I remember reading somewhere that a surprisingly large number of Americans never live more than fifty miles from the spot where they were born and seldom travel more than one hundred miles from that same spot. When you consider that a footprint like that can keep a person within one of the fifty states, and that the US is only one of the countries in the world…
Wow! This may be an inaccurate statistic to start with, but I have read (on the US State Department Website) that only about 20% of Americans have a passport, and of those, only half of them have ever used it to travel abroad. (Why anyone would get a passport and then not use it to travel is beyond me, but there it is!)
I'm thinking about travel because some friends of mine and I are going to South Africa on holiday in a few weeks and we’ve been making plans of late. It is all very exciting and I am really looking forward to it! But while thinking of it, the "Americans don't travel" idea keeps coming to mind. I decided to look at what my world footprint is.
So, I went out to Google Maps® and drew this polygon.
What it represents is that I have been to 49 of the 50 US States (Sorry, I have no clients in Alaska and haven’t had the opportunity to visit it yet!), I've also been to all the provinces in Canada except Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. The northernmost point I have visited is Copenhagen, Denmark, and the southernmost is Randburg, South Africa. (Randburg is also the easternmost point I've been to.)
On our "Safari" this will change as the southernmost point I'll hit is Cape Town, and we'll be going to Durban which will then be the easternmost point I've visited. It's a mite further down the road than fifty miles. For comparison, any capital "A" on the world map (right) is around 400 miles tall. (A fifty-mile circle is about the size of the dot on an "i."
I will have to get further into Europe (and possibly as far as Asia) while I have the chance. Hmmm…
Wherever you are today, I hope you'll take an opportunity to broaden your horizons.
Don Bergquist – 20 September 2007 – Thames Ditton, Surrey, UK
Wow! This may be an inaccurate statistic to start with, but I have read (on the US State Department Website) that only about 20% of Americans have a passport, and of those, only half of them have ever used it to travel abroad. (Why anyone would get a passport and then not use it to travel is beyond me, but there it is!)
I'm thinking about travel because some friends of mine and I are going to South Africa on holiday in a few weeks and we’ve been making plans of late. It is all very exciting and I am really looking forward to it! But while thinking of it, the "Americans don't travel" idea keeps coming to mind. I decided to look at what my world footprint is.
So, I went out to Google Maps® and drew this polygon.
What it represents is that I have been to 49 of the 50 US States (Sorry, I have no clients in Alaska and haven’t had the opportunity to visit it yet!), I've also been to all the provinces in Canada except Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. The northernmost point I have visited is Copenhagen, Denmark, and the southernmost is Randburg, South Africa. (Randburg is also the easternmost point I've been to.)On our "Safari" this will change as the southernmost point I'll hit is Cape Town, and we'll be going to Durban which will then be the easternmost point I've visited. It's a mite further down the road than fifty miles. For comparison, any capital "A" on the world map (right) is around 400 miles tall. (A fifty-mile circle is about the size of the dot on an "i."
I will have to get further into Europe (and possibly as far as Asia) while I have the chance. Hmmm…
Wherever you are today, I hope you'll take an opportunity to broaden your horizons.
Don Bergquist – 20 September 2007 – Thames Ditton, Surrey, UK
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