Steph and I first travelled to/through the USA in May 1975, when we returned to the UK for several months so I could complete the residency requirements for my PhD at the University of Birmingham, and submit my thesis. We were working in Lima, Peru at the time, and had travelled home to the UK via Costa Rica and Mexico, before flying to New York (KJFK) on our first wide-bodied flight (it was an L-1011 or Tristar of Eastern Airlines) and then taking a British Airways 747 (our first flight on that iconic plane) to Manchester (EGCC).

Once we moved to Costa Rica in April 1976, I travelled quite often through Miami (KMIA) en route to various destinations in the Caribbean, sometimes spending a night in Miami to do some shopping before catching a flight back to San José (MROC). Each year, between 1978 and 1980, we flew through Miami when taking our home leave back in the UK.

During the 1980s (when I was working at the University of Birmingham) I made only one trip to the USA (as far as I can remember), to attend a botanical conference in St Louis, MO in 1982. It wasn’t until 1991, when I took a position at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines, that I began to travel regularly to the USA to attend meetings or conferences of one sort or another. Then, in 1978, our elder daughter Hannah transferred from her degree course in the UK to Macalester College in St Paul, MN. Whenever I travelled to the USA I scheduled a weekend in Minnesota because Northwest Airlines (now subsumed into Delta Airlines) had its hub in Minneapolis-St Paul (KMSP), and there were daily flights between Manila (RPLL) and KMSP in both directions, with a transit either in Tokyo Narita (RJAA) or Kansai Osaka (RJBB).

Since retiring in 2010, Steph and I have returned to the USA each year, with the exception of the pandemic years 2020 and 2021, and 2022 when Hannah and her family visited us here in the UK.

We have travelled extensively, making some epic road trips across the country, visiting several interesting cities, and taking in as many of the attractions as possible along the way. Together we have visited 38 states, and my travels have taken me to two more: Texas, Arkansas, and DC. It’s actually easier to list the states neither of us has visited: Hawaii, Alaska, Idaho, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.

I guess we have seen more of the USA than the vast majority of actual citizens.

In this next map I have marked the places we have visited, stayed at, and the attractions we have enjoyed over the years. Yellow dots are the airports I have flown through. Green are the places where we have stayed, and dark red are the attractions (including some cities) we have enjoyed. I also included the various places visited in Canada during a couple of trips there in 1979 and 2002.

Completing this map with links, photos and descriptions is a work in progress. Do keep coming back for updates.

What a fascinating country. There is so much to see and do. And, in the main, we have found Americans to be friendly, polite, and with a generosity of spirit.

But, as we approach the 2024 Presidential Election in the USA next week, I do worry for the future. Why? Because if Donald Trump does not win I can’t see him accepting the result, and therefore expect him to stir up his MAGA base to violence once again, just as he did on 6 January 2021. And, heaven forefend, should he win (while most probably losing the national popular vote by a landslide) he is expected to immediately adopt Project 2025 as the blueprint for his administration. The country will be sliding down a very slippery slope towards authoritarianism, civil conflict even.

Would I want to travel around the USA if the country is headed in that direction? It would certainly be a less attractive proposition.

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