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happy birthday nicole Early this morning I was asked why I don't travel within the United States and I see that as a valid question. My first response would be that I've already seen most of the United States and I don't feel like repeating myself just yet. When I was growing up my parents took my siblings and I somewhere new every summer and we didn't just do Disneyland either. No, my parents were more into camping so that meant National Parks, National Monuments and other less upscale campgrounds near famous attractions. By the age of twelve I'd been to Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Wisconsin and Wyoming. In those states alone I saw Yellowstone, Jasper, Devil's Tower, the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, Niagara Falls, the Smoky Mountains, Mammoth Cave, Grand Tetons, the Corn Palace, Wall Drug, the Arch and so many other things. Then later in life I added California, Hawaii and Louisiana to the list of places that I had seen. Obviously there are states that I haven't seen, but that has more to do with my lack of interest in them than anything else. Besides now when I travel I want to see and experience something that isn't American. The United States may have the Rocky Mountains, but people haven't lived in them for centuries like people have in the Alps. To me it isn't the same thing. I guess for me travel has be somewhere completely new to be worthwhile. Another reason I go to Europe is to see what shaped America and why people there wanted to leave. Obviously not all of them did and conditions have changed, but something made people want to go somewhere new. I also love to see the history of Europe. America has their history, but being able to walk on a bridge that was in existence centuries before America was even thought of a place is something that cannot easily be described. |