parked and have that door open. The map often serves as a conversation piece and has been the opening for us meeting some very nice and informative people. One interesting question posed to us once was what criteria we use to count a state--just driving through or staying overnight. I'm embarassed to admit that we add a state to our map if we have driven through it. Once I considered driving to Haines, Alaska, one of the southernmost towns in the state just to claim Alaska. Thankfully, Herb stopped me and said that we would truly earn Alaska in the future.

We started filling out states during our first trip in 1999 and completed the last state in the summer of 2002 when we entered Arkansas.

The"stick on states" U.S. maps are available at Camping World for about $15.

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