• Mood: mother america is brandishing her weapons / she keeps me safe and warm by threats and misconceptions
• Music: Drivin 'N Cryin - Fly Me Courageous

Too busy moving

Here is an interesting article about a topic on which I've been talking lately. I've never had a passport until I got mine this winter in anticipation of traveling to Aruba (also in light of the recent TIA/1984 "Vhere are yoor papieren?" state in vhich ve are livink) this year with my girlfriend to see her parents. I am not a world traveler by any means, but I pride myself on having visited and/or lived in more than half the states in this union. I am of the opinion that Americans have a lot more home to explore than most other countries. If you had a mansion with a swimming pool, gaming room and a bowling alley, would you be more or less likely to leave your house than if you lived in a cramped NYC "efficiency"? Canada is probably the only country I have a strong desire to visit, that is to say, I ponder driving up there on a regular basis (say once a month or even week). If I was on the side of the country closer to Spendo and friends, I'd probably pop up to the Tim Horton's with them pretty often. I think about visiting other countries, but it's more of a long-term goal or dream than anything else. Ireland's probably the next on the list, but I've never really sat down and planned a trip there. I also agree with the notion that most Europeeings have about 3x as much vacation as we do. Wouldn't it be nice to take a month at a time, and have enough left over to take days off for moving in and things like that (without having to tap into the bag of lies to get some "sick" time)? And where is the money going to come from?

I said this weekend, "I'd love to go to X if I could drive there." I grew up in Kentucky, and we drove on our vacations. Indianapolis for the weekend? No problem. A run to Tennessee for fireworks? Sure, we'll take two cars and invite the neighborhood. Very seldom did we fly places. Florida once, I think, and twice to California. Which is why, on my map of states, California stands out isolated. It's like visiting another country, except they speak English, dude. I wonder if you count my actual miles trekked, or places visited, versus those of these countries where supposedly everyone goes 'abroad'; who will have more? I've not been just to NYC, ATL, LAX and JAX. I've been to Sacramento, San Fransisco, San Diego, and LA. I've been to Jacksonville, Gainesville, Orlando and Tampa. I've been upstate in New York (Westchester), and I've been really upstate in New York (Ithaca, Syracuse, Saratoga) (but never really really upstate, like the Canadjun border). Just this last trip, I hit Hattiesburg, MS and Tuscaloosa, AL and Woodstock, GA and Spartanburg, SC; some of them no-name towns you've never heard of and some only heard of in jokes. I'm an American at heart (and I can say that without voting republican, though I do want to own a gun) and I love my country, I think, in the truest sense. I think of Strong Bad saying "majesty". Yeah, that's about right.



I have visited 1 country, which is 0% of the world (?). This map is misleading, as I have never been to Alaska or Hawaii.

They wouldn't even let me make a map unless I picked at least one non-US 'country'. I picked American Samoa because, hey, it's America, too. So it's no more lying than Hawaii is. Or Alaska. Fucking Alaska, thinks it's so big.

Think of these as excuses if that's your thing. Think of it as borderline jingoistic rhetoric. But I just went on an awesome driving trip and I wouldn't have had the fun I'd had if I'd flown. Or if I hadn't spoken the language. Or if I had to worry about changing my money. Or if I had to worry about losing my money, passport, and possessions in a foreign country (I don't worry so much about that, but I don't wonder some Americans do). I also wonder how much my neighbors to the north have travelled. Or to the south, for that matter, when they're not so close to the border. Is it just a US thing, or an American thing?