Travel

[Still Stylish Lady]

Texas reminds me of the old Red Skelton joke that "Texas has miles and miles of miles and miles."

When we drove !-10 past El Paso andyou could see the difference. acorsso the. Rio Grande in Mexico, I said if I was in Mexico, I'd spend every day trying to get into the USA. 

[jeanlake]

Often thought of as an agriculture or  prairie flyover state, MO has larger metro areas and feels like several states in one. For most months, we're a beautiful shade of green or autumnal colors. Our geography is more diverse than people think. We have hills, rivers and lakes. Weather can be extreme: extremely hot & humid or icy & frigid. Can't forget about intense tornadic activities in spring. It's as if winds come whirling in from all corners of the country.

Attending a MO college, my dorm hall was mainly MO residents with diverse accents. St Louis brings eastern sounds and they eat 'carn' on the cob. The boothill / Mark Twain National Forest area is polite, upland southern. So they use 'sail' phones. Some lake regions / rural areas near Arkansas speak rural Southern or country. Northern agriculture reflects Iowa - a mild Minnesota clip and just a friendly sound. West Central metro areas have a Midland, or mild accent. We're caught between north and south. We're the ones who walk into a room and greet everyone with, 'Hey guys.' We'll say 'ope' instead of oops. 

My state has multiple personalities. We're not a purple state politically - we're either passionately blue or intensely red. Hey, we're having fun now. Ope.        

[jeanlake]

@ECBG Growing up with NC parents in a midwest home, we traveled to NC every summer. Dad was from Stecoah - mom from Tryon. I have visited Wilmington but yet to visit the outer banks. It's on my list. What is your favorite beach town in NC?  

[ProudMa]

Agree 100%, but would add

All this IN SPITE of the Albany area clown factor...

[ninjawife]

I live in the very small but diverse state of Delaware.  The northern part of the state is very urban while the lower half of the state known as lower, slower Delaware is more rural.  We also have beaches and the advantage of being very close to Philadelphia, NYC, Baltimore and DC.  I have lived here all my life except for college and grad school.  With no sales tax it is a fantastic place to live. 

[TY]

Washington State has basically two different climates with the Cascade mountains as the dividing line. Western Washington is green and it rains a lot in winter, spring, and fall. Eastern Washington is dry with low humidity and it's cold in the winter and hot in the summer. It's a long drive to go from one end of the state to the other end. From the Canadian border to the Oregon border would take you at least 7 hours to drive it on I-5 freeway. From the Pacific Ocean to the Idaho border would probably take you at least 10 hours to drive it from one end to the other.

[JAB77]

I think a lot of people think that Manhattan is New York, not a city IN New York!

[Zaimee]

@JAB77  Manhattan is not a city but one of the 5 boroughs in New York City. The other boroughs are Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. Together they make up NYC.

Originally from Queens.

[Vivian]

About those NY accents. For a state that's not anywhere near as large as Texas, New York has a variety of accents. In the NYC metropolitan area, many people speak with the stereotypical NY accent. They skip the letter R at the end of a word but occasionally add it to a word that ends in a vowel, although not as intensely as in New England. Sometimes Ts become Ds. So, you migh hear something like "Write a leddah about that New York pizzer."

As you travel further north and west, New Yorkers' accents start sounding more like Midwestern accents. The letter R returns at the end of words and vowels are pronounced differently. For example, the word "accent" sounds more like the ai in the word "air." Western New Yorkers sound more like Michigan or Ohio residents than Brooklynites.