The planning for our trip actually began in 2004, less than a year after my transplant. We began by writing the governor of each state, telling them our story, and asking them three questions:

1. What are the top things we need to see in your state?
2. What time of year is the best to visit?
3. What food is unique to your state that we must try?

In many cases, no one responded to us. In some cases, we're not sure what is being responded to, but you can see what we received back by clicking on a state below.

In addition to the letters, we also received brochures for the state in almost every case. You'll notice in many of the larger states, we were passed along to the tourism bureau while the smaller states had a nice personal touch.

Our award for the most generous state goes to New York which sent T-shirts...very nice. Wyoming wins the most informative reply. Our award for the strangest governor goes to...well you'll see for yourself: