Fun with maps

[tandfman]

[Atticus]

Having spent over a year living in Germany (in several stints), I was always amazed at how central trains were to communities. People went to work and to school on trains. Trains were the primary means of getting from town to town. I can count the number of times I've been on a train in America on one hand, and those were when I went from my prep school to NYC for a few weekends.

[lonewolf]

I have ridden a train twice in my nine decades. The first time when I was about five years old and took the train (unaccompanied) the forty miles from Sentinel, OK to Custer City, OK. The second was a sleeper (unaccompanied) circa 1955 from Bremerhaven to Frankfurt/Main during my two-year US Army Deutschland adventure.

[gm]

I rode British Rail trains back and forth to school for more than 100,000 miles as a yoot, back when it was more affordable than by car. I guess it was better than walking. Many of those miles were sitting on the floor of a mail car on the train, or squashed between two City gents who had never visited a dry cleaning establishment.

[KDFINE]

most popular athlete born in each state

https://www.topuscasinos.com/news/us-hometown-heroes

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Wisconsin? He was born in New York City. I wonder how many others have been wrongly identified.

[dj]

I was getting antsy for a getaway weekend with Mrs. dj and found this map: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/...e-us-road-trip

Not exactly what I was looking for, but it could make for a great way to spend a retirement summer in the future, or even do portions of it over the course of a few years. Much like hiking the entire Appalachian Trail, but with less stress on old bones!

ADDED:
I just ran through a check of the 50 places to visit and count 17 on my list. My parents were big on driving trips in the '50s and early '60s, so one third of my 17 were from before I began high school and were confined to the East coast.

[lonewolf]

I was getting antsy for a getaway weekend with Mrs. dj and found this map: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/...e-us-road-trip

I did not drive that exact route and it took 27 years (1971-1998) but I have touched all those bases, with the caveat that although I have been to Burlington, VT, I have no memory of Shelburne Farms.
Next assignment?

[Atticus]

I was getting antsy for a getaway weekend with Mrs. dj and found this map.

I'm sure EVERYone can quibble with the destinations, but a USA road-trip without Key West certainly seems incomplete to me. Waaaay out of the way, though.

[Trickstat]

I assume one of the main aims of that route is it appears to visit all the 'lower 48' states.

[lonewolf]

I'm sure EVERYone can quibble with the destinations, but a USA road trip without Key West certainly seems incomplete to me. Waaaay out of the way, though.

No quibble, it is a destination theme but I agree about adding Key, West, FL. Also, Caribou, ME, San Diego, CA, Blaine, WA, Brownsville, TX, and International Falls, MN just to touch all the corners and the high and low points,

[Atticus]

high and low points,

Mt. Whitney and Death Valley!

[lonewolf]

Mt. Whitney and Death Valley!

That too. I was thinking top and bottom geographically.

[Conor Dary]

I was getting antsy for a getaway weekend with Mrs. dj and found this map: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/...e-us-road-trip

Not exactly what I was looking for, but it could make for a great way to spend a retirement summer in the future, or even do portions of it over the course of a few years. Much like hiking the entire Appalachian Trail, but with less stress on old bones!

ADDED:
I just ran through a check of the 50 places to visit and count 17 on my list. My parents were big on driving trips in the '50s and early '60s, so one third of my 17 were from before I began high school and were confined to the East coast.

That is how we were....we traveled all over in 2 week car vacations in the 60s every year. By the time I graduated from high school we had visited all of the lower 48. Every major site also. And most of the Canadian provinces.

Looking at the map I've been on every one of those roads....some several times.

Ps Dad was a Tour Manager and a Travel Agent for American Express for many years...so we got lots of freebies and great deals.

[bad hammy]

I was getting antsy for a getaway weekend with Mrs. dj and found this map: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/...e-us-road-trip

Long story short, back in 1968, when I was ten years old, my family took a ten-week tour of the US in an Open Road camper, a sweet ride that was somewhere between the Joad's jalopy and a modern RV. A loop around the US that took in a lot of the south & east coast (we were west coasters familiar with the Pacific Northwest). Dad was only on board for two for the ten weeks (flew into DC, out of NYC) so, four kids in tow, Mom did most of the work. When we sent Dad home on the airplane worn-down Mom - surprise, surprise - more or less bee-lined home.

Not enough keystrokes left in these fingers to go into all of the stories - it was the summer of 1968, after all, and I was (and am) a huge history fan, so this was my first eyes-on look at where much of US history took place. To say the least, one of the highlights of my childhood and life . . .

[Pego]

A small contribution to this geographical esoterica. A few dishes that were the absolute best in totally unexpected places. Diamonds in the rough, to use a cliché.
Best stuffed flounder - Sheraton in Akron, OH.
Best linguini with clams - a restaurant in a shopping mall in the middle of nowhere in Kentucky just south of Ohio River.
Best country fried steak - a dive in a truck stop just off I-35, 30-50 miles north of Oklahoma City.
Best tartar sauce - in a tent outside Ted Gromley during the 1992 trials.
Best Chinese lunch - a strip mall on the outskirts of Washington DC.
Best burger - Big A, Tucson.