I was sitting here recently looking over some pics from my time in Germany. It brought back memories of the international friends I made in 2017 and still remain in contact with today. In German class, the instructor asked each of us to describe an interesting fact about where we came from. We got into State nicknames and how well-traveled we were. After thinking about all of this, for kicks, I decided to make a list of the States I've been to. The results were surprising:

• Pennsylvania
• New Jersey
• New York
• Maryland
• Ohio
• Illinois
• Virginia
• Florida
• Mississippi

That's it...

So I'm thinking something must be wrong here, surely I've seen more of the country than this! But after carefully looking things over, not counting Puerto Rico as it's a Territory and not a State I realized my information was correct. So that's about all I've ever seen of the good ol' US of A. In fact, I haven't even made it west of the Mississippi in my entire life! The closest I came to the west coast was seeing California through a pair of binoculars when I was in the Navy.

My original plan when leaving Germany was to "swing west through the east." I wanted to hit old Constantinople to see the Hagia Sophia. Then take a train to St. Petersburg (The Hermitage), Moscow (Red Square, Onion Domes & stuff and the Lenin Mausoleum), the Trans-Siberian Railway, then south to Beijing (The Forbidden City) and north to Vladivostok.

The whole plan was to avoid flying (which I hate) and see things on the ground. Thinking there was some kind of ferry or cruise across the Bering Strait (this was December, so their wasn't), I'd hit Alaska, then head down to Vancouver for a few days. Could tick off Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and LA, before swinging around to the Grand Canyon Texas before heading back up north home to Pennsylvania.

Well, the Russian students quickly informed me about visa problems which would preclude my leisurely jaunt across Russia. Apparently, there are no roads connecting the cities east of Vladivostok allowing you to get to Provideniya on Russia's eastern point. Then from there, a quick hop on over to Nome. Also finding out that getting from Vladivostok to Anchorage by boat in December was a no-go, combined with the sheer amount of time such a trip would have entailed, called for the entire adventure to be scrapped.

I've always wondered why we never got that little strip of land between Alaska and Washington State. Say, 100 miles in from the coast. That way we could drive on down to Seattle without needing to cross a border and dealing with those Mountie dudes. We could swap them Maine for it, since it's mostly empty and they're practically Canadians anyway. They have like one city up there where Stephen King lives, isn't it Portland or something? the rest is just woods, so no big loss. It's not an important State. I've never met anyone from Maine and don't know anyone who has. It's cold as fuck, and I can't imagine why anyone would want to live there.

(You didn't take that last paragraph seriously did you? I was just having some fun. Are you kidding me? Americans LOVE Canadians and Mainers too!) :)

There's no place like HOME

Planning that reverse-around-the-world-trip was a lot of fun and showed me the beauty of different cultures. However, there's no place like home. And after a terrifying 9-hour flight across the Atlantic, it felt good to step back on Terra Firma. While I'm proud to be American, I fell in love with England and the UK in general. Never met nicer people than I did over there and hope to return someday for good. What fanciful trips have you planned? and where would you like to go next?