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Socialist America

I’m in Socialist America.

My travels this week take me to Blue States: connecting in Michigan on my way to Pennsylvania (perchance to meet myself), Virginia, and DC. According to the president-not-elected, John McCain, and his running mate, Sarah Palin, these must be Socialist States.

It didn’t escape my notice that Pittsburgh is suspiciously close to Real America: West Virginia—so it was with great excitement and eagerness that after landing in Pittsburgh that I headed to the nearby Red State, West Virginia. Weirton, West Virginia, to be exact.

Now I hadn’t done any research, so our dinner (the friend who picked me up at the airport) was picked as we drove down the street, and we ended up at Mario’s Cafe where we had an Italian dinner, American Style—huge portions, and an excessive drowning of salad in dressing.

It was great, exactly what I wanted.

I might note that this will cure IUMike’s constant frustration and curiosity as to how I could have not visited West Virginia, seeing as I had visited every other state in the neighborhood.

This means that I am down to four US States not yet visited: Rhode Island, North Dakota, Alaska, and Hawai’i.

9 comments to Socialist America

  • Would IU Mike be puzzled by the fact I have not visited Louisiana when I’ve been to every adjacent state.

    Though I have to admit that I have Mississippi and Montanta the same way you have South Carolina, and now, West Virginia.

    When I visited you in Bloomington, I drove all the way across West Virginia, and I can tell you that you’re not missing much.

  • @ CQ: How on earth did you miss Louisiana???? The food there is wicked good! If you go, though, stick to the southern part of the state. There’s a huge north/south political divide.

    @ TQE: It going to be hard to pick up North Dakota. Here’s my plan: After tenure, I am going to drive to the west coast, going out on I-90 and coming back on the southern tier. (Not this summer, but the next one — I’m holding out hope!) This plan would leave me with just Hawaii to visit.

  • koko

    Like CQ I’ve gone all the way across WV 6x i think…it’s quite horrible.

  • jen

    when are you coming back to bton? will you be in the estes park/denver area for thanksgiving?

  • Samee

    Why aren’t you coming here??

  • @ Disenchanted: I don’t know how I’ve missed it. I’ve had a couple opportunities to go, had tickets to get there, then my company cancelled at the last minute. *shrugs* Combine that with the state being nearly underwater a good portion of the time, and that’s probably how I missed it.

    When I was still planning to move to Arizona, I was intending to drive across Louisiana specifically because I had not been there.

    Oh well.

  • @ CQ: You know, we plan our trips to pick up new states. I once drove the long way from Louisiana to Indiana just to pick up Arkansas and Missouri. Of course, I’ve been to Missouri several times since then …

  • @CQ: It puzzles IUMike mainly because he is from West Virginia.

    @Disenchanted: I need to knock North Dakota off my list — not sure when or how, but I do have a friend in Fargo.

    @koko: West Virginia must be better than Kansas or Nebraska.

    @Jen: I’m not sure when I will be in B’ton next; but I will be in Denver for Thanksgiving, however it is devoted to my family, so I might not have much free time.

    @Samee: I can’t be everywhere, sadly.

    @CQ: Louisiana is always worth the time. New Orleans has a lot of amazing restaurants.

  • IUMike

    Being from West Virginia (or at least a graduate of WVU), its actually become one of my favorite states…it is asolutely without pretense, and some of the best (and worst) scenery I’ve come across.

    @CQ: My puzzlement at TQE’s failure to visit WV before comes from the fact that I-70 passes through the northern panhandle…almost everyone I know has scene at least that part of WV.

    @TQE: I’m impressed you found a good place to eat in Weirton! The only time I was there was for my brother’s wedding a few years ago (his 2nd wife was from Weirton)…I was pretty unimpressed by the restaurant where we had the rehearsal dinner.