I Suspect Most Of Us Are Not Average

[mso489]

One good thing about business travel, if it has off-time, is that you go places you wouldn't select for a vacation, so you tend to explore what's there, if you are inclined to do so. Or if on vacation, if you go to just one or two places and spend a few days, so you can relax and sort of meld with the population, imagining you live there. That way you discover all kinds of locations, people, food, and sights that you would miss charging around trying to see too much. I went to London just to be in London, and Dublin just to be in Dublin, having visited both England and Ireland before and traveled around a lot. It worked well. I'm naturally curious and explore a lot wherever I go.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

One good thing about business travel, if it has off-time, is that you go places you wouldn't select for a vacation, so you tend to explore what's there, if you are inclined to do so. Or if on vacation, if you go to just one or two places and spend a few days, so you can relax and sort of meld with the population, imagining you live there. That way you discover all kinds of locations, people, food, and sights that you would miss charging around trying to see too much. I went to London just to be in London, and Dublin just to be in Dublin, having visited both England and Ireland before and traveled around a lot. It worked well. I'm naturally curious and explore a lot wherever I go.

And, one of the reasons that most people wouldn't have visited some of these locations, at least not all of them is that they aren't exactly the most desirable locations or close to others. If you lived in Texas, then you might drop in on the Alamo, but most of us in the US, wouldn't trek all the way there just to see an old building. And, if you were driving by, you might drop in on Mt Rushmore, but it's not exactly the top 10 travel destinations. Some of these might be destinations by themself, like the parks. But, for the most part, not. And, yes if you were travelling for work, you might have been bored enough to make the trek out to the Alamo.

 

[fMf Piper]

I've been to seven of them, but there is still time!

 

[Ben.R.C]

I consider myself a homebody and have been to 9. I generally don’t like to travel.

 

[BarrelProof]

I plead the fifth.

 

[Ben.R.C]

I plead the fifth.

“Wherever you go there you are” this is at least one reason I don’t place a lot of value in being well traveled. Nothing wrong with traveling or not traveling, it may or may not help a person to grow, depends on the person and the reason for traveling. Often my family vacations were pretty miserable

 

[Ben.R.C]

Why? Nothing on that list interests me.

So many other places to go that aren’t on the list. Times Square has turned into a fucking shopping mall, used to be interesting 70s till the early 90s

 

[Chasing Embers]

So many other places to go that aren’t on the list.

Yep. I'd like to go to Ringing Rocks County Park.

 

[Hovannes]

21 for certain, plus I saw Pike's Peak but didn't make it to the top because of weather.
I did get to Pearl Harbor, Old Ironsides (USS Constitution) The Smithsonian, and Mt. Vernon, which should count for something.

Make that 26. Too much travelling kind of messed with my gray matter.

 

[brian64]

Yep. I'd like to go to Ringing Rocks County Park.

Sounds like one of those places where people disappear into another dimension.

 

[yanoJL]

Make that 26. Too much travelling kind of messed with my gray matter.

Also 26.
But I am the son of a retired airline employee. So we didn't really have money growing up, but we lived like we did with plenty of free travel. And I've lived in Florida and California, so I've been in driving distance to a lot of those listed places, and I do enjoy road trips

 

[Chasing Embers]

Sounds like one of those places where people disappear into another dimension.

Boulders that chime like bells. I love natural wonders.

 

[alsatmem]

No Graceland?! It counts as 5 places by itself!

I live in Memphis and haven’t been to Graceland! No foreseeable plans to either. Otherwise, been to 9.

 

[Hillcrest]

The comedian Stephen Wright jokes: "50% of the people you meet are below average !"

 

[telescopes]

I agree it is an arbitrary list. Had I ever gone to New York, I would have seen all of the list.

Regardless, it really comes down to travel. Americans, who were settled by pioneers and explorers, are some of the least traveled people who enjoy a certain standard of wealth. I remember actually putting my finger into the crack of the Liberty Bell... can't do that now.

What travel CAN do for people is broaden how one thinks. Especially when those travels take them to some of the more off beaten places such as Azerbaijan, Central Asia, or the middle of Africa. Stay long enough and you will either confirm your biases or rethink old thoughts.

Not traveling is fine. Travel long enough and continuous enough and it does make home something more welcome and enjoyable - until the next adventure.

 

[mikefu]

I got 9. Do I get a prize?

 

[shermnatman]

I scored a 16; however, it makes me realize that i really haven't been anywhere in the last 20 years. I think I'm good with that. Pretty much all my hearts-desires are right here at home. - Sherm Natman


"Niagara Falls... Slowly I turned..."

 

[PipeIT]

I’ve lived and been to 9 different countries and lived in around 10-15 different states, what’s my prize? LOL

And then all the places I went to in each one, I must be off the charts here... LOL

 

[5star]

14 of them listed. Just about all the ones I’d care to visit.

Mac

 

[Templekeeper]

Pretty random list, I suppose you could come up with dozens of similar ones - I start thinking of places I've been that didn't make, it, lol, like where's Mammoth Cave? Mark Twain's boyhood home? Wrigley Field? Could go on and on, but fun to compare.

I've been to 10. Although I saw it from the car and from a battlement above, this is my favorite shot of the Golden Gate Bridge from a trip a couple summers ago. I'd say the ferry ride over and back from Sausalito and lunch at the Molinari delicatessen were the highlights of an entire day walking about San Francisco - it was fine, just won't be stopping when we drive through this summer. And when I get my notice to pay the toll for the bridge in the mail, I won't delay getting it paid!

View attachment 192217

And you got Alcatraz Island in the shot, to boot!