# What is the definition of visiting a state? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 12, 2022, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-definition-of-visiting-a-state/957653 "2022-01-12T18:16:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2022, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-definition-of-visiting-a-state/957653/82 "2022-01-17T14:20:27Z")
I’ve been to Four Corners as well, but don’t consider that as a visit to the other states. I later spent more time in Colorado and Arizona, but that was the only time I was technically in New Mexico. When I was attending tradeshows in various countries, I would put a mental asterisk on that country if all I did was attend the tradeshow, even if it were several days, if I didn’t have a chance to go anywhere else. You fly in, take a taxi to an international hotel, walk to take a taxi to the convention center, meet the same people at the same booths as the other zillion times you have seen them in enormous windowless concrete blocks and fly back home. If your company screws up and allows you to get an afternoon off then you can “see” some of the city. ---
**Author:** ![Wrenching\_Spanners](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecb155/32.png) [@Wrenching\_Spanners](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wrenching_Spanners)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2022, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-definition-of-visiting-a-state/957653/83 "2022-01-17T15:55:09Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > When my wife and I were doing our 50 state goal (completed November 20, 2008) our rules were we had to stay in each state at least 1 week. You stayed in Rhode Island for a week? As a tourist? Did you do a lot of fishing or what? ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2022, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-definition-of-visiting-a-state/957653/84 "2022-01-17T17:59:53Z")
Would have. Had planned on it. It rained, and rained, and rained, and rained some more. Then it rained even more. Did mostly indoor activities and visited some acquaintances we know there. And I’d gladly spend another week in RI than North Dullkota. Good lawd. That place is like being on the moon. Some states we visited more than once. California, Texas, and such. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2022, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-definition-of-visiting-a-state/957653/85 "2022-01-17T20:57:41Z")
My sister has “been to” Sweden, and my niece to Japan, but those were layovers en route to somewhere else. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-definition-of-visiting-a-state/957653/86 "2022-01-19T16:29:32Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > eating at a non-chain restaurant And, would it count if the chain restaurant was a local chain? There are several diners here, that have multiple locations in the metro area. Though they are “chain” restaurants, I think they count. ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-definition-of-visiting-a-state/957653/87 "2022-01-19T16:51:47Z")
For me it comes down to how well you can respond to the question in the last line of this mini-dialogue: "Have any of you guys been to [State]? “Yes, I’ve been to [State].” “What’s it like?” If your answer isn’t anything better than a description of a road, you haven’t been. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-definition-of-visiting-a-state/957653/88 "2022-01-19T17:00:44Z")
By that definition, no one has ever visited West Texas. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-definition-of-visiting-a-state/957653/89 "2022-01-19T17:32:45Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > And, would it count if the chain restaurant was a local chain? Earlier in the thread someone used the example of someone from back east eating at an In-N-Out in California, and opined that that would count. And In-N-Out is obviously a chain, but one that only has restaurants in a few states. There is an In-N-Out located just outside of LAX. You can literally walk there from the airport (I have done so in fact). It’s a fairly popular place to visit during a long layover. So if someone has a layover at LAX, leaves the airport (but just barely), eats at In-N-Out, returns to the airport and boards their next flight, have they visited Los Angeles? I’ve done that but I generally tell people that I’ve never been to LA. (I’ve lived in Northern California for almost 17 years; yet I have yet to travel south of Santa Barbara apart from that brief excursion outside the airport). As a side note, that In-N-Out is in a really cool location, just next to the end of one of the runways. So you can sit outside and eat your burger as widebody airliners fly by at maybe 100 feet above the ground, it that. ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-definition-of-visiting-a-state/957653/90 "2022-01-19T20:05:52Z")
Maybe…maybe there is no West Texas ---
**Author:** ![Esprise\_Me](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprise_me/32/2947_2.png) [@Esprise\_Me](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprise_Me)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-definition-of-visiting-a-state/957653/91 "2022-01-19T20:13:53Z")
Excellent example of a very LA/CA experience that can be had on a short layover. There’s also something to be said for doing something that locals actually do (even if it’s not unique to that place), versus doing something touristy (even if it is). I visited Athens at the end of a semester abroad in college. After 3 months of visiting a new city every weekend, and a few days seeing the major sites in Athens, I was tired and wanted some brain candy. So I skipped the next museum on my list and went to a movie theater that was playing the cheesy vampire flick Van Helsing. It was just what I needed, but it also turned out to be one of the most enlightening cultural experiences of my trip. The only Greeks at the Acropolis were a group of school children; everyone else was from somewhere else. But I’m pretty sure I was the only American in that theater (especially since the movie had been released months earlier in the US.) I learned that Greek audiences are much more vocally engaged than American audiences. They laughed, hard; they cheered and clapped, they gasped aloud at the action sequences. Had someone like that been sitting near me in a theater at home, I probably would’ve glared at them, but with everyone doing it, it became a fun communal experience. Eighteen years later, it’s perhaps the most memorable part of my trip. You probably can’t say you’ve visited South Dakota if you haven’t seen Mount Rushmore, but you won’t be among South Dakotans if you do. You won’t find Parisians at the top of the Eiffel Tower, or Angelenos on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. But you will find the latter at In-N-Out. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-definition-of-visiting-a-state/957653/92 "2022-01-19T20:28:02Z")
My eldest son loves to claim having visited all 50 states, but I think he’s playing fast and loose with the terms. I’ve driven across ND quite a few times on the way to somewhere else, but I would not say I’ve visited the place, as stopping at a gas station isn’t really visiting anything. On the other hand, I’ve been to Four Corners, but I also went to about 20 national parks and monuments in AZ, NM, UT and CO, camped in all four of them and ate meals in their restaurants. And no, transiting an airport is not a “visit”. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2022, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-definition-of-visiting-a-state/957653/93 "2022-01-20T16:29:59Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I’ve “been to” Pennsylvania and Utah; for the former, I drove on I-90 by the lake, and never got out of the car, PA: Nope, it doesn’t count. Nothing to do up there anyway! 😜 Had you taken the southerly route, you’d have had Pittsburgh, Latrobe (beer!), Hershey, Harrisburg (for what that’s worth… having grown up there I don’t think of it as a tourist destination), Lancaster (Amish country) , Philadelphia… ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2022, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-definition-of-visiting-a-state/957653/94 "2022-01-20T20:33:58Z")
I’ve driven all of I-40 three times. I did camp one night in some national park…maybe a state park in Arkansas. I don’t think that counts as visiting, even though it was pretty. But my side trips off to see Brice and Zion Parks will get me Utah on the list. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2022, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-definition-of-visiting-a-state/957653/95 "2022-01-20T20:53:21Z")
> [@Paintcharge](#): > > I’ve driven all of I-40 three times. I did camp one night in some national park…maybe a state park in Arkansas. I don’t think that counts as visiting, even though it was pretty. Well, sleeping one night in a tent would definitely count for me as visiting. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2022, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-definition-of-visiting-a-state/957653/96 "2022-01-20T21:09:49Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > But I would count a 15-minute detour to check out a scenic overlook, or making a point of stopping for lunch at a local diner. Odd you should use Iowa in your example, because once when my dad decided to take a “shortcut” we ended up driving a lot of lesser roads in Iowa. We were getting hungry, and a ton of billboards advertising a place in Ottumwa was whetting our appetites (Mom’s ,IIRC). We get there, and, of course, it’s closed. We could have gone to the Ploughboy Club (not sure – it might have been members only), but we ended up eating in a motel coffeeshop on the outskirts of town. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2022, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-definition-of-visiting-a-state/957653/97 "2022-01-20T21:34:43Z")
Dupe. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2022, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-definition-of-visiting-a-state/957653/98 "2022-01-20T21:37:19Z")
Gack, dupe, again. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2022, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-definition-of-visiting-a-state/957653/99 "2022-01-20T21:39:10Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I’ve driven across ND quite a few times on the way to somewhere else, but I would not say I’ve visited the place, as stopping at a gas station isn’t really visiting anything. I drove across ND solo. But I stopped at Theodore Roosevelt NP, had lunch, and went on a short hike. By my criteria (boots on non-airport ground) it would have qualified no matter what, but I feel like I’ve seen some of ND. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2022, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-definition-of-visiting-a-state/957653/100 "2022-01-20T22:06:15Z")
I’d say you’re right. And I’ll say for the record that there is not much else to see in that state. I’ve driven both the interstate and highway 2 and saw little to pique my interest. Come to think of it, I did spend a day in mistranslated Devils Lake, ND and visited their genealogy center (I use the term loosely), which is basically a room full of books piled up helter skelter. I picked one book out at random and somehow managed to pick the one book that mentioned my great grandfather, who had lived there for a number of years. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2022, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-definition-of-visiting-a-state/957653/101 "2022-01-20T22:06:50Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > Yeah, with the addition of doing at least one “thing” unique to that state, even if it’s a very small thing. I wouldn’t count stopping at an interstate rest station while driving through Iowa, or even **eating at a chain restaurant**. > > But I would count a 15-minute detour to check out a scenic overlook, or making a point of stopping for lunch at a local diner. Some touristy areas only have chain restaurants, especially if you’re going to eat later in the evening. Any chain, including higher end ones (Mortons, Ruth’s Chris, etc.)? I used to work in a high-rise in the city. There was a nice restaurant in the lobby. Any time we took a client/prospect out for lunch it was downstairs. Close, convenient, no weather issues as we didn’t need an umbrella or overcoat, to the point that those who got to go were quite bored of the place. Cow-orker goes to visit a client across the country in Seattle. They take him to dinner. He sits down & looks at the menu & it looks _very_ familiar. Turns out it’s a two-chain restaurant, 3000 miles apart but with different names so he didn’t pick up on it at first. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-definition-of-visiting-a-state/957653.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-definition-of-visiting-a-state/957653.md?page=6)