According to Google Maps, we traveled 890 miles, and drove for 15 hours and 35 minutes during our week in Arizona.
Each state we visit, we will choose at least one point of interest from each of the following categories: Famous Person, Famous Food, Roadside Attraction, State Capitol & State Museum, National Park, Historic Location, Can't Miss Attraction, and Made in the USA Tour. Some of the categories may have more than one selection, and sometimes a category will be vacant due to the lack of a candidate. Please click on the links below for the corresponding blog related our experiences in Arizona over the past week.
Famous Person: Frank Lloyd Wright
Famous Food: Burrito
Roadside Attraction: Standing on the Corner Park
State Capitol/Museum: Phoenix
National Park: Grand Canyon
Historic Location: Meteor Crater
Can't miss attraction: Sedona, AZ Tombstone, AZ
Made in the USA tour: Stuffington Bear Factory (Out of Business)
Please view our previous blog posts for the past week for further explanations of our experiences in Arizona.
A breakdown of our expenses of the past week are as follows:
Gas $161.00
$ 1.99 gal. in Prescott, AZ was the lowest price paid.
$ 2.49 gal. in Williams, AZ was highest price paid.
Comments:
Gas prices were cheap in Arizona!!!
Groceries: $90.00
Walmart $55.00
Costco $35.00
Comments:
We did great in this category
Dining out $51.00
Costco $6.00 (Unbudgeted 3 slices of pizza)
Phoenix Burrito House $18.00 (Budgeted, 2 burritos)
Flagstaff Grill $24.00 (Unbudgeted, 2 veggie burgers)
Starbucks $3.00 (1 tea in exchange for free WiFi)
Comments:
We did great in this category!
Entertainment: $88.00
Redbox $2.00 (Movies x1)
OK Corral $20.00 (Budgeted, admission x2)
Birdcage Theater $24.00 (Budgeted, admission x2)
Boot Hill Cemetery $6.00 (Budgeted, admission x2)
Meteor Crater $36.00 (Budgeted, admission x2)
Comments:
We did great in this category again!
Lodging: $0.00
Walmart $0.00 (Slept in parking lot x7 nights)
Comments:
We continue to do great in this category
Miscellaneous: $0.00
Comments:
We did great in this category
Arizona Expenses Grand Total: $ 390.00
(Our expense list does not include re-occurring expenses such as insurance and cellphone etc. )
Is Arizona Our New Home State?
Here are the rules:
Below are the 5 categories that are important to us in choosing our new home state. Each category is rated from 1 to 10 based on our personal experience in no particular order. 1 is the lowest and 10 is the highest for each category. Each category will receive 2 scores; 1 from Lori and 1 from Nate. The average of these two scores will determine the final score for each category. To determine a state’s final score, we will average the total score of each category. If a state’s final score is less than 8, then that state is eliminated from consideration. At the end of our year long cross country trip, the states that scored 8 or higher will be subject to further consideration. In addition, Lori and I each have 1 wild card option, which allows a state that otherwise would have been eliminated, to be considered as our new home state.
Economy:
Nate: 7
“Transportation, copper mining, government, healthcare and tourism all contribute to the states diversified economy”
Lori: 7
“With an average median household income of $50,448, Arizona ranks 22nd in the nation. Ehhh!”
Economy score: 7
Cost of Living:
Nate: 6
“Arizona’s 4.56% income tax is very sweet, but the state’s sales tax of 10.90% after local surcharges left me bleeding green all throughout the Grand Canyon State”
Lori: 5
“Electricity cost 5.6% more than the national average, a gallon of gas is 12% less than the national average, and food is 3% higher than the national average. I am getting dizzy!
Cost of living score: 5.5
Quality of life:
Nate: 5
“Arizona has the 16th highest rate of violent crime in the country! This is too high for my liking!”
Lori: 6
“Arizona ranks 34th in the nation for natural disasters. The greatest act of God plaguing the Arizonians are dust storms, drought and wild fires”
Quality of life score: 5.5
Culture:5.5
Nate: 7
“Arizona ranks 4th in the nation for solar power! The state has plenty of sun, and it is good to see them making use of it!”
Lori: 6
With 24 national parks and 4 national monuments, tourists and Arizonians alike never run out of natural beauty!
Culture Score: 6.5
Environment:
Nate: 8
“Arizona has good access to goods and services in and around its cities, and large vast stretches of wide open land if you need some alone time!”
Lori: 8
“Roads were well maintained, minimal traffic, easy to drive throughout, and breathtaking desert, forest, and canyons at every turn!!
Environment Score: 8
The verdict is in:
The final score for Arizona was 6.5, and it will NOT be our new home state! Neither Lori nor I opted to use our Wild Card Option on this state.
Below are the current standings:
Colorado 9.2
Michigan 8.3
Oregon 8.2
Ohio 7.6
Indiana 7.4
South Dakota 7.1
North Dakota 6.9
Washington 6.9
Virginia 6.6
Wyoming 6.5
Arizona 6.5
Pennsylvania 6.5
Idaho 6.1
West Virginia 6.0
California 5.9
Nevada 5.8
Nebraska 5.7
Utah 5.0
Kentucky 4.9
Wisconsin 4.5
Minnesota 4.2
Montana 4.1
Missouri 3.5
Iowa 3.3
Illinois 1.9