Problems
First how many states are there? Where can I get a list?
Answers
First stop Wikipedia.
Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming
Stories
Greyhound Bus
I first went to the USA as a student in 1967 and did a round trip on a Greyhound bus, 99 US dollars for 99 days. I made an anti clockwise trip from New York via Canada with a companion who went off to South America, then west to San Francisco.
Weekends Away By Car
I lived in the USA in the 1980s (1984-7) and had no family there apart from my husband and son so every weekend we packed an overnight bag (left permanently packed - just adding food and drink) drove down the motorway (called a highway in the USA) went travelling to see as much as possible. When my husband was on a business trip or conference, we could drive there and extend to a long weekend.
Bumped At Christmas
One Christmas we were 'bumped' off an aircraft on the trip home to the UK - would you believe this happened a couple of times and received as compensation free return round tickets back to the USA. We had learned what happened. So we went to the desk and said: "Is your flight over-booked? If you are looking for somebody willing to be bumped, we are willing."
We took with us books to read, knowing that we should arrive early and might be hanging around 24 hours at an airport or airport hotel. The other trick is to be sure you don't have any vital meetings at the destination.
I was on a press trip to Arizona, another to California, another to Florida, a third to Pennsylvania.
When I first visited the USA I thought all the USA was the same. A pilot told me that every state was different.
Weather wise this is true. It's not hard to see that hot Florida with alligators is different to ski slopes of Colorado and Utah. The Wild West with Indian reservations is different again.
The buildings are different. New York with its skyscrapers and design clothes is not the same as Texas with its horses and cowboy hats.
Accents
Drive down the East coast from Noo York, and the accents change south of Washington DC. When you reach the South, people start saying y'all, with a southern drawl.
Attitudes
Attitudes are also different. City people are suspicious of strangers, different from open and friendly country folk. I met a New York body at college in London. He was always trying to be one up on me. (It's a bit like what is called kiasu in Singapore.)
I was walking in Florida with a supercilious, sarcastic, non-comital girl from New York on my left. I told her I was a travel writer from London and my name was Angela Lansbury. She troubled herself to bother to answer, "Really?"
By contrast, the girl on my right, from a country state, was keen to talk. When I told her who I was, she gasped, enthusiastically, honestly, and naively to me, "Boy - am I glad I met you!"
You can't classify 300 million people so simply. Not all New Yorkers are like that, nor are all people from other states like the ones I have described. But that is the point. It just shows that two people from different parts of the USA can be totally different.
Here's a simple list which you can copy:
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
Now I shall put bold around those states I have visited, count the numbers in bold, then add the main cities or landmarks I saw:
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
Tips
Wikipedia's main listing starts with lines of columns on a spread sheet with details of subjects such as population or capitals. If what you want is a simple list, go to the bottom of the 'page' or screen.
You then have to separate each word out into columns.
Angela Lansbury, author and travel writer.
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