South Dakota is nice enough. It sells bottle rockets and other fireworks that are illegal in surrounding states. I can't remember if there's anything else there.
When I was a kid, we used to pile seven (mom, dad, four kids, grandma) of us into a giant Pontiac station wagon and drive across half the country. We'd leave at 3:00 a.m. so that dad could be 250 miles from home before us kids woke-up and wanted breakfast. Nobody wore a seatbelt, dad was smoking Winstons while driving, and us kids were clubbing each other in the back.
2: We did that. Honestly, Wall Drug was more interesting.
I took trips like that with extended family. It's a wonder any of us survived, or wanted to.
I never did see the Corn Palace in Mitchell. You just assume there will always be a day you can go there, but before you know it, you're living a thousand miles away.
5: We did it every summer. Texas twice. Florida twice. California once. D.C. once. Canada once.
It got easier after the first couple of trips. Dad quit smoking and we got a conversion van.
Anyway, I want to take the boy out to see the west, but it just can't happen this summer. Maybe next. The idea would be to fly into Denver or Santa Fe or something and then rent a car.
When I was a kid, we used to drive up the West Coast. Los Angeles to Seattle or Vancouver and back.
As far as States I've never been in (assuming airports don't count):
Idaho
Montana
North Dakota
South Dakota
Wisconsin
Michigan
Oklahoma
Louisiana
Mississippi
Alabama
TR in NoDak and Black Hills in SoDak aren't awful. Not sufficient reason in and of themselves to go there, but worth stopping if you have to be there anyway.
Having recently binge-watched Treme, I guess I'm a little Louisiana-curious. But not curious enough to actually go there. And certain that the actual experience of being there would be pretty different.
I tried to fill out one of those "these are all the states I've visited" maps and realized that I had no idea what precise route two childhood car trips (one from Washington state to Michigan, the other from New Jersey to Houston) took.
If you go to the Black Hills, you may as well swing south a bit and see Carhenge. I understand that there's a copy in England, if you never get near the area.
Republicans really have ruined everything good.
Three cars were buried at Carhenge with a sign stating: "Here lie three bones of foreign cars. They served our purpose while Detroit slept. Now Detroit is awake and America's great!"
12 Easy enough to apply a rule that if you don't remember at least something about being there, it doesn't count. It's not like one would count flying over as having been in Greenland, or Nebraska.
What if you land to eat some grass and shit on cars?
14: The archeologists label that Carhenge 2 I.
Hawaii, Maine, and Louisiana are all worth a trip. Haven't been to either Dakota, alas.
Hawaii: Haleakela on Maui is awesome, as is Volcanoes Natl. Park on Hawaii (island). Tourist Oahu is pretty meh, but seeing the Pearl Harbor Memorial was moving. Kauai is really the most beautiful (or was when I was there).
Maine: Lobstah, lobstah, lobstah. The seacoast gets more lovely the further north you go. Acadia Natl. Park on Mt. Desert Island is great but mostly expensive. Bar Harbor is meh but if you get away from there it's beautiful. There is great hiking in northern ME but some of the best (Katahdin and vic.) is really tough going. (For accessible hiking, go to NH's White Mts. You can easily drop over to ME once you're there. Drop in at the LL Bean mothership in Freeport if you are in the mood. (Aside from the Bean boots, buy your gear at REI, though.)
Louisiana: I don't know much outside New Orleans but it can be a fun city even if your goal isn't to get stinking drunk. Great food, nice people, still some decent jazz. The swamps elsewhere are too dangerous due to the feral hippos.
States I've never been to: Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, both Dakotas, Oregon, Hawaii. Wow, 18 seems like a lot. And some of the states I've "been to" were just quick drives through the corner of.
As for the five in Ogged's list? New Orleans is fun in all the famous ways. Who doesn't like public drunkenness, crowded dive bars, and the occasional hint of titties? Don't answer that.
I remember a few road trips like people are talking about upthread, growing up. Cassandane and I haven't been inclined to do them so far. Either we're softer than our parents were or renting cars in airports is more convenient than was back then.
I have not managed to buy a van before it's time for Girl Scout camp on the outskirts of the Daniel Boone National Forest, but this should be our last station wagon road trip. We're unlikely to do any proper vacations until I'm working again (maybe to NC to visit the Marine former foster son before his baby is born) but the girls loved our Amtrak to D.C. trip and that might be a fun way to head west someday, though not directly since we can only get to D.C./NYC or Chicago.
Hawaii is everything. I had 45 as a teenager, missing AK, HI, ND, LA, and OK. Now I'm down to just ND and OK. Just got LA, New Orleans is totally worth it.
I had 45 as a teenager
18 is legal. Ask my lawyers.
When I was about 11 we spent six weeks of the summer in a long circle route around the country, so I've been through Idaho, Montana, and South Dakota, but not a whole lot of the interior states.
Rushmore is totally overrated. I won't advocate blowing it up, but neither would it be missed.
20: Thorne - Any thoughts on where you want to go career-wise?
"Where do you see yourself in five years, van-related events aside?"
Every Christmas break we drove nonstop to FL to visit my grandparents, I forget what time we left but the timing always worked out that we passed South of the Border (speaking of racism) around 3am so we never got to see it when it was open aside from the one gift shop that was open 24hr.
I drove by that once. I didn't miss it, but then I was maybe 30 at the time.
My mom really did not like driving, so until I was old enough to drive, dad would drive all but maybe a half hour of a 17 hour drive. He did it even after he stopped smoking.
States I haven't been to: Hawaii, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Vermont, Maine, South Carolina. (Plus Minnesota if airports don't count.) I figure I'll get to all of them eventually.
The MSP airport is nice, as far as airports go.
My 50th state was Kentucky, and the only one I ever visited specifically because I hadn't been there. I had a case in Evansville IN, and some time to kill after the hearing. Had a surprisingly good dinner in Owensboro.
Since then, I've flown in and out of Cincinnati a few times, but that's really too pathetic to count.
I went to opening day in Keeneland. It's like Churchill Downs, but fancy.
PSA: Airports do not count. Among the wise, opinions differ as to how much off-airport time and distance is needed to count. Some also argue that a teeny-tiny airport in (e.g.) Alaska would count, if you pulled that off.
Missed: Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, N & S Dakota, Washington, Oregon, Alaska. Michigan, too, though I've been to the Detroit airport (which doesn't count).
the people are so friendly that it made me think race-mixing really is a bad idea
No, it's terrible and nobody should move there. (I'm seriously considering taking out some of my house equity to put a down payment on a piece of property around Kalispell or Columbia Falls that I can retire on)
You camp? We usually tent camp it at Avalanche Creek.
Let's see, I have plans not to go to my 20th hs reunion at Keeneland this fall. I should find out tomorrow whether I'll be getting my tonsils out (also last day of latest strep antibiotics!) and I doubt ankle surgery can happen before September, which is discouraging but probably for the best. A second child starts physical therapy this week and the third will need her tonsils out too probably, plus the ongoing mystery rheumatology situation stays mysterious and ongoing, though she's met her PT goal for knee flexibility. Basically I've made no progress on anything jobwise except not being terrified about the future yet. I did take a test earlier this week to do a piecework version of my old job but I really don't want to do more of that. Probably I just need to read all the old posts on coding bootcamps and commit to something, but not until I know my surgery schedule. Maybe soon I'll be healthy enough to appreciate unemployment more. It's certainly easier than being very sick and having extra-needy kids while working full-time but I'm totally just playing catchup still.
Don't bother with Rushmore. But the Black Hills and the Badlands are nice.
I'm missing most of the South and mountain West, especially if we're using the no airports rule. My number of countries vs states is probably pretty close.
Some also argue that a teeny-tiny airport in (e.g.) Alaska would count, if you pulled that off.
On what basis? I find it hard to imagine anyone would end up at such an airport without leaving it at some point and seeing at least some of the surrounding area.
The MSP airport is nice, as far as airports go.
It really is.
39- Jeez, how about some respect for psuedonymity?
22 countries, not counting airports in Iceland, Djibouti, and Ethiopia.
Whoops, 23. I had a plane change in Jamaica one time, but enough time to leave the airport and have lunch in the kind of place they tell you not to go.
I didn't know there was an Arby's in Jamaica.
Keeneland
"Somewhere Only We Know" was kinda catchy but that doesn't justify a whole theme park.
I've recently discovered "rank all the states" as a god argument-inducing party game.
If you're already in the Black Hills, Rushmore is worth the stop
Don't plan on more than hour of kid entertainment, though. Skip Crazy Horse.
I'm in a cafe in Havana, on my second mojito. No trouble leaving the US, but we'll see if they let me back in.
If you need to hide, go to Honduras.
The swamps elsewhere are too dangerous due to the feral hippos.
Please tell me this isn't a joke.
Be like Hemingway. Drink until you want to machine gun sharks from the pier.
States I've never been to: Maine, Vermont (will remedy those by the end of this month), Oregon (except connected in the Portland airport once), Alaska, Hawaii. Actually maybe Nevada is also airport-only.
Do Scotland and England count as one country, or two?
I think I've been to 17 countries. The US, Canada, the UK, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Greece, Israel, Korea, China.
Belgium, if taking a train through a country counts. Changed planes in Ireland once.
My dad likes to count places he's seen from a plane window, but that definitely seems like cheating.
I guess Hong Kong is in the same kind of limbo as Scotland, as far as counting goes.
I've been to all states but Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. For countries, I've been to Canada, Mexico (just Tijuana), the U.K., France, Germany, Belgium, Italy Spain, and Greece.
However, nearly all of that was decades ago.
I guess I must have taken a train through Switzerland or Austria. At least, I took a train from Germany to Italy.
58: So you flew to New Hampshire, or what?
Also, I better count the Vatican City. I'm all about the Lateran Treaty.
And I forgot to mention never having been to New Hampshire.
And my experience of Utah is limited to standing at Four Corners.
Most of our road trips growing up were to a cabin in BC, and it's been pretty much coastal elitist since then, so I'm only about halfway through the states (24-26 depending on whether I count AZ and PA, both of which just barely clear the "more than an airport" threshold). For countries, Canada, the UK, France, Spain, Italy, Israel, and Japan (plus FRA, which doesn't count). That's pretty lame.
Standing at Four Corners totally counts for all four states.
I think so too, but I've actually spent extensive time in the other three states.
Having been to Greece and Tennessee, I feel qualified to note that even the the Parthenon in the former is more famous, the one the latter is much nicer.
Americans were better at slavery.
The swamps elsewhere are too dangerous due to the feral hippos.
Please tell me this isn't a joke.
A real thing in Colombia. Escobar had a few on his ranch and after he was killed they were left to their own devices. Supposedly around 40 of them now.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/05/160510-pablo-escobar-hippos-colombia/
the girls loved our Amtrak to D.C. trip and that might be a fun way to head west someday, though not directly since we can only get to D.C./NYC or Chicago
That northern route you can catch in Chicago goes right through the south side of Glacier. There's a stop in Whitefish where you can rent a car and Whitefish is only about a half hour from the West Glacier entrance.
70 is fantastic.
small groups of hippos or solitary individuals have migrated through the Magdalena River to other areasSo basically to the whole country .
71 You can rent a car in East Glacier, also an Amtrak stop, and you're right next to the park. I've never done it, but maybe the kids could enjoy riding a jammer?
72: Did you watch the video? One guy is identified by his name and "Was Chased By Hippos."
Will watch later! Drug War: The Gift that Keeps on Giving.
49: Wrong blog, dude.
32 countries or possibly 34 depending on whether pre 1997 Hong Kong and the Cyprus SBA count as separate. 2 policies which no longer exist (colonial HK, USSR)... 6 states.(NY NJ CA WA NV AZ).
If we're accepting the Amtrak Standard above (and the route that gswift mentions really is gorgeous for a train trip), my states not visited are ME and RI in the east, AK and HI in their own little map insets, and NV, UT, NM, OK, KS, NB, SD and WY. I'll add that Amtrak is a great way to get around the country, if you're not in a particular hurry. I took it from Oregon across to Minnesota, then down to New Orleans via Chicago, then back up to DC. Most excellent.
As for countries, I'd say wait a few years, and you can probably count England and Scotland separately again.
I was in Hong Kong after 1997, so I get to click on the map and color in all of China. Whee!
US, Canada, Mexico. None of South America (Germans will try to tell you that there is just one continent called Amerika. Then they will try to tell you that Europa and Asien are separate.) None of Africa. None of Australia/Oceania. China, Japan, Mongolia. Russia. Iceland, UK, Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland (I have only waved at Liechtenstein as I drove by), Italy, Vatican City, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus (via the Amtrak Standard, though I had to get a separate visa for it, so I was in Belarusian territory at their embassy in Vienna, too), Ukraine, Greece, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia.
Thirty-seven countries and thirty-eight states.
77 reminds me to add Cyprus to my list of countries.
For countries, I only have the US, Canada, Mexico, Honduras, Spain, Hungary, and Israel. (Airport-only: the UK and Germany.) Very domestic am I. My sister is moving to Sweden in a few months, so that may give me an opportunity for more European travel.
32 countries, but only if passing through Belarus and Mongolia by train counts (though I did actually step onto the platform in Ulan Bator). I traveled long enough ago to count East and West Germany as two, and recently enough to Prague to be able to count the Czech Republic and Slovakia as two as well even though the latter was part of Czechoslovakia when I visited. And I'm counting Taiwan as a country, whatever the UN says.
For me it's 38 states and 30 countries. I think the last time Unfogged did this exercise, or at least the last time I participated, my country count was higher than my state count.
There's only one country I've passed through without stopping: Slovakia, which I crossed on a Budapest-Krakow train. It feels like that shouldn't count. Also feels like driving through Rhode Island shouldn't count, while driving for hours to cross other states feels like it should count.
Counting visiting Taiwan as visiting China too, thereby visiting two countries, is the unintended consequence of the one China policy.
Oh, wait. I changed planes in Dublin, but that doesn't count really. Although they did make me go through customs.
Also, I did go to the Vatican, so I guess that does count. So, 31 countries.
As for Canada, counting train crossings, I've been to: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec.
Mexico: both Bajas, Yucatan and Quintana Roo. I'm embarrassed to learn I was never aware that Yucatan the state is not the whole Yucatan Peninsula. I know a lot less about Mexico than I should.
81: East Germany! A border-crossing interrogation less obnoxious than at Heathrow, and less time-consuming than recently at Dulles.
Tell me again about the Free World?
(So that makes 39 countries and 38 states. Time to visit a random new state.)
78: I forgot China! And Switzerland. So 34 or possibly 36. And I can claim PA and MD because I took the train from New York to Washington one time. (And came very close at some points to asking the guard "look, would it help if I got out and pushed?" It's a very rare experience for a Brit to feel smugly superior about the quality of British trains.)
East Germany! A border-crossing interrogation less obnoxious than at Heathrow, and less time-consuming than recently at Dulles.
Tell me again about the Free World?
Well, you were a hard-currency-rich foreigner trying to get in, not an East German trying to get out.
A friend of mine had a set to with an E.German border guard over the copy of the New Statesman he was reading. The guard asked him what it was and he replied, hoping that it would make the right impression, that it was a socialist magazine.
"Ist verboten hier!"
re: 88.last
I had that experience on the Caltrain.
"Nice big train, looks like it's built for steaming across plains at 100mph. Why is it moving at a speed that I could beat on a bike?"
90!
countries unimpressive I suspect
oh, better: 34, but with some strange chronological counting, ie Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia & Jugoslavia; East and West Germany and Germany.
States - DC,VA,PA,GA,LA,AL,TX & UT (airports only) NM,CA,MT,NJ,NY,MA,ME,CT MO,IL,WI which is an awful lot more than I thought I could remember or have visited. I don't think I ever actually did anything in Connecticut, though.
What about the number of different types of polity you've visited?
republics
dictatorships
monarchies
states
provinces
districts
counties
reservations
Lander
departements
regions
Dependent Territories
Sovereign Base Areas
Special Administrative Regions
colonies
cantons
entities
What is an example of an entity as polity?
Bosnia is currently made up of two entities.
51. There was actually a real plan in the early 20th century to bring hippos to Louisiana and raise them for meat: American Hippopotamus. There's also a recent pretty good short novel on the subject, called "River of Teeth."
If one researches the topic of the feral Colombian hippos, one finds that the one of the big problems in preventing them from taking over South America is that you can't easily sterilize a male hippo. Their gonads are buried deeply and apparently randomly in their lower abdomen. You need serious equipment to even find them.
Worthwhile Canadian Provinces visited: Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island.
Countries: Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, China, UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Monaco(!), Hungary, Slovakia, Austria. Seems like a paltry and typically bougie list now that I type it out. My kids are doing much better.
Seastead
Volcanic/Undersea lair
Moonbase
Disputed islands
DMZ
So, we do have earthquakes, and 5.8 isn't exactly small. Everyone is wondering if this is the Yellowstone volcano . . .
I'd have thought that would be a bit more than 5.8.
I can only muster 26 (I think) countries and 3 states. Never visited a SBA, an SAR a canton or and entity, but I think I can tick the rest of ajay's list.
Everyone is wondering if this is the Yellowstone volcano
Looks as if the epicenter was further north than that. There's been quite a lot of aftershocks too, all clustered northwest of Helena.
96.1: Hippo is delicious. When I was a kid we visited the village where my mom used to teach and they had just killed a hippo. The entire village was covered in drying racks with hippo meat on them. We ate this delicious kind of stew stuff, but I suspect the villagers were going to be pretty damn sick of hippo before too long. Those things are big.
A 5.8 is no fun, though. Hope your house is OK.
96.2: I have a feeling that even if the hippo's balls hung low and openly, it would still be hard to sterilize a male hippo.
Per 93
republics (federal and otherwise)
people's republics
dictatorships
monarchies (constitutional), incl. one (1) Grand Duchy
states
provinces
districts
counties
parishes
Länder
city under four-power occupation
departements
wojewodstwo
oblast
aimag
prefecture
regions
Special Administrative Region
cantons
Although I am not so sure the various sub-national units are all that different.
I think even in Lincoln there wasn't any destruction. It's still early, though; maybe the historic building they're partially demolishing a block from my office was affected.
The baby slept through, so there's that.
I'm taking tomorrow off, to ride a bike through a long tunnel. That suddenly feels a little different.
Dictatorship isn't always that easy a category. I've been to Hungary. And Texas. Does either count? Yemen during the Saleh regime had elections, which he won handily.
one finds that the one of the big problems in preventing them from taking over South America is that you can't easily sterilize a male hippo
I am not sure why you would want to do this rather than just, you know, shooting them.
43 countries, 48 states.
Was just in Montreal last week. A lovely city.
Possibly, they really want the hippos to establish a wild population and are making excuses.
I would imagine the hippos are going to be a bit inbred. Since moving over new hippos from Africa is probably illegal, I think the best bet is to artificially inseminate the females for a couple of generations. The logistics of that I leave as an exercise for the reader.
108. Because platinum bullets are expensive and hard to source?
Surely depleted uranium would be cheaper. Anyway, people managed to kill hippos with spears. I think they just want the hippos.
111: hey, I'm happy to shoot walruses with crossbows for the furtherance of human knowledge, but I'm damned if I'm going to be dragooned into inseminating hippopotamae* for motives of eugenics, or for that matter any other motive, or even just out of pure joie de vivre.
*(Yes, hippopotamae.)
113: Belloc was on to something. Platinum is considerably denser than both lead and depleted uranium. Denser even than gold. A platinum bullet might well penetrate where a lead one would not, or at least penetrate more deeply, as (per Isaac Newton) an impact penetrates to the point where the mass of displaced material in the wound channel is equal to the mass of the penetrator itself.
The main problem with using a platinum bullet is that platinum is much harder than lead, and so it would be difficult for the bullet to deform sufficiently for its lands to grip the rifling on the inside of the barrel (the same problem occurs with silver bullets, which are consequently much less accurate - and platinum is harder even than silver).
Solutions to this are possible: the most obvious is simply to shoot the hippopotamus with shotgun slugs made of platinum, because shotguns are smoothbore and the problem won't arise. You might also choose to use a jacketed round.
I thought if you want to keep down a population you target females, not males, for sterilization. Much more ROI.
Alternatively one could just use a machinegun.
I had a Hippopotamus, I kept him in a shed
And fed him upon vitamins and vegetable bread
I made him my companion on many cheery walks
And had his portrait done by a celebrity in chalk
His charming eccentricities were known on every side
The creatures' popularity was wonderfully wide
He frolicked with the Rector in a dozen friendly tussles
Who could not but remark on his hippopotamuscles
If he should be affected by depression or the dumps
By hippopotameasles or the hippopotamumps
I never knew a particle of peace 'till it was plain
He was hippopotamasticating properly again
I had a Hippopotamus, I loved him as a friend
But beautiful relationships are bound to have an end
Time takes, alas!, our joys from us and rids us of our blisses
My hippopotamus turned out to be a hippopotamisses
My house keeper regarded him with jaundice in her eye
She did not want a colony of hippotami
She borrowed a machine gun from from her soldier nephew, Percy
And showed my hippopotamus no hippopotamercy
My house now lacks that glamour that the charming creature gave
The garage where I kept him is now as silent as the grave
No longer he displays among the motor tyres and spanners
His hippopomastery of hippopotamanners
No longer now he gambols in the orchards in the spring
No longer do I lead him through the village on a string
No longer in the morning does the neighbourhood rejoice
To his hippopotamusically-modulated voice.
I had a hippopotamus but nothing upon earth
Is constant in its happines or lasting in its mirth
No joy that life can give me can be strong enough to smother
My sorrow for that might-have-been-a-hippopotamother.
People have killed hippos with stone-tipped spears. Today's hunters are too soft.
111, 114: ms bill's uncle, a rancher from near Helena, MT, used to tell me that he'd signed me up for a grizzly bear insemination study that the "government in Washington" had funded "for as many tries as I could handle." He probably would have considered hippos to be an unwarranted foreign entanglement.
120 They were probably having him on and should have told him grizzlies can't crossbreed with humans.
People have killed hippos with stone-tipped spears. Today's hunters are too soft.
I wish I wasn't at work now so I could link my favourite bit of E3 footage this year, from Assassin's Creed Origins. It features our hero trying to kill a hippo with a spear, underwater... by swatting at it. That's not how spears work!
THIS HERE STATUETTE SAYS THEY CAN
Obviously a human suspended in liquid can't generate enough force to impale a hippo. You need to provoke the hippo into charging you and impaling itself. Tactics.
Why is there no beloved children's book character called 'Augustine the Hippo'?
I dreamed I saw St. Augustine
Alive as you or me
Tearing through Colombia
On the way to Louisie
If you provided a few heated pools for the few weeks of cold weather every winter, could a population of hippos survive in Louisiana?
You could just light off an oil well. I bet the hippos could learn to do it themselves, even.
Anyway, the question will soon be moot, with regard to both Louisiana winters and Louisiana.
Well, the temperature range in Arusha National Park, Tanzania, is from 8C minimum average in September to 29C max average in February, and Arusha has lots of hippos. Temp range in New Orleans is 5.4C min average in January to 33C max average in July. So my reply would be a tentative "yes"; hippos should be fine in Louisiana.
'Fear not for me!' he cried so loud
I need no coat of gold
No winter freeze can get through these
Pachydermatous folds
hippos should be fine in Louisiana
Except hippos dislike jazz and cannot tolerate spicy food.
133: Wikipedia gives -2.4C as the mean minimum in January.
For Arusha or for New Orleans? That seems very low, either way.
Ah, I see, there is a distinction between "average low" and "mean minimum" though I admit I'm not sure what it is.
I don't know, but I think you can expect a couple of solid freezes every winter in New Orleans.
If, hypothetically, one were to transfer a breeding population of hippos from the Magdalena to the Orinoco (which is just one country over) how long would it take for them to propagate up and over the Casiquiare and through the Amazon? That would seem appropriate. Destined.
The best part is, if the hippos manage to outlive our current civilization, some future people who re-establish science will have to posit all sort of theories about how they got there.
And, having once admitted that the distribution of hippos must be artificial, the dam will break, unleashing a flood of potatoes, chilies, zebra mussels, and Irish people.
I think you can expect a couple of solid freezes every winter in New Orleans.
That surprises me, given how far south it is. I'll take your word for it though. It'll be a problem for the hippos.
a flood of potatoes, chilies, zebra mussels, and Irish people.
Dammit, now I'm hungry.
120, 121: "You don't come here for the Fish & Wildlife Service, do you?"
Dammit, now I'm hungry.
This isn't the Modest Proposition thread.
Why do you hate private initiative, job-killing Moby?
I tried to fill out one of those "these are all the states I've visited" maps
I recently did one of these maps, through FB, and then was too embarrassed to post the results: there are a lot of states that I've never visited, most of them in the middle of the map, and it might look as though I view much of the US as "flyover country." Which: I don't! But as a kid, growing up in Canuckistan, I only went to states that were within easy driving distance of the border (and we also did road trips to a number of Canadian provinces instead), which helps account for my low US state count. And as an adult? No excuses, really, and I should make more of an effort. I have been to Hawaii, which was stunningly beautiful, of course.
I can't think of a US state that I wouldn't want to visit. Maybe Alabama? Though if I won a round-trip, all-expenses-paid vacation to Alabama, I would certainly go. I can't really imagine spending the time and money to go there otherwise, but I may be missing something.
I love New England, and especially Maine and Vermont. But I would really like to visit Texas.
Me update: tonsillectomy is happening. It might even be able to be scheduled the two weeks it would need to be before the uterine ablation, so I could knock them both out by mid-August, when I can do the nerve testing I need before my ankle surgery can be scheduled. I'm pre-signed up for the opiate registry so they can give me pain pills for this one, though! Soon someone can write a lifestyle piece about me!
150. I went to Montgomery, Alabama on business and had some free time and took in a Montgomery Biscuits minor-league baseball game (they were and are a AA affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays, poor things). It was a lot of fun and really relaxed. Along with the usual baseball park food you could get biscuits! I still have the souvenir cup (which of course had beer in it originally, not biscuits). Montgomery is the HQ of the SPLC, which I think you can tour but they were closed when I was there. The town is one of those dead-outside-working-hours places, alas.
Aside from driving through Alabama to get to New Orleans (and then back) that's one of two times I've been there. Major impression: hot as Hell.
My ankle seems to be getting better. My tonsils and uterus are stable.
Major impression: hot as Hell.
Yeah, that's my impression of the American South. When I first moved to the US, I lived in Baltimore, MD (not quite, not really, the South, of course, but hotter than anything I had ever experienced before, and I truly could not believe that people could actually live in such a climate). There was a "snowstorm" the first winter I was in Baltimore, where the governor called a state of emergency and called out the National Guard...I laughed at this state of emergency over a few inches of snow, and then got my (well-deserved, no doubt) come-uppance in mid-July, when I felt like a wilted lettuce leaf and could hardly bear to go outside.
153: Your technique was ignoring it as much as possible for four years or so, right? It was for a different problem, but I've been tempted to try that. The pain's really bad, though, and I'd like to be able to start exercising and so forth.
154. I've lived in Maryland. Maryland is warm. Alabama is HOT. (Let us not even speak of Houston.) As for winter, I do enjoy hearing about how the whole DC area has come to a standstill because a snowflake hit the ground east of the Mississippi.
States I've never visited:
Idaho
Utah
North and South Dakota
I think that's all, if road trips count.
I'd been to Germany, Switzerland and Italy before I ever went to a state outside California. Chalk it up to poor hippie patents, California is big so hardly untraveled in a miles sense from camping up and down state, and then scholarship funded overseas travel for music. First time to another state was also scholarship - year at college in VT. First time I traveled to a bunch of states was bus trip cross country back to CA when returning from living in FR.
I'd been to Germany, Switzerland and Italy before I ever went to a state outside California.
So excellent, DQ. So I guess this is where I can admit I've been to more Irish counties than to US states?
I make no claims to excellence it was just happenstance. If my parents hadn't been so skint I would have likely been to other states (learnt to ski, had braces, etc etc etc) and if hadn't been as good a musician playing semi obscure instrument (steer your musically talented offspring towards hard to secure orchestral instruments!) wouldn't have gone on tour age 13.
My parents did a lot of car trips too, but we crossed state and even national borders. I'd been to western Canada and western Mexico before going to the east coast of the US.
States: all except Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma.
Provinces: New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, sort of Manitoba if the International Peace Garden counts.
Nations: Ireland, Netherlands, Kazakhstan. Jamaica, Bahamas, Barbados, St. Kitts and Nevis (one nation), St. Vincent and the Grenadines (ditto), Grenada, St.Lucia. Also UK if British Virgin Islands counts, and France if St. Martin counts.
States: all except Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma.
Provinces: New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, sort of Manitoba if the International Peace Garden counts.
Nations: Ireland, Netherlands, Kazakhstan. Jamaica, Bahamas, Barbados, St. Kitts and Nevis (one nation), St. Vincent and the Grenadines (ditto), Grenada, St.Lucia. Also UK if British Virgin Islands counts, and France if St. Martin counts.
States: all except Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma.
Provinces: New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, sort of Manitoba if the International Peace Garden counts.
Nations: Ireland, Netherlands, Kazakhstan. Jamaica, Bahamas, Barbados, St. Kitts and Nevis (one nation), St. Vincent and the Grenadines (ditto), Grenada, St.Lucia. Also UK if British Virgin Islands counts, and France if St. Martin counts.
"And do you still go to Mass, JPJ?"
I couldn't just go to Ireland and take in the local scenery, of course. I had to be subject to the RC guilt trip, with some local women who looked, and spoke, and sounded like my mother's older sisters. Totally relentless, is what those women were. I felt I had not gone far from home.
Good God, unimaginative, talk about humblebragging.
Nations: Ireland, Netherlands, Kazakhstan. Jamaica, Bahamas, Barbados, St. Kitts and Nevis (one nation), St. Vincent and the Grenadines (ditto), Grenada, St.Lucia. Also UK if British Virgin Islands
unimaginative's job title is clearly either "tax evasion specialist" or "Bond villain", and I'm tending towards the latter because as far as I know Kazakhstan does not have a particularly advantageous corporate tax code, but it does have plenty of space rockets.
There are a lot of people looking to avoid their tax (and legal and moral) obligations in Kazakhstan, though.
It's not Montana, but some of my extended family moved to Idaho not that long ago, to be outdoorsy and get away from people, and now the rest of the West coast family are looking to go too. White flight 2017, but it would be rude of me to point it out.
Turns out I've been to more Chinese provinces than U.S states: Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangs dong and xi, Hunan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, and Chongqing. The California effect is real: you can spend a lot of time in the back of your parents' car without leaving CA.
163 et seq. BVI is OK, they're a British Overseas Territory (polite term for colony). St Martin is part of metropolitan France. France and UK took different approaches on what to do with colonies that were too small to be self supporting.
US States/districts: New York, Massachusetts, DC, California, New Mexico, Pennsylvania
Countries (other than UK): France, Germany, Czech Republic, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Italy, Vatican City (ahem), Greece, Turkey, Spain, USA
I may have missed a country or two, but I've not been to Africa, or any Asian country, so if I've missed any, it's other EU countries.
Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan!
US States: New York, California, Florida, Illinois.
States & Territories: Ireland, France, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Portugal, Italy, Slovakia, Hungary, Brazil, UAE, South Africa, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, the Cook Islands, Luxembourg.
Shit, I forgot I could claim the Vatican. That said it's not as if I've spent a night in it, unlike all the others.
I was at a garden party at the Vatican just a few weeks back, where they served the best egg and bacon rolls I've ever tasted.
OK: UK (all 4 component countries, but we'll call it one for now), Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Gibraltar, Andorra, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Greece, Cyprus, Pakistan, Egypt, Aden Protectorate (now part of Yemen), Kenya, Tanganyika (now federated with Zanzibar), Zanzibar (now federated with Tanganyika), Mozambique, South Africa, SW Africa (Namibia), St Helena, Barbados, Jamaica, USA.
US States: California, Florida, Georgia.
I would be interested to know who has visited the fewest countries, and which ones.
UK (all 4 component countries, but we'll call it one for now), ...Spain, Gibraltar
I feel like you're still counting extra there, one way or another.
Try telling a Gibraltarian they're really part of Spain. At the time I was there there was a hard border.
I've been to Canada and Chile, and from what I see here, live in the least visited state, Maine.
Have you ever hiked the 100 Mile Wilderness? That's sort of a goal of mine.
Nations I've been to: Canada, Mexico, the Bahamas, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Belgium. Again, relatively provincial. I should probably do something about this.
I really should get a valid passport. If only so that I don't need to worry every time the paper runs a story about how PA drivers licenses aren't going to be accepted for air travel after whatever the deadline is.
181 I took it that the issue was counting the UK and Gibraltar as separate. I was wondering what Anguilla is, but then remembered that I didn't leave the airport, so who cares. Other than the Anguillians, of course.
I'm sadly under-traveled in the US. I think I've only been to 24 states, a few of which were only drive-throughs (NH, DE), fly-throughs (IL, GA), or pitstops (IN).
If you void on Indiana, you've done the best thing there that doesn't involve college football.
Gibraltar, Anguilla and the BVIs are all British Overseas Territories, which as I said above is a polite term for colonies. It was the solution invented for colonies which were too small to survive as independent states; the degree of British oversight varies depending on a number of factors, including population, resources, economic strength, political context, etc.
I've been to a wedding in Indiana.
And a football game.
Not on the same day.
As for nations: USA, Canada (Ontario only), India, Barbados, UK (Scotland, England), France (CDG only), New Zealand, Ireland. We're lazy anglophonic travelers.
I've been to more countries than states.
Allegheny County has 130 municipalities, which is about 129 too many. I wonder how many I've been to?
It turns out I've been to relatively few countries. US, Canada, England. Germany, Netherlands, Italy, and Iran.
I'm ashamed to even count states. It's going to be really low -- I've hardly ever driven any real distance. I guess I've got the whole northeast covered from Maine west to Illinois, plus Iowa and Missouri, and coastal states south to Virginia. And then once I'm out of that block... North Carolina, Georgia, drove through Alabama to get from Georgia to Florida once, Louisiana, New Mexico, Nevada, California, Utah, and Washington only if we're counting not leaving the airport.
Countries, I'm going to forget some, because a lot is childhood. England, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, Norway, Netherlands, Sweden only if airport-only counts, Canada, Mexico, Samoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, New Zealand, Japan, and I have a feeling I'm missing an airport-stop in the South Pacific somewhere. Oh, Turkey, Israel, and Egypt.
Oh, Caribbean islands. There were a bunch of childhood vacations: Aruba and Barbados, definitely. US Virgin Islands aren't a different country... Bahamas maybe? There's a tenth grade trip I can't remember where it was too. Mom always got weirdo-travel-industry discounts on resorts, so we did indistinguishable beach-hotel-with-extensive-grounds-surrounded-by-a-white-stucco-wall vacations, but mostly you couldn't tell where you were.
And I forgot Greece and Austria in Europe above.
EMEA: The UK, Ireland, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bosnia, USSR (Russia), Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Malta, Egypt, Oman, South Africa (Iceland, Qatar, UAE if airport stopovers count);
Americas: USA, Canada, Peru
Asia: China, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Philippines
If I knew, I'd forgotten that two people on here have been to the Cooks.
And Vatican City, if spending the day in the museums counts.
Yeah, the Cooks was a slightly more developed vacation week when my parents came out to visit me in Samoa. Samoa wasn't a great country for hotels where you could lounge by the pool.
US, Canada, Brazil, UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Greece, Egypt, South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia.
I'm pretty much travelled out at this point. I don't need to see more of the world. I'd like to visit India and Indonesia, maybe Japan, but that's it at this point. I'm enjoying stuff closer to home as much as possible and trying to avoid planes. I fucking hate plane travel. Not enough to upgrade to first class, but enough to avoid travel if I can.
States I'm missing: Alaska, Hawaii, Utah, New Mexico, Idaho, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland (there was some driving around outside DC, but I think it was in Virgina), Delaware, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. I have been to Puerto Rico but no other U.S. ancillary territories.
Canadian Provinces: Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec
Countries: US, Canada, UK (well, London and environs), Spain, Germany (both sides before reunification, then several times afterwards), Switzerland, Liechtenstein (really we only stopped for a burger on a bus tour between Switzerland and Austria, but I'm counting it because it's not like there was a lot of country to see), Austria, Costa Rica (one night), and Chile.
I spent yesterday afternoon driving from Minneapolis to South Dakota. It was a beautiful day and the green farm plains and occasional river valleys just spoke to my soul. I grew up in prairie farmland, and I know it's boring to other people with it's lack of dramatic statements--mountains, beaches, giant forests, what have you--but it speaks to me like no other place.
207.4 is right. I hope you stopped at Wall Drug.
It's even better in the snow. So long as you're sheltered from the wind, the view of a blizzard strong enough to move all the snow but not strong enough for a white-out is just invigorating.
207.4 may or may not be right, but its apostrophe isn't.
Other people pay me to be a pedant. You guys get me for free.
Allegheny County has 130 municipalities
196: I have a long term goal of having a drink in every Pittsburgh neighborhood (90) and Allegheny Co. municipality. I'm going to have to cheat on a few since I know not all have bars.
...which is about 129 too many.
I used to think that, but Rob Ford scared me off city-county unification.
I'm still at one of the remaining perks of the job is frequent travel (both business and because of the location/large number of paid leave days).
208--4 of the 4.5 hour drive was in Minnesota, which has very similar geography to South Dakota until you hit the Missouri River. That's my preferred environs--Mississippi River to Missouri River at roughly the latitude of Minneapolis. West River South Dakota is all right--dryer, more cattle ranching than anything, plus the Black Hills and Badlands. I always make a point to stop at Wall Drug and get an obnoxious tschotschke. My ambition is to someday have a mounted jackalope, but I have yet to have the spare money when I'm there.
214 Could have been phrased much better.
I just realized I forgot about the existence of non-contiguous states when I confidently listed the states I've yet to visit.
215 reminds me of Mitt Romney talking about how the size of trees in Michigan was just right, and how they're too small to the west and too big to the east--the only thing he ever said that I found sympathetic.
States I've done substantive things in: TX, NY, CA, MD, DC, VA, NJ, PA, DE, OH, CT, ME, RI, MA, VT, NV, OR, CO, IL (19).
States I've merely passed through (road, air, or rail): AZ, NM, NH, GA, TN, AR, KY (7).
States I regret having no footprint in so far: WA, FL, WI, MN, MT (5).
Countries outside the US I've been in: IN, CA, DE, FR, BE, MX, NL, CZ, HU, TH, JP, TW (12; of which 2, TW+HU, were merely passing through).
220--yes, that statement of Mitt's made perfect sense to me. He's a vile human being, but his feeling for his home environs described something important to him that I thought was just fine.
I have various cottage hammock manufacturers bookmarked. I was going to buy one, but I realized I'll never get outside for long enough this summer.
Of the places listed in Johnny Cash's "Everywhere Man" I have only been to two (Washington and Catalina). Disappointing.
I feel like that statement of Mitt's was fine if he was commenting here, but a predictable lead balloon if you're courting Trump supporters.
What if he said that he didn't want to go chasing waterfalls and that he'd rather stick to the lakes and rivers he's used to?
LB's 198 reminds me I had forgotten Iowa was a state I have never been in. Aside from the obviously staged reality show there every four years, I'm not all that convinced it exists.
220: That reminds me of people I've met from the midwest who couldn't take the bumpy, hilly, tree-infested nature of New England. They said it made them disoriented and claustrophobic.
You can tell Iowa exists because, thanks to the shifting Missouri River, yove had to drive through a part of Iowa to get from the Omaha airport to the rest of Omaha.
Also, my one sister claims to have graduated from something called "The University of Iowa".
Just remembered I've been to Annapolis for a day trip with my former in laws when they lived in DC. So I've been to Maryland and am missing only 14 states.
228.2: I am one of those people. I viscerally dislike any hill steep/large enough that a road can't be run straight up and over it. I resent when things are forced away from being a grid. Forests and hills prevent being able to see things any amount of distance away, which any plains dweller can tell you is your god-given right. 4 years in Sonoma Country drove me nuts, stuck in a valley only a few miles wide.
Forests are where people get eaten by bears.
There's a post somewhere back in the archives where I talk about the upsettingly disoriented feeling I get when I'm too far away from a coastline. The Great Lakes work fine, and a big enough river will do to orient myself against. But if there's not a straightforward answer to "What direction is the water?" I'm twitchy and unhappy.
(Do I have a clear idea of why I'd need to make it to the waterfront in an emergency? No, not remotely.)
In case she needs to damn us all to hell because we blew it all up.
I think I've mentioned before that I get afraid when swimming over extremely deep water. A dozen feet deep doesn't bother me, but 100 feet deep does. This means my brain isn't fully committed to its understanding of how "floating" works.
No, I think it means your brain is committed on some deep level to a theory of how krakens work.
That would explain my life-long fear of standing near Harry Hamlin.
That would explain my life-long fear of standing near Harry Hamlin.
See also Aaron Echolls.
237 is me, too. It's more of an agoraphobia fear of being lost than a specific fear of drowning, though.
234: this! totally.
extreme slopes cause me vertigo, but luckily on foot I'm fine and I avoid driving so not too awful living in SF. Loathe skiing for this among many other reasons.
234 is also me. It is really weirdly deep-seated, and I didn't grow up on a coast, so I guess it's some emergent thing. This is the first of many obstacles to surmount if I ever want to move to a congenial lower-cost city: it's the most immediately paralyzing. Also applies to all suburbs on the other side of the Berkeley Hills.
234. I find a coastline soothing in that in all reasonable cases you can orient yourself to it and thereby figure out north and south. Of course, one time in LA I decided to drive down to towards San Diego and ended up heading north because of course the ocean is always to the east in "reasonable" places.
The guy who hosts Dateline NBC looks like death, but in a friendly sport coat.
Assuming death has a thick mane of gray hair.
DO YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU ASSUME?
When you live on an island, the answer to 'which way is the water' can't actually be useful.
As noted above, I went to Idaho today. One can do worse.
I've just realised you could amend Robert Louis Stevenson's title Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes as Travels with a Honky. I leave the choice of destination up to anyone who will find this interesting.
I can confirm that baby hippos are almost unbearably darling. A++ Would not sterilize!
When you live on an island, the answer to 'which way is the water' can't actually be useful.
Not true. Mauka/makai/Ewa/Diamond Head count as cardinal directions around here. ("Here" being, admittedly, a pretty narrow strip of territory.)
I've been in the south bay for a few years and am still not used to freeway/expressway exits being labeled north/south when I think of them as towards the bay/away from the bay.