mikao's world

Visited





I've been to all the states in red.

Create your own visited states map here.

My first trip to the grand ol' U.S. of A was at the tender age of three when my Mom, Gramma, older sister, and I went to visit my aunt in Minneapolis. We were living in Saskatchewan at the time, and went via Manitoba and North Dakota. I have very vivid memories of that trip... sleeping in a parking lot at the Big M Stampede in Morris, Manitoba, because all of the hotels were full… being woken up in the morning by a cowboy who asked if my Mom or Gramma was awake.

My second trip to the U.S. also involved North Dakota. My aunt was visiting us when I was about 10, we were actually living near the aforementioned town of Morris, and she decided to take us kids for a big trip to the U.S. to get ice cream. We went to the first town over the border. Only, they didn't have any ice cream. So we had Mountain Dew instead.

After that, my trips to the U.S. got a little more exciting, our family drove through North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Washington on our way to British Columbia a couple of times. Then after the eleventh grade I went to Oregon with my youth group, and saw the ocean for the first time.

Four years later, in 1999, I got a job working in Maine for the summer at a private girls' camp. I took the bus from Alberta to Maine, via Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. 99 hours. I met up with another girl in Calgary, she was going to be working at the same camp, but we had never met. I wouldn't recommend anyone else spend 99 hours busing anywhere.

Two years after that, in summer 2001, I got another job in the US, being a youth intern at a church in southern Illinois. While I was there, I participated in a mission trip to Mexico, and we drove there via Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas, and then returned via Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Missouri.

I figured out a couple of weeks ago that I've actually been on Manhattan Island, I found the Port Authority Bus Terminal on a map. I really didn't have any idea as to where I had been in New York, although I did know that I had seen Central Park. I really don't have much recollection of where I have been in terms of the little cities, but I do remember the bigger ones.

And, that's the story of where I've been.