Lower 48

Looking for America.

The Plan

Nadia wanted to spend some time with her parents in Houston, and we agreed to enrol the kids in a local school for a term.

To get there we took a passage from Europe on the Queen Mary 2, and my first few days were in New York - that most atypical of American cities - getting myself organised for my first road trip.

And the next job was to look for America.




The Road Trips

As I walked into the Apple Store in Millenium mall, Houston, a guy in a red Apple T-shirt snuck up behind me and boomed: "What's going on?" I guess it was a variation on "How are you?" or "Can we help you today?" Not really sure what to say, all I could blurt out was "I am just looking". These are the road trips I did, looking for America.

The Lower Forty-Eight

AL AZ AR CA CO CT DE FL GA ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY

I drove through all the highlighted states on this trip - clicking on them usually takes you to relevant content.


Navigating this Site

All content is my own, but code for photo management is from fancybox and the interactive mapping is from Art101.

If you click on a picture you can enlarge it and scroll through a context-sensitive gallery of pictures. A full gallery is here You can scroll through galleries by clicking on the left or right of a picture displayed in a lightbox, or you can use a mousewheel.

Let me know of any problems navigating the site and I will investigate.


States Visited

I stayed in a number of states on my various road trips. Click on a licence plate below to take you to the respective page about each state.





New Jersey New York Massachusetts Pennsylvania Washington DC Virginia North Carolina Tennessee Mississippi Texas Oklahoma Missouri Kansas Nebraska South Dakota Montana Wyoming Idaho Utah New Mexico Colorado Nevada California Arizona Louisiana Alabama Georgia South Carolina Maryland

Test Your Knowledge of US Cities

Play a word game to figure out the names of well-known US cities. Just enter upto six guesses, and based on how your guesses score, come up with a better guess.

WordUS

Test your knowledge of US States

Badlands rock formations SD

How much do you know about the USA? Answers are all on this site.

  1. In which state is The Statue of Liberty?
  2. Only one city has been name-checked on the moon. In which state is it?
  3. Which is the most Northerly of the contiguous states?
  4. In which state were Tennessee Williams and Elvis Presley born?
  5. Which was the last of the contiguous states to be admitted into the USA?
  6. Which four states all share a border with each other?
  7. Which state has the lowest population?
  8. Twelve cities are name-checked in "Get Your Kicks on Route 66" but only three states. Which?
  9. Which state has the longest name?
  10. Which two states have the most borders with other states?
  11. In which state is the geographical centre of the USA - and which one if you exclude Hawaii and Alaska?
  12. Which of the states of the USA has respectively the most Northerly, Southerly, Easterly and Westerly points?


Contact Nic Oatridge

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