Heh -- I only got to Germany because we were diverted from Switzerland by fog.
Almost all of the states in the US come from car trips with my family when I was young. Imagine traveling from Winslow Arizona to Las Vegas in summer in the back seat of a car without air conditioning. I don't fear hell -- I've been there. LOL
I'll admit the bulk of the states I've visited came about the very same way. We drove from SW MN (where I was born) to the Seattle World's Fair in a car with no air conditioning - and then drove down the coast to Lake Tahoe in CA before heading back east.
I have to say, tho, I'm less than impressed with the prairie. My nose stayed in the comic books until there were mountains on the horizon - and the moment they vanished again, out came the comic books again.
Yeah -- I don't want to insult the Nebraskans, but damn, they have a boring state. We turned south at the Rockies and headed down through New Mexico for the southern route to California. On the way home we came through Montana and the Dakotas. That was a little more exciting.
That's a lot of driving in the back seat of a car. I've visited a lot of places that way too. Looks like you managed to miss those charming states of Texas and Oklahoma which I only remember from having to drive through. The Texas panhandle is like driving through some foreign planet.
A lot of driving, and the parental units were clueless about the effect of the open windows on the passengers in the back seat. The desert was bad enough, but you would not believe the variety of aggressive insect life that flew in while driving through Florida and Alabama.
Oh god, that reminds me of a similar drive through the New Mexican desert with me and my little brother in the backseat. A bumblebee flew in and landed in my brother's shirt unbeknown to any of us until it stung him several times in the stomach causing him to throw up all over himself and the back seat (I'm screaming) and have to scamper butt naked into some benighted gas station men's room to clean up. Ah yes, memories.
I knelt on a bee that flew into the back when I was four years old, and of course it stung me. I didn't throw up, but I yelled plenty, and my parents had to stop at a farmhouse to beg an ice cube off some nice lady.
Wow! You are very well travled! We also did a lot of road tripping as a kid, but it was primarily in the southeast, usually to TN or FL. What I liked most was the Mississippi welcome centers gave out free Coke since it was invented there. =D
Not anymore. I logged most of those states in my childhood. We took a four week trip to Florida (Disney World with the kid) back in 1986. Again, we drove down through the Smokies and Georgia. And in 1999 I added Oregon and Washington to the list.
Do they still give out free orange juice at the Florida border?
I've made those trips many times. In fact, Mom and I did Disney the summer of 1986! Drove from Baton Rouge to Orlando and back. Mom had family near Knoxville so we drove to TN and the Smokies a lot as well, and then we drove up here when we moved and my Ex had family up in New England. I'd really like to see the western states though.
Do they still give out free orange juice at the Florida border?
No idea. Been a long time since I've driven in the south. I usually fly now a days, though I drove to KY for ALEP, adding two new states to my list: KY and IN. I purposely drove across the bridge from Louisville to Indiana so I could say I'd been there. =D
You know, looking at the map, coming down out of the Smokies from Tennessee into North Carolina, we were so close to South Carolina that I'd have been tempted to do a quick side trip just to make it a clean sweep of all the states east of the Mississippi.
I love the Smokies -- probably the only place I'd live if I couldn't live here where I am.
Comments
You're really an all-around guy - and I do mean that in the nicest sense.
:-D
Edited at 2010-06-02 05:28 pm (UTC)
Almost all of the states in the US come from car trips with my family when I was young. Imagine traveling from Winslow Arizona to Las Vegas in summer in the back seat of a car without air conditioning. I don't fear hell -- I've been there. LOL
I have to say, tho, I'm less than impressed with the prairie. My nose stayed in the comic books until there were mountains on the horizon - and the moment they vanished again, out came the comic books again.
:-D
Do they still give out free orange juice at the Florida border?
Do they still give out free orange juice at the Florida border?
No idea. Been a long time since I've driven in the south. I usually fly now a days, though I drove to KY for ALEP, adding two new states to my list: KY and IN. I purposely drove across the bridge from Louisville to Indiana so I could say I'd been there. =D
I love the Smokies -- probably the only place I'd live if I couldn't live here where I am.
Ditto! =D
However, it was the first European country I set foot in.