How to create choropleth map from a data frame extracted by XML

(totally new to R) I have downloaded an XML file to use in R to create a choropleth map from the data. I am using US flu data. From my research I understand that I needed to make that XML file a data frame for R to read. So I have done that. When I view my data frame I get all the XML formatting with it. The question I have is how do I take the information that I need and extract it to create a map? At this point I am getting errors on even plotting the data. I have looked high and low for this information and I haven't found it as of yet.

 setwd("C:/Users/Steven/Downloads/Map_Final")
> library (XML)
> library(ggplot2)
> library(maps)
> library(plyr)
> library(mapproj)
> map('state')
> 
> xmlfile=xmlParse("flu.xml")
> 
> class(xmlfile)
[1] "XMLInternalDocument" "XMLAbstractDocument"
> ggplot(xmlfile)
Error: ggplot2 doesn't know how to deal with data of class XMLInternalDocumentXMLAbstractDocument
> xmltop = xmlRoot(xmlfile) #gives content of root
> 
> class(xmltop)#"XMLInternalElementNode" "XMLInternalNode" "XMLAbstractNode"
[1] "XMLInternalElementNode" "XMLInternalNode"        "XMLAbstractNode"       
> 
> xmlName(xmltop) #give name of node, PubmedArticleSet
[1] "timeperiod"
> 
> xmlSize(xmltop) #how many children in node, 19
[1] 54
> 
> xmlName(xmltop[[1]]) #name of root's children
[1] "state"
> 
> xmltop[[1]]
<state>
  <abbrev>ME</abbrev>
  <color>No Activity</color>
  <label>No Activity</label>
</state> 
> 
> xmltop[[2]]
<state>
  <abbrev>NH</abbrev>
  <color>Local Activity</color>
  <label>Local Activity</label>
</state> 
> 
> ggplot(xmltop)
Error: ggplot2 doesn't know how to deal with data of class XMLInternalElementNodeXMLInternalNodeXMLAbstractNode
> xmltop[[2]]
<state>
  <abbrev>NH</abbrev>
  <color>Local Activity</color>
  <label>Local Activity</label>
</state> 
> 
> xmltop[[2]]
<state>
  <abbrev>NH</abbrev>
  <color>Local Activity</color>
  <label>Local Activity</label>
</state> 
> 
> birdflu=ldply(xmlToList("flu.xml"), data.frame)
> ggplot(birdflu)
Error: No layers in plot
> View(birdflu)

XML File:

<timeperiod number="40" year="2014" subtitle="Week Ending October 11, 2014- Week 40">
<state>
<abbrev>ME</abbrev>
<color>No Activity</color>
<label>No Activity</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>NH</abbrev>
<color>Local Activity</color>
<label>Local Activity</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>VT</abbrev>
<color>Sporadic</color>
<label>Sporadic</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>MA</abbrev>
<color>Sporadic</color>
<label>Sporadic</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>RI</abbrev>
<color>No Activity</color>
<label>No Activity</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>CT</abbrev>
<color>Sporadic</color>
<label>Sporadic</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>NY</abbrev>
<color>Sporadic</color>
<label>Sporadic</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>NJ</abbrev>
<color>Sporadic</color>
<label>Sporadic</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>PR</abbrev>
<color>Regional</color>
<label>Regional</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>VI</abbrev>
<color>Sporadic</color>
<label>Sporadic</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>PA</abbrev>
<color>Sporadic</color>
<label>Sporadic</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>DE</abbrev>
<color>No Activity</color>
<label>No Activity</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>MD</abbrev>
<color>No Activity</color>
<label>No Activity</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>DC</abbrev>
<color>Sporadic</color>
<label>Sporadic</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>VA</abbrev>
<color>Sporadic</color>
<label>Sporadic</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>WV</abbrev>
<color>No Activity</color>
<label>No Activity</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>NC</abbrev>
<color>Sporadic</color>
<label>Sporadic</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>SC</abbrev>
<color>Sporadic</color>
<label>Sporadic</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>GA</abbrev>
<color>Sporadic</color>
<label>Sporadic</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>FL</abbrev>
<color>Sporadic</color>
<label>Sporadic</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>KY</abbrev>
<color>No Activity</color>
<label>No Activity</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>TN</abbrev>
<color>No Activity</color>
<label>No Activity</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>AL</abbrev>
<color>Local Activity</color>
<label>Local Activity</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>MS</abbrev>
<color>No Activity</color>
<label>No Activity</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>OH</abbrev>
<color>Sporadic</color>
<label>Sporadic</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>IN</abbrev>
<color>No Activity</color>
<label>No Activity</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>IL</abbrev>
<color>No Activity</color>
<label>No Activity</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>MI</abbrev>
<color>Sporadic</color>
<label>Sporadic</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>WI</abbrev>
<color>Sporadic</color>
<label>Sporadic</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>MN</abbrev>
<color>Sporadic</color>
<label>Sporadic</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>AR</abbrev>
<color>Sporadic</color>
<label>Sporadic</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>LA</abbrev>
<color>Sporadic</color>
<label>Sporadic</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>OK</abbrev>
<color>No Activity</color>
<label>No Activity</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>TX</abbrev>
<color>Sporadic</color>
<label>Sporadic</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>NM</abbrev>
<color>Sporadic</color>
<label>Sporadic</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>IA</abbrev>
<color>No Activity</color>
<label>No Activity</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>MO</abbrev>
<color>No Activity</color>
<label>No Activity</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>NE</abbrev>
<color>No Activity</color>
<label>No Activity</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>KS</abbrev>
<color>No Activity</color>
<label>No Activity</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>ND</abbrev>
<color>Local Activity</color>
<label>Local Activity</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>SD</abbrev>
<color>Sporadic</color>
<label>Sporadic</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>MT</abbrev>
<color>No Activity</color>
<label>No Activity</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>WY</abbrev>
<color>Sporadic</color>
<label>Sporadic</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>CO</abbrev>
<color>Sporadic</color>
<label>Sporadic</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>UT</abbrev>
<color>Sporadic</color>
<label>Sporadic</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>AZ</abbrev>
<color>No Activity</color>
<label>No Activity</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>NV</abbrev>
<color>No Activity</color>
<label>No Activity</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>CA</abbrev>
<color>Sporadic</color>
<label>Sporadic</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>HI</abbrev>
<color>Sporadic</color>
<label>Sporadic</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>GU</abbrev>
<color>Widespread</color>
<label>Widespread</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>ID</abbrev>
<color>No Activity</color>
<label>No Activity</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>WA</abbrev>
<color>Sporadic</color>
<label>Sporadic</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>OR</abbrev>
<color>Sporadic</color>
<label>Sporadic</label>
</state>
<state>
<abbrev>AK</abbrev>
<color>Sporadic</color>
<label>Sporadic</label>
</state>
</timeperiod>