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?