On Facebook I've been seeing maps of the United States showing states that people have visited. For me the map would be almost entirely filled in...only Nevada and Alaska have not had me yet grace their presence.
But not all visits are the same. I got to thinking about all the states I've been to and what I remember about each. Some I spent just a few hours in...some I have spent almost half my life. Shouldn't that factor into the equation, quality over simply quantity? So, here's a ranking of my 50 states visits ranked by the total hours spent in that state. It's not exact, but it's probably close.
1. Oklahoma. I grew up there from the time of nine months through the time I left for college. Also my parents still live there. Probably 37% of my life has been spent in Oklahoma.
2. Kansas. I was born here and have spent most of my adult life here. 32%.
3. Arkansas. I went to 3 1/2 years of college here.
4. Oregon. I spent three years here. I miss being 20 minutes from the ocean and 45 minutes from up in the mountains.
5. Tennessee. I went to grad school here for two years. Memphis, not one of my favorite places.
6. Montana. In college I spent two months on a mission effort in Great Falls. What a beautiful state.
7. Texas. My sister lives in Texas and has so for a long time, plus we have taken several family vacations here.
8. Colorado. So many great memories as a kid of skiing and church mission trips. This should be higher.
9. Missouri. I lived within a stones' throw of Missouri for 3 1/2 years. All the Royals games I have attended should push Missouri up the rankings.
10. South Carolina. My wife and I got married here and spent a week in this state.
11. Virginia. My brother lives here. I've been there a few times.
12. Mississippi. When I was grad school I preached in tiny backwater churches here sometimes. And one night my friend Derek and I went to Tunica to see the casinos. Probably the #1 reason why I don't gamble...casinos are depressing places.
13. California. I've taken several family trips here, and when I lived in Oregon would sometimes cross the border to look at the Redwoods.
14. Washington. Also related to Oregon. Mt. St. Helens is awesome.
15. Hawaii. Spent six beautiful days in Hawaii a few months ago with my wife. Laid on the beach. Listened to humpback whales sing underwater. This too needs to get higher.
16. Michigan. Saw a Tigers game once. Flew there for a wedding once. It's starting to get thin.
17. Iowa. Field of Dreams, yeah.
18. Minnesota. Took two family vacations here. Neither is all that memorable.
19. Nebraska. Nebraska probably is near the top of the ranking of percentage spent in that state that I was driving to go somewhere else.
20. South Dakota. In high school we took a mission trip to the Black Hills. Mt. Rushmore!
21. Idaho. My casino friend Derek and I drove to Idaho once so he could do a wedding. Also, my u-Haul broke down here while moving to Oregon.
22. Florida. I went a work conference in Tallahassee once. It rained the whole time.
23. New Mexico. My wife's G-Pa was buried here, so I spoke at his funeral.
24. Utah. My sister once lived here. Mormons and skiing.
25. West Virginia. I had a job interview here one weekend for a church. They never bothered calling back.
26. Kentucky. Ditto.
27. Georgia. I vaguely recall taking a family vacation when I was a small child here. I don't remember much about this.
28. New York. The week after my brother got married I remember going to a Mets game with my friend Rob, and thinking wow, those planes from LaGuardia get really close to buildings. This was two weeks before 9/11. Also upstate is beautiful. Baseball hall of fame.
29. Maryland. Orioles games while near DC.
30. Delaware. Rehoboth beach. I think that's how you spell it?
31. Pennsylvania. A beautiful state I remember from the year after college when I drove around and camped out and tried figuring out what I wanted to do with my life.
32. Massachusetts. Cape Cod.
33. Maine. It's a bigger state than you think. And did you know that it used to belong to Massachusetts?
34. Wyoming. Yellowstone national park.
35. Rhode Island. On said college trip I remember eating at a restaurant here and thinking that it was likely a mob front.
36. Vermont. On said college trip I remember camping a few nights here and being cold in the middle of July.
37. New Jersey. On the way from my brother's wedding to New York a few weeks before 9/11, I remember getting stuck on the New Jersey turnpike in a massive Sunday afternoon traffic jam. If it wasn't for this New Jersey would be even lower on the list. Atlantic City is a hole.
38. Ohio. I remember this to be a wholly unattractive state.
39. Arizona. I remember it was 114 degrees in Phoenix.
40. Indiana. I have friends from college who live here. I don't think I've ever visited them.
41. Illinois. I know I've been to Chicago, but can't recall being anywhere else in the state.
42. Louisiana. My college friend Glen lives there. Cajun country.
43. Alabama. No memories but I've taken it as fact that I once went there.
44. Connecticut. I vaguely remember a waterfall at a place I vaguely remember as Devil's Elbow. I'm too lazy to confirm that this exists.
45. New Hampshire. To get from Maine to Vermont you have to drive through New Hampshire.
46. North Carolina. One day on our honeymoon we thought, hey, we oughta drive into North Carolina. So we can say we've been there.
47. North Dakota. On our second Minnesota trip we drove through North Dakota for an hour. We ate at a McDonald's in Fargo.
48. Wisconsin. On our first Minnesota trip we drove through Wisconsin for an hour. We didn't stop to eat. No cheese sightings.
