I have a couple of travel goals. The first is to visit every state in the U.S. Another was to visit every country in the world, which I’ll admit I made with the understanding that I would never reach this very unreachable goal. (I mean, aside from the places it’s just unsafe for me to travel, I also was not born into tremendous wealth. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) I have since amended that one to visiting all seven continents (incidentally, I only have two of those left – Australia and Antarctica.)
When I made the goal about visiting all the states, I did set up some rules for myself to quantify what counted as a visit. For one, I had to do something in the state for it to count. I couldn’t merely drive through it (looking at you, Ohio, which I’ve driven through several times but don’t count because I’ve never done anything there) or count somewhere as visited if I had only spent time in the airport on a layover. But what does it mean to do something there? Well, filling up with gas certainly doesn’t count. But it also shouldn’t require staying over night – you can road trip and make stops throughout a state without needing to sleep. Some of our states are rather small, after all.
So that’s it – that’s the rule. Do something more than filling the tank but not necessarily spend the night. Maybe it’s something the state (or town/city) is known for – whether that be a museum or food or a waterfall or the world’s largest SomethingOrOther.
For the first eighteen years of my life, I had a total of four states under my belt (WI, MI, MN, IL – i.e. the Midwest where I live). It wasn’t until college that I got to start seeing other parts of the U.S. (thanks to joining my college’s Habitat for Humanity chapter and joining in on six collegiate challenge trips where we traveled to another state, worked with their local chapter, and helped to build houses there). Then, after college, my college Residence Life friends got jobs around the country, and I got to mark a few more off when I’d go to visit them (helpful when you’re a broke, recently-graduated-from-college person filled with wanderlust if you can save money by crashing on your friends’ couches).
It wasn’t until much later that I got to start traveling outside of the U.S. and to consider how my rules may apply there (i.e. I’ve been to the Amsterdam airport, but just for a layover – so, no, I’ve never actually been to Netherlands). The international traveling I have done thus far checked off my requirements. It’s easy to say I’ve visited Scotland when my friend and I did a 1200+ mile road trip. I also have no problem saying I’ve been to England (Liverpool), Ireland (Dublin), and Wales (traipsed around a few towns along the north coast). I in no way imply that I’ve seen all there is to see in those last three countries, but I have indeed been there.
But one could argue that because they are comparable to the size of our states the same rules can apply.
So what about Canada?
Back at the end of July, I was feeling antsy. Summer was almost over, and it honestly felt like it hadn’t really begun. I wanted an adventure, something new. But also something relatively close and quick. To visit a new-to-me state would take quite a bit of time and effort. But – I’d never been to Canada before, and its border is just under five hours away. So I went. I drove up to Sault Saint Marie, MI (Sault is pronounced like Sue/Soo), and I hopped the border into Sault Saint Marie, Ontario, Canada. I did things. Even stayed the night. Then I did a few more things before heading home.
Now, technically speaking, I have been to Canada.
But Canada is big, yo.
Why does any of this matter? Well, I have this world scratch-off map where you scrape off the top layer of places you have been, revealing a different color underneath. (If it wasn’t already apparent that I’m a giant nerd, there ya go.)
Now, I hopped the border, did things, so therefore have been in Canada. But certainly, this little trip shouldn’t qualify as ‘enough’ to scrape off the layer that covers the entirety of Canada? Technically, I’d be within my right to do so. But. I didn’t. I only scraped off the province of Ontario, where the Soo is located. I did have a brief thought of – I could make a goal to visit every province in Canada- (but there are many and some are remote and, again, I live on a public school teacher’s salary. (I do at least have plans to get to Vancouver and Prince Edward Island/Nova Scotia – so I’m not done with Canada yet.)
Regardless of the map question, though, from here on out, I have been to Canada.
Do you have rules about what it takes to consider yourself having been somewhere?
