Wednesday, August 01, 2007

17 States and counting...

I've been able to determine that I have personally visited 17 of the 50 United States, plus the Canadian province of Ontario, so far. I grew up in Philadelphia (PA), so... starting chronologically:

* Pennsylvania (obviously)
* New Jersey (vacations to the Jersey Shores, then later to other areas as well)
* New York (8th grade class trip to the Big Apple - also visited NYC several times in my 20s - plus a ski trip to Bath, NY)
* Delaware (night clubs and places for the band to play gigs in the 80s)
* Maryland (Ocean City, MD... love that town!)

+ Big Gull Lake - aka Clarendon Lake - in Ontario, Canada (a couple summer vacations with family)

* California (vacationed here in '89 - which included visits to San Francisco, the Napa Valley, Los Angeles and San Diego, and again in '93 - in Balboa/Newport Beach, before eventually moving here in '94)

Then there is my cross-country drive in the late summer of '94 in which I followed much of the famous Route 66 to reach my current destination:

* West Virginia (a brief drive-thru the northern sliver)
* Ohio (a ton of rain as I drove across this state)
* Indiana (stayed in Danville for a night)
* Illinois (visited Abraham Lincoln's tomb)
* Missouri (visited the St. Louis arch, Meramec Caverns, and an overnight stay in Joplin)
* Kansas (drove thru a remote 8-mile stretch of Route 66 thru southeastern KS)
* Oklahoma (ate at a diner in Tulsa)
* Texas (the panhandle - treked thru Palo Duro Canyon, and stayed in Amarillo)
* New Mexico (stayed in Albuquerque, visited Santa Fe - briefly - in the pouring rain, visited Bandera Volcano and Ice Caves, the Acoma Pueblo, Canyon Diablo, and Gallup)
* Arizona (stayed in Winslow, visited Meteor Crater - a mile in diameter!, and the Grand Canyon)

... and, of course, my return to California (including an overnight stay in Needles, then thru Death Valley, Barstow, San Bernardino, Pasadena, Los Angeles, Malibu, and Ventura County).

* Alabama (the latest state I visited, staying in Birmingham and Hanceville for a visit of EWTN and Our Lady of the Angels Monastery)

So that's 17 states + Ontario, Canada. I could also add Colorado, Tennessee, North Carolina and Washington D.C...... but that would be cheating because they were just 30 minute change-overs in the Denver, Nashville, Charlotte and D.C. airports. So, they officially don't count... but "technically" they could.

I'm hoping that one day I'll finally be able to visit Italy and the Greek Islands. Maybe also Australia and parts of South America - like Argentina.

So....... how many states (and countries) have you visited?

I'm curious to know.

2 comments:

Ellen Rice said...

Just did a travelblogue [to coin a word] myself. Imagine that!

Have visited: California, Colorado, Texas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, N. and S. Carolina, Virginia, DC, W. Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, N. Ireland, Republic of Ireland, England, District Federales Mexico City, Puebla Mexico, France, Italy. So far!

Why am I doing this?

Trubador said...

I'm just curious about whether my readers have traveled extensively, and where. Or whether I even have any readers at all (hah!). Actually, I know that I have at least a few readers of this blog (as per me meager Sitemeter stats).

I know I need to post a bit more often than I have been lately, but "real life" has it's way of taking up my time.

Thanx for posting!