15 Kentucky
Although I technically lived in Virginia for two months, this is the first state on the list where I lived for an extensive length of time. I was in Lexington for eight months of co-op in 1998, which I've already described in detail.
I stayed with one of my aunt's while on co-op, but it was hardly the first time I'd been there. Pretty every big East coast trip we did involved a southern detour to Lexington. For instance, it was the gateway to the east coast for big 1989 trip. I'm pretty sure we'd been there in 1984 for a big family trip, and we stopped there when I was sophomore in high school on our way to Fort Lauderdale.
While on co-op I mostly stayed in Lexington. There was one trip to Louisville with jenny31978 to see Rent (the second time I saw it), and that was about it. After co-op I drove through the state five more times; twice each for two trips to New Orleans (there and back) and once briefly with my sister as we moved her from Atlanta to Alaska.
Despite all these trips and my extended stay in Lexington, I actually didn't DO much of anything there. I have vast ignorance of the cultural and tourist highlights of the state, which I'm pretty much ok with. In fact, if I never step foot in the state again I'd be ok with that too. I suppose that's a bit harsh. Does anyone have a worthwhile reason to enter Kentucky again? All I've come up with is that if I'm in Cincinnati (a dubious statement in of itself) I might go across the river for dinner. I guess Mammoth Cave sounds cool, and maybe the Louisville Slugger factory. That's all I got.
On a related note, the only way that Cincinnati, Ohio, looks good is when you drive in from Kentucky at night. You go around this big curve, and the entire city is spread out before you at the bottom of a steep hill. When there's good visibility you can see all of downtown, including the stadiums and the bridges across the river, and it's gorgeous. So Kentucky has that going for it at least.
Oh, and I nearly forgot. That steep hill? I was also on top of it briefly on December 29, 2002, to hang out with dmw7 as we watched them implode Riverfront Stadium. If you ever get the chance to watch them blow up a stadium, it's worth getting up early to see it. Oh sure, there's video, but the video never gets across how shockingly loud the whole thing is, and we were quite some distance away. I linked to the video that was closest to the angle we had, but there are others worth watching too. Many thanks to dmw7 for letting me drag her out at 5:30am or whatever ungodly hour it was to watch the explosions, especially as it meant she couldn't watch it from her office across the street from the stadium.
Scoreboard
Full Credit - 9: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, Kentucky
Partial Credit - 3: Delaware, Connecticut, Maryland
No Credit - 3: South Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont
I stayed with one of my aunt's while on co-op, but it was hardly the first time I'd been there. Pretty every big East coast trip we did involved a southern detour to Lexington. For instance, it was the gateway to the east coast for big 1989 trip. I'm pretty sure we'd been there in 1984 for a big family trip, and we stopped there when I was sophomore in high school on our way to Fort Lauderdale.
While on co-op I mostly stayed in Lexington. There was one trip to Louisville with jenny31978 to see Rent (the second time I saw it), and that was about it. After co-op I drove through the state five more times; twice each for two trips to New Orleans (there and back) and once briefly with my sister as we moved her from Atlanta to Alaska.
Despite all these trips and my extended stay in Lexington, I actually didn't DO much of anything there. I have vast ignorance of the cultural and tourist highlights of the state, which I'm pretty much ok with. In fact, if I never step foot in the state again I'd be ok with that too. I suppose that's a bit harsh. Does anyone have a worthwhile reason to enter Kentucky again? All I've come up with is that if I'm in Cincinnati (a dubious statement in of itself) I might go across the river for dinner. I guess Mammoth Cave sounds cool, and maybe the Louisville Slugger factory. That's all I got.
On a related note, the only way that Cincinnati, Ohio, looks good is when you drive in from Kentucky at night. You go around this big curve, and the entire city is spread out before you at the bottom of a steep hill. When there's good visibility you can see all of downtown, including the stadiums and the bridges across the river, and it's gorgeous. So Kentucky has that going for it at least.
Oh, and I nearly forgot. That steep hill? I was also on top of it briefly on December 29, 2002, to hang out with dmw7 as we watched them implode Riverfront Stadium. If you ever get the chance to watch them blow up a stadium, it's worth getting up early to see it. Oh sure, there's video, but the video never gets across how shockingly loud the whole thing is, and we were quite some distance away. I linked to the video that was closest to the angle we had, but there are others worth watching too. Many thanks to dmw7 for letting me drag her out at 5:30am or whatever ungodly hour it was to watch the explosions, especially as it meant she couldn't watch it from her office across the street from the stadium.
Scoreboard
Full Credit - 9: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, Kentucky
Partial Credit - 3: Delaware, Connecticut, Maryland
No Credit - 3: South Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont