How Many States Have You Visited?

[charliechaplinfan]

This was a question asked by my little girl. We counted, California, Nevada, Arizona, Louisiana, Mississipi, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Alabama. So that's 11. If she'd have come along later we'd have done some of the North Eastern states. The two areas in the world I want to explore are Western Europe and more of America. I can't blame Americans for never leaving their own shore, you have so much there. So do any of you hire a Winnebago and travel Route 66 or do you confine yourself to your local area. Remember, England in comparison to the States is a very small country, only when we covered distances in America did I really appreciate them.

[klondike]

Thirty-four US states, four Mexican states, seven Canadian provinces.
Never with a Winnebago, though.

[ChiO]

Thirty-six US states, four Canadian provinces, and Tijuana (a world of its own).

Maybe there are more states. I may have missed some while in the back seat of the '57 Chevy...with a little sister who refused to stay on her side. Mommy!!! Make her stay on her side! Are we there yet? Can we stay at a motel with TV?

[mrsl]

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First off, CCFan: Thank you for the compliment on our country. It's nice to hear from someone from a different place. I've always maintained to Americans to see the U.S.A. first, then go on and finance Europe, Asia, Africa, etc. We may be a very young country in comparison to some, but we have an awful lot of history and beauty packed in our states from the Atlantic to the Pacific. I have nothing against those other places, I just think we should give ourselves bragging rights first hand, when people speak of their beautiful homeland.

I personally have been in 41 of the 50 states. I've been on a couple of driving trips which enabled us to stop and sightsee, shop, eat, visit zoos, etc. The only part I haven't seen is the North Eastern coast. I always wanted to but now, I doubt if I ever will, since there is nobody left to go with.
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[charliechaplinfan]

We seem to be a well travelled bunch I love to travel but it does get curbed somewhat with little ones, so we go where we can. Still love the winnebago dream though.

Anne, I'm sorry you can't go on holiday like you used to, 41 states though, that's good going, you should be proud.

[mrsl]

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The sad thing is the trips were taken with my second husband, Mr. L. With the first husband, we never had money to go on a trip except once, we rented a cabin with close friends, and while the guys went fishing from dawn to dusk, us lucky women got to watch the kids, change diapers, wash dirty faces, make sure they didn't get too close to the water, settle fights, and cook on strange pots and pans on a stove you lit with a match, after making the beds, and straightening up (get my point?????? -- vacation, rest and relaxation - huh?) Thank God for Mr. L -- he said, we'll leave the kids with your parents, and go for a 4 day weekend to St. Louis and try to find some good jazz bars. He believed a vacation was only a vacation when the most you did was dress yourself for the day. We always stayed in hotels with maids, door men and porters. The kids only came with us on one trip around Lake Michigan, which is quite a nice trip in itself as it included Macinac Island where the movie Somewhere in Time was filmed, and that wonderful old hotel, and hopefully it hasn't changed, but cars were not allowed, only bicycles, and golf carts. It was lovely.
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[rohanaka]

My dad was in the army all my growing up years, so you’d THINK I would have lived all over the place... but the truth is we did not move around quite as often as some military families do.

Lived in: Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri ,Texas, Alabama, Alaska, Kentucky

Visited: Arkansas, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Montana

And PS, Ms CCFan: (RE: your question concerning "mode of transportation") I have NEVER traveled to ANY of these places any other way but by car. I know... the WHOLE WORLD flies.. all except me..ha. But truly.. I have NEVER had the desire to get that high up off the ground, ha. (at least not to date anyway, ha. But who KNOWS what tomorrow will bring?) And I have some REALLY great memories as a kid riding in the back of the family station wagon with my brothers and the family cat and/or dog as my dad drove us all one place or another. Ha... the only way to "fly" ha. I still think it is the best way to "see the USA".

When my husband and I were first married we occassionally traveled for a little "get away" now and then and we always took turns driving. We still do if we go anywhere of a great distance, but lately, if I go anywhere other than WALMART it is a major event..ha. (I need to get OUT more.ha.)

Places I still WANT to visit include: Maine, Connecticut, Vermont, (and likely all the other New England States) Arizona, New Mexico, Washington State, Washington DC., Wyoming, the Dakotas, and maybe some of the other places I have already been before (like Colorado and perhaps Montana again) And I would LOVE to go back to Alaska again. (We lived there for three years when I was a kid and I would thoroughly enjoy the chance to see that all again

[Lzcutter]

I have lived most of my life in California (despite my preservation work in Las Vegas).

When I was four my mother drove us out from Battle Creek, Michigan (home to Kellogg's, Post and Girl Scout Cookies) to Las Vegas. I remember the reptile farms in the Southwest, the auto court in Albuquerque where I left my beloved Tiny Tears and made mom go back for it and the trip over Hoover Dam.

Our other big trip together was in the early 1990s when we went to visit family relatives in the deep South. We traveled from Arkansas to Tennessee (loved Memphis and Graceland, hated the blue laws against alcohol on Sunday, Mom's birthday), to Georgia (YAH! Atlanta) to Florida (both north -Gainesville and south-Miami) to Alabama (Mobile Bay) to New Orleans, Louisiana to Mississippi (especially Vicksburg and all those wonderful Stuckey's).

With Mr Cutter, most of Southern and Central California.

Northern California including Napa Valley, San Francisco and with in miles of the Oregon border, Trinidad.

All of Southern Nevada, Phoenix and Tucson, AZ.

The Big Island of Hawaii and Kauai.

Washington, DC

New York City

Provincetown, MA

Danbury, CT and surrounding environs.

[MichiganJ]

My paternal grandfather had a Winnebago and he and grandma would sometimes take my sister, brother and I on weekend excursions to various amusement parks and such. (Hershey Park in Hershey, PA I remember in particular, as my wife and I were married in the Hershey Rose Gardens years later---and my grandfather still had his Winnebago and parked it in our driveway.)

My parents would borrow the Winnebago for our family two-week vacation, and, while we'd generally just go to the Jersey shore (known as "the beach", most everywhere else in the country), we'd also sometimes take longer excursions. The trip to Miami was the longest, and one year we also drove up to Maine, with plenty of stops along the way.

Love the Winnebago, by the way. Since we were little kids (my twin brother and I were 8 and my sister 10 when we travelled to Miami), the Winnebago allowed us to move around during the long drive. in days before back seat DVD players, etc. we could sit at the kitchen table and play cards or whatever. Snacks and drinks were at our beck and call. And a ready toilet whenever one needed is always a plus.

Campgrounds, too are a really fun place to meet people from all over the world. Each night was an adventure, meeting new people and cooking out with new friends.

As a "grown up" I've visited thirty-seven states (plus D.C. a lot). Vermont and Colorado, I think were the most beautiful, but Maine, especially Acadia National Park and Pemaquid Point were particular favorites. Also really loved Oregon. Visited three Canadian Provinces, and traveled a lot in Western Europe (and Great Britain), Australia and New Zealand.

Your comment about country size reminds me of a conversation I had with a restaurant owner in Bath, England. He was asking my wife and I where we were from and said that he very much wanted to visit the U.S. one day, for two weeks or so. On his agenda were visiting New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, the Grand Canyon, the Alamo (!)… phew! Now that's a lot of driving (on the wrong side of the road, too!)

[Professional Tourist]

Well, I'm assuming that to count as having "visited" a state would require more than just changing planes in an airport or driving through without getting out. So I won't count states like Texas, Illinois, and Georgia because I've only been in their airports.

1. Hawaii
2. Washington state
3. Oregon
4. California
5. Arizona
6. New Mexico
7. Utah
8. Colorado
9. Iowa
10. Louisiana
11. Mississippi
12. Alabama
13. Florida
14. North Carolina
15. Tennessee
16. Virginia
17. West Virginia
18. Michigan
19. Delaware
20. Maryland
21. Pennsylvania
22. New Jersey
23. New York
24. Rhode Island
25. Connecticut
26. Massachusetts
27. Vermont
28. New Hampshire
29. Maine

Also the non-states:
Washington D.C.
Puerto Rico
U.S. Virgin Islands

[charliechaplinfan]

Rohanka, what I love about America was the fact that we could do it all by car. When we visited California we bought loads of CDs from Tower Records and drive around listening to Bob Dylan (our first introduction to him) The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix all the way between LA and San Francisco. CDs were a lot cheaper in the US than here, I'm not sure about nowadays because the price of these items has gone down. We flew to Las Vegas but I wish we'd flown, we drove to the Grand Canyon from there.

When we did the South East we started at New Orleans where I bought a nine CD set of Billie Holliday along with Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles and Frank Sinatra, all very eclectic. By this time we were used to driving and drove clockwise to Memphis and then through the Smoky Mountains down to Charleston the Savannah and then had a few days rest on the Florida panhandle before going home.

It makes me laugh about the restuarant owner from Bath, the South East took us three weeks and then we felt like we crammed things in. Still, we often see it the other way around, we are used to Americans coming to us and trying to do everything in a week. we may be small but we have a lot to offer.

Our last American holiday was in Florida, we visited in February and it felt like everyone over 60 was on the move, the traffic was horrendous down the West coast, it was much better on the East coast so we primarily stopped in Fort Lauderdale and Miami. I was pregnant when we visited Florida, I hated Orlando, theme parks were the last thing on my mind and was sick when we visited the Kennedy Space centre (that's when I knew it was a girl) the one place my husband had always wanted to go and the only time on our trip that I'd suffered from morning sickness.

[rohanaka]

what I love about America was the fact that we could do it all by car

Hi Charliechaplinfan. It sounds like you folks really know how to travel. I bet it was great fun listening to all that music as you went rolling down the highway. You are building memories for your kids (and for yourself) that will last a lifetime. (And PS, I 'm with you. I am not a big "theme park" person, so I have NO desire to go to Orlando (to see the MOUSE) ha. But I imagine if you had not had the morning sickness Kennedy would have been really interesting.

I have ALWAYS dreamed of going to the Grand Canyon. So you are one up on me for sure. I bet it was beautiful. We have talked about it off and on for years but now we are waiting for the kidling (she's six) to get a bit older as we want her to be old enough to remember it all. We are such "geology junkies" around our house, ha, so a trip out that way would be right up our alley. I would also VERY much like to see Yellowstone someday too. We'd much rather go someplace "natural" than to see one of the big cities, etc. Ha..

Now I am by NO means any sort of travel agent (or MUSIC salesperson either..ha) but you need to roll through the Midwest the next time you are out this way. (I live in the Kansas City, Missouri area) Our fair state is among the more interesting areas (geologically speaking) in the entire middle region of the US.

Missouri is very diverse... it has mountains and hills, prairies, a HUGE forest area, and some really BIG rivers, (we have the Mississippi AND the Missouri Rivers and several other fair sized rivers as well). There are also wetlands, and LOTS and lots of caves. And Missouri has a really interesting and well maintained State Park system with all sorts of guided (and unguided) tours to some of the more fascinating natural locations. When your little ones are a bit older and are up to a bit of a walk it is a great way to spend a few days (just traveling around in the mid to south portions of the state and stopping in at all the various parks.)

And PS... our favorite "travel tunes" are the old timey Bluegrass CD's. (think music like the soundtrack to "O Brother Where Art Thou", etc) ha. I admit.. not EVERYONE has a taste for Bluegrass, but it has grown on me a LOT over the years and makes for a toe tapping good time when you are driving along a nice twisty turny country road. ha.

[klondike]

And PS... our favorite "travel tunes" are the old timey Bluegrass CD's. (think music like the soundtrack to "O Brother Where Art Thou", etc) ha. I admit.. not EVERYONE has a taste for Bluegrass, but it has grown on me a LOT over the years and makes for a toe tapping good time when you are driving along a nice twisty turny country road. ha.

I know exactly what you're talking about.
Allow me please to recommend a CD I've purchased just recently: HEARTLAND, An Appalachian Anthology; it's packed with great tracks of purebred hill-country folk & bluegrass by modern-times artists like Joshua Bell, Mark O'Connor, James Taylor, Bela Fleck, etc.
Great listening, and lotsa really infectious fiddle!

[charliechaplinfan]

I can do bluegrass but don't dig geology for one reason. My husband's first degree is in geology and he has collected rocks that have moved with me twice now. These rocks aren't pretty or useful or fossils they are just rocks and they live in my house not in my garden where I might appreciate them more but my husband doesn't really do possessions so every other decoration in our house has been supplied by me, so how can I object to these rocks? We all have our crosses

The Grand Canyon I do get, nothing could prepare me for it, I imagined something big, awesome and beautiful but it was way, way more than that. You must take your little one, 6 isn't too young, it's awesome at whatever age you see it. We must do Yellowstone one day.

As for the mousepark, there is one just outside Paris which is more than adequate for children young and old, the kids got to go on the rides and see the characters and parades and that is the magic bit for them. I know the thing about Florida is that there is more than one park you can enjoy but I couldn't, I haven't got the energy or the will to see half of them.

I must see New England in the fall, one year along with some nearby states and Washington one day. I will see the Mid West too. New York I fear I'll never get to, it's the one place my husband says no to. I think that's some where Mummy and grown up daughter can go to in time.

[silentscreen]

Gosh Alison,

You've been to almost as many states as I have! I've never had a lot of money for travel. I still haven't seen the Grand Canyon, and that's one of the places that my British brother wants to see. I'll see it if I have to go in a scooter to get about. In the last few years, I did manage to go to Massachusetts where a dear friend of mine lives. It's a beautiful state, and Boston is old and has old buildings, which gives it a bit of a more European feel. New England is beautiful! Barbara and I went out to Cape Cod and I got to see my very first lighthouses. One of the great things about America is that each state is so totally different, and you can get a bit of everything here.

States I've been to:

Texas (obviously)
Louisiana
Mississippi
Alabama
Georgia
Missouri
Florida
California
Arizona
New Mexico
Nevada
Colorado
Utah
Massachusetts
New Mexico

If I think of any others, I'll edit this post.