States I have been to

Thanks to Veronica again for the link:

http://douweosinga.com/projects/visitedstates

Looks like I need to go visit my brother and SIL in Oregon. :D Rudy is in Dallas right now...actually he is at my parents' and I saw him this weekend. Later this week he will be in Dallas at a medical conference. I'd like to get up and see his home in Oregon. They've been there a few years. They won a horse in a raffle and now my SIL is raising chicks in their computer room. She wants chickens in the yard to kill snakes. They obviously live in the country. :D

Corey and I decided, after we got back from Europe, that we need to see more of the US. I've been to quite a few states, some of these are mostly drive-through states for me (like Illinois or Nebraska). But I've missed some of the "big" things to see in some states...I've driven through South Dakota, but haven't seen Mount Rushmore or the Badlands. I've been through part of Illinois, but haven't been to Chicago.

Corey and I were planning a D.C. trip this spring, but that turned into San Diego. We'd still like to make it there sometime soon. And Hawaii and Alaska. I went to a business training seminar in Connecticut and spent an evening in New York City, so I counted those, but I didn't count New Jersey even though I spent A LOT of time in Newark airport flying back and forth to Amsterdam, LOL!

One time when we were out at lunch in Holland with some of our Dutch co-workers, they were giving me, as an American, a hard time about Americans' general lack of knowledge of world geography. I had told them that when we found out we were going to be moving to Holland, I had to get a map out to find out specifically where it was located. They were harrassing me good naturedly. I asked them if they could point out Kansas or Iowa on a map of North America and they each admitted they could not. I asked them if they knew the capitals of North Carolina and Oregon. I them made the point that in grade school, while they were learning maps of Europe and some other parts of the world, I was learning all 50 states' locations and their capitals. So while they knew what countries they had to go through to get to Latvia or Italy, I knew what states I needed to go through to get to Florida or Oregon or Montana. The US is really, really big and yes, I have learned a lot about world geography as an adult, but it's a real handful just to learn about the US. That effectively shut them up. :D