Passports -

[Captain Oates 911]

Why did you move there?

I selflessly did it for my wife's career - and I am 3 hours drive from Vancouver so West of here is ok. The space from here to Milwaukee is two thousand miles of rattlesnakes and wild mustangs so I don't go east of here.

I don't think people travel just for different landscapes - more to experience different cultures. The fiber glass world of the Epcot center world showcase at Disneyworld is a poor substitute for the real thing

[Jenn! 918]

When I was living in Italy on a pittance, I was able to travel to several countries - Ryan Air, the rail system and hostels made it a lot more affordable. We don't really have those sort of options here.

[Captain Oates 911]

I do wanna visit China, though. And Singapore and the UAE.

Never go anywhere where you need an exit visa. Seriously.

[^_^ 5,021]

I selflessly did it for my wife's career - and I am 3 hours drive from Vancouver so West of here is ok. The space from here to Milwaukee is two thousand miles of rattlesnakes and wild mustangs so I don't go east of here.

I don't think people travel just for different landscapes - more to experience different cultures. The fiber glass world of the Epcot center world showcase at Disneyworld is a poor substitute for the real thing

I don't know about you but I like landscapes. I always enjoy the driving in Arizona and Nevada. Beautiful landscapes.

And you're the first to mention Epcot on this thread.

What is your wifes career? Feel free to be as non specific as you need to be, I am just curious.

Never go anywhere where you need an exit visa. Seriously.

Haha. That's the kind of stuff Europeans worry about.

When I was living in Italy on a pittance, I was able to travel to several countries - Ryan Air, the rail system and hostels made it a lot more affordable. We don't really have those sort of options here.

Drive to Maine. In parts of Europe that kind of distance takes you to a whole other country. Have some lobster right out of the ocean and then spend a night camping at Acadia. Nothing better.

[Captain Oates 911]

When I was living in Italy on a pittance, I was able to travel to several countries - Ryan Air, the rail system and hostels made it a lot more affordable. We don't really have those sort of options here.

I am sure now that time and money is the biggy

but also I hear that people don't rate 'abroad' and would not go there if they could

They think the US has everything and so there is no need - so it's not a question of being scared of the big wide world - it's more like indifference

It's a huge cultural difference between the US and most other countries where people thirst to travel

[^_^ 5,021]

This conversation is silly. Lots of Americans travel.

[Captain Oates 911]

I don't know about you but I like landscapes. I always enjoy the driving in Arizona and Nevada. Beautiful landscapes.

And you're the first to mention Epcot on this thread.

What is your wifes career? Feel free to be as non specific as you need to be, I am just curious.

Haha. That's the kind of stuff Europeans worry about.

Drive to Maine. In parts of Europe that kind of distance takes you to a whole other country. Have some lobster right out of the ocean and then spend a night camping at Acadia. Nothing better.

My wife is a very private person and would not like me disclosing anything. She is a top professional though and cannot get a job in her field just anywhere so the move had to be done.

I warn about exit visas as I ended up in Saudi Arabia living on green bananas for almost 2 months and being threatened with my life on a daily basis and being told to crawl on the floor and kiss my bosses feet. Only your employer can give you the exit visa - not the government

That is why I warned about NEVER going anywhere that requires an exit visa, its not because I am unadventurous

This conversation is silly. Lots of Americans travel.

I refer you to the opener, 20% of Americans have passports - that is very, very low

Edited December 10, 2010 by Alan the Red

[Jenn! 918]

Drive to Maine. In parts of Europe that kind of distance takes you to a whole other country. Have some lobster right out of the ocean and then spend a night camping at Acadia. Nothing better.

I'm not following you. Maine isn't a different country. Some parts do seem like it though - I'm unable to understand a lot of rural Mainers.

[Jenn! 918]

Top and bottom 5 states in % of pop issued in 2009 (yet again, you live in the wrong part of the country):

Top 5

1) Alaska 5.97

2) New Jersey 5.70

3) Massachusetts 5.50

4) New York 5.40

5) Maine 5.24

Bottom 5

1) Mississippi 1.74

2) West Virginia 1.82

3) Kentucky 2.15

4) Arkansas 2.21

5) Alabama 2.23

[Captain Oates 911]

I'm not following you. Maine isn't a different country. Some parts do seem like it though - I'm unable to understand a lot of rural Mainers.

I have come to the conclusion that Maine is as foreign as most want to get and Americans who go there really do think they are well travelled.

It's just a cultural thing that's all and a person within a culture (any culture) is always in a bad position to be able to explain why they are as they are - they just are. That is why societies are studied from the outside by anthropologists.

So I am content with my main two findings that lack of time and money are the main drivers, but there is also the factor of people thinking they don't need to travel because the US has it all. I can't explain that, but it does exist.

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

My Grandpa was Danish, my dad Swedish, my mom German. I lived in 7 European countries and briefly explored India for 6 months on a spiritual quest before having even traveled to the US once.

Europe is small, tight, crowded, oftentimes narrow-minded, and -- for the most part -- friggin' cold. Therefore, and supported by a 30-day work week and 14 paychecks annually, Europeans try to escape wherever they live by traveling when they have time. Sweden to Italy? An hour and a half. Greece? Two hours. Marocco? Two and a quarter.

At age 17 I tramped (hitch-hiked) from Scandinavia all the way to Turkey, alone. In my early 20s, I smuggled porn to the U.K., first in Spitfire, later in a hollowed out Ford Granada with heavy duty springs. I had a heck of a time hangin' out in Ibiza, being as promiscuous as it gets. Friends of mine had a vacation home in Northern Italy, my brother built two homes in Greece. Hence, I've seen many things in my youth, which helps me to appreciate where I live now: a few miles away from Santa Barbara.

I am in paradise and don't feel the need to travel anymore. My house was built in 1938. It's small but a charmer. I'm 4 bicycle minutes away from the beach, 6 from historic downtown San Buenaventura. Due to the close proximity to the Pacific, the weather is mild, all year round. In the winter it's getting rarely down below the50s, in the summer it rarely gets hotter than 85 degrees.

I am a collector of classic cars and motorcycles, and since the weather is so nice, I can drive another car to work every day. Or, I just ride one of my many bicycles (I even have a 1948 Raleigh "All Steel" Roadster) along the bike path adjacent to the beach. There's only one place that comes close, Monaco.

Americans are missing out on what I've experienced, because anything "different' is so far away. Therefore, they assume America is like the rest of the World, just better. They don't know any better. Think Flat Earth Society, slightly modified. US kids don't know how to find Turkey, or Iraq on the map. Some of them would not be able to find England. Seriously.

Christmas of 2008, I fired up my trustworthy Mercedes Diesel and drove all the way from SoCal to Wyoming. It was so friggin' cold there that the fuel in my car started to gell. There is nothing worth seeing in Wyoming, nothing to do. It's the proverbial Hell on Earth. If I had to live there, I would kill myself. Yet people who grew up there, think that's the way it is, everywhere. And that's the only reason why people stay in Siberia, or Mongolia, or some other shithole in the World. They don't know better. And that's also the reason why Americans think working 50 hours and having no vacation and no extra salary and the crappiest healthcare is normal. They just don't know any better.

I was very happy when our back-then 17 year-old daughter expressed desire to travel to Europe over the summer. A friend and she flew to London and from there used Eurorail to see 5 European countries. She came back as different person. She had seen a totally different part of the world, and since then she understands how isolated the US really is.

Edited December 10, 2010 by Just Bob

[mawilson 2,133]

I do wanna visit China, though. And Singapore and the UAE.

I want to visit Somalia, a libertarian paradise where freedom and guns abound and government has no role in, well, anything! There is no government, no taxes, no silly environmental laws, no police, no unions and nothing but laissez faire capitalism! It's heaven on earth.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

I want to visit Somalia, a libertarian paradise where freedom and guns abound and government has no role in, well, anything! There is no government, no taxes, no silly environmental laws, no police, no unions and nothing but laissez faire capitalism! It's heaven on earth.

Did you get to go on a hijack tour with the pirates while you were there? I heard it's their major tourist attraction.

[Captain Oates 911]

My Grandpa was Danish, my dad Swedish, my mom German. I lived in 7 European countries and briefly explored India for 6 months on a spiritual quest before having even traveled to the US once.

Great post Bob - all statistics about the US have to be about the average as the extremes are so great

The traveled Americans have traveled more than anyone. The ones who speak foreign languages are fantastic at it. The highly educated are the very best. The cooks are par excellence and the business people can match anyone's and so on and so on.

BUT wait for it

The evil are the most evil and the barbaric are the most barbaric and the nativists are the most nativist and the ignorant swaggering brutes are like nothing else

The climates and the people and the politics and the religions and the landscapes and just everything are all at the extremes.

Brits (on average) are dull and gray and medium and they plod and drink. No wonder they are taken aback and wonder what the US is all about - how can they get a handle on it when all they do is come across extremes ?

What people here do is pick their sub-tribe, nestle down into it, adopt 100% of their attitudes and hate all the others. That is what seems to be happening. They only come together when at outsider decides to analyse them uninvited.

Perhaps therefore, saying that 'The Average American ' does not travel is true but not informative - and rather it's the case that a huge section of the population does not travel, but a smaller proportion is very worldly and travels a lot and as much and more than the other countries

I like the sound of your life it sounds great and I know it didn't happen by accident and you worked hard on getting it together so congratulations on your achievements. Mine is very comfortable too but it didn't come easily either.

Very well done.

[^_^ 5,021]

I'm not following you. Maine isn't a different country. Some parts do seem like it though - I'm unable to understand a lot of rural Mainers.

My only point is that Europe is fragmented, America isn't. Here you can travel great distances and still be in the same country and that within this same country experience a lot of diversity.