Bethany counted up the states she has been in, and it got me wondering. What's a legitimate claim to having been in a state? I drove from Houston to Pensacola once, Routes 90, 10 & 12. I'm not sure I ever got off the Interstate, though I probably did get gas, use a restroom, or grab a quick meal somewhere. Do I get to count Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama? What about changing planes in Atlanta or Minneapolis? If I slept on the train while riding through New Mexico, do I get to call that an overnight?
States lived in: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut age 5, Virginia for college.
States stayed overnight in: New York, Maine, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, DC, Ohio, Michigan, South Carolina, California, Alaska, Colorado, Arizona, Texas. Missouri. Kentucky. Tennessee. Nevada. Florida. Missouri. North Carolina. Arkansas at a campground on the Mississippi. Washington sorta - the airline put me up in a motel outside of Sea-Tac. I must have stayed in either Indiana or Illinois when taking Ben college shopping at Wheaton. I stood overnight hitchhiking near Silver Spring in 1973 - I'm not counting that. Canadian provinces New Brunswick and Quebec.
States driven through and stopped at at least something: Rhode Island, Vermont. Indiana. Illinois.
States driven or ridden through, probably at least a highway meal: New Mexico, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia. Louisiana and/or Mississippi and/or Alabama, see above. Canadian provinces Ottawa and Nova Scotia.
States touched: Georgia, Minnesota. If you are in Kansas City or St Louis you can rack up a few in an an afternoon, but I never did.
6 comments:
I don't think I'd count changing planes nor sleeping on a train. I've changed planes in Atlanta and Dallas/Ft. Worth several times and can guarantee those cities are not much like their airports.
States visited - 29 & DC. Canadian provinces visited - Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia and Yukon Territory (very briefly when my Dad decided our family station wagon was not going to survive the Alaska Highway all the way to Alaska --circa 1966). Mexican states visited - Sonora and Chihuahua (Agua Prieta, Naco, Nogales, Juarez).
States lived in - Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama. I stayed in Arizona long enough to get a driver's license there, but... well, long story. AZ driver's license, TX vehicle registration, LA insurance. I did get stopped during those years and was always surprised I got off with just a speeding ticket. (I credit the average highway patrolman's aversion to paperwork.) Interstates I've driven the entire length of more than once - 20, 30, & 45 (30 & 45 are short). I've driven probably 2/3rds of Interstates 40 and 10.
I think my long distance driving days are over now. My latest vehicle is more than 2 years old and I haven't put 15,000 miles on it yet.
I almost didn't count Ohio, but it was such a memorable day trip... getting lost in Cleveland neighborhoods not on any tour guide and stopping to ask for directions back to the freeway. It was also my only experience driving on a double-decker freeway.
Perhaps a lasting memory is the way to measure whether a state should be counted as visited?
I've lived in Illinois, and I live in Wisconsin. We've relatives in Kentucky that we visit at least once a year, and I've camped in Indiana. When I was in high school, the church youth group had annual retreats at a place in Iowa. Back in '99 the family drove out west through Minnesota and North Dakota (making nightly stops and a two-day stopover at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in ND on the way), to get to Whitefish Montana for a few days with other relatives. We came back through Wyoming (and met with relatives there on Dad's birthday), South Dakota (where we camped a few days and visited Mount Rushmore), and Minnesota. I've been to Michigan (both peninsulas), and we once took a vacation to Tennessee. I've taken the plane to Seattle WA twice.
I was much too young to have meaningful recollections of the Oregon trip, and I was only a baby when we went to Mississippi for my great-grandfather's funeral.
Canadian provinces visited: BC (Victoria) for an afternoon the second Seattle trip and Québec (Montréal) for a few days. Those were my only times outside the States.
Yep, Ohio was certainly memorable. So much so, that I remembered Cleveland when I should have remembered Cincinnati. Dock me one state!
I have lived long in Georgia, briefly in Florida, a year in Maryland, two in Virginia, and I expect to be buried in western North Carolina. But my family is from Tennessee, both sides, and I have spent much time there.
I’ve traveled I think to every state east of the Mississippi. West, to Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Minnesota (aye, and to the source of the Mississippi), California, Nevada. I like mountains. I like oceans. I’m not that interested in flat land.
I would like to go to Alaska, for the bears. And to Sturgis,in the Dakota territory, for the bikes. I hear that Hawaii and Seattle are nice, but they are not a priority.
We RV all over the USA. Some RV'ers only count a state if they have "done it" in that state (hopefully in the privacy of their RV). We are more lax, claiming a state if we have driven the motorhome in it. Again, some RV'ers say you have to spend the night to include a state. YMMV
Some states, we'd rather not put on our list at all....
I consider RV'ers to be an authority on the subject, and if they do not have an agreed-upon definition then I won't accept anyone else's pronouncements.
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