Some people collect coins. Others collect stamps. Over the years, Journal-World sports writer Chuck Woodling has been compiling visits to state capitals.

The dome of Idaho's Capitol building in Boise reflects in a nearby window. The city was the last in sports writer Chuck Woodling's decadeslong sojourn to all of the U.S. capital cities.

Inscribed on the sheet cake were these words: “Oh, Ho! Five-Oh! Idaho!” Also pictured was an outline of the state famous for its potatoes and “Boise or Bust!”

Brother Bob and his wife Ann had commissioned the pastry because they knew the significance of my planned journey to Boise, Idaho. Everybody in my family, in fact, knew that Boise was the only state capital I hadn’t seen in person.

Some people collect coins. Others collect stamps. Some people do baseball cards or magnets or, well, you name it.

Everybody collects something, and over the years I’ve been compiling visits to state capitals. All of this started more than three decades ago when the KU football team played a game in Tallahassee, home of Florida State University and also the Sunshine State’s capital city.

About that time, I began to wonder how many capitals I had seen. I had been to Topeka, of course, and to nearby Jefferson City, Mo. Also, I had lived and worked in Lincoln, Neb., before I came to Lawrence in the late ’60s.

Then when I started journeying to Big Eight venues while covering the Jayhawks, I passed through Des Moines, Denver and Oklahoma City many times. When the Big Eight expanded into the Big 12 by adding four Texas schools, I annexed Austin.

In the meantime, I found myself in several other state capitals that also contain major universities while following KU football and men’s basketball.

There was Madison for a Wisconsin football game in 1975 (and an NCAA basketball regional in 2002), Nashville for a Vanderbilt football game in 1984, Honolulu for basketball in 1986, Lansing for a Michigan State football game in 1993, Raleigh for a North Carolina State basketball game in 1994, Salt Lake City for a Utah football game in 1996 and Columbus for an Ohio State basketball game in 2000.

Just passing through

There were other times when I would pass through a state capital on the way to a game – like when I stopped in Montgomery, Ala., on the way to an Auburn football game in 1987; Salem, Ore., for an Oregon State football game in 1992; Richmond, Va., for a football game with Virginia in 1991; and Cheyenne, Wyo., for a Wyoming football game in 2003.

I’ve been in Indianapolis (1991) and Atlanta (2002) for NCAA Final Fours and in Phoenix for an NCAA regional in suburban Tempe (1990).

Sometimes I made short side trips, like to Carson City while the basketball team was playing in Reno, Nev., in 2003. Also in ’03 when the Jayhawks reached the Final Four in New Orleans, all the flights into the Big Easy were booked, so we flew to Jackson, Miss., instead. While in New Orleans, I also made a road trip over to Baton Rouge.

About half of my state capital visits were on business trips during the 37 years I was sports editor of the Journal-World. Vacations took care of the rest. Yes, my wife and I really did take a vacation journey to Bismarck, N.D., and Pierre, S.D.

As the year 2006 began, I calculated I had visited 45 state capitals. When the year ended, I had boosted the total to 48 with a side trip to Trenton, N.J., while visiting the grandkids in New York, and an Alaska cruise out of Seattle that enabled me to add Olympia, Wash., and Juneau, Alaska, to the list.

Thus I went into this year needing only two more – Columbia, S.C., and Boise.

In January, I knocked off Columbia when J-W sports editor Tom Keegan graciously allowed me to take his place covering the Kansas-South Carolina men’s basketball game. The arena was just a couple of blocks from the South Carolina Capitol, so No. 49 was a piece of cake.

And then there was :

But when would I ever make it to Boise? Chances were slim the Jayhawks would travel to Boise State to play either football or basketball, so it was pretty clear I would have to go on my own.

And that’s exactly what I did earlier this month.

Instead of flying directly to Boise, though, I flew to Seattle because that’s where my brother lives, and he had expressed an interest in joining me for the historic occasion.

First came that aforementioned cake – a pleasant surprise – then Bob and I loaded his automobile for the 500-mile trip to Boise that took us up and down Snoqualmie Pass, through Washington fields of grapes and hops, into Oregon mountains and valleys and finally into spud country.

As we drove into downtown Boise, I spotted the Capitol with ease because, like most, the building is topped with a dome. I also noticed a lot of construction and figured they were doing some renovations similar to those under way in Topeka.

Sure enough, Idaho’s Capitol is under renovation : complete renovation. Whereas only portions of the Capitol in Topeka are closed, Idaho’s is shut down completely. Offices have been moved to four or five buildings around town.

In other words, I went all the way to Boise and wasn’t able to set foot in the building. Ah, well, I’ve been inside only a dozen or so Capitols, so that was no big deal.

Boise State turf

Now that I’m back in Lawrence, I have to tell you that when I mention I was in Boise, people ask the same question: Did you see the blue turf at Boise State’s football stadium? Yes, I reply, but the truth is we didn’t go inside the Broncos’ stadium. We saw it from the car as we drove through the campus.

The other question I hear is: What’s next?

Now that I’ve set foot in all 50 state capitals, people are naturally wondering if I have a new goal. The Canadian provincial capitals? Nah, I’ll never be able to convince anyone, particularly my wife, to go to Regina, Saskatchewan. The European capitals? Perhaps. National parks? I don’t know. I’m not that thrilled about going to Big Bend, Big Basin or Big Thicket.

I’m thinking instead about cities with major universities. I’ve been to all the Big 12 Conference cities, but have never set foot in Champaign, Ill., or University Park, Pa., or Oxford, Miss., or Pullman, Wash., to name a few.

I might even be able to convince my brother to drive to Pullman.