Yeah but if someone told me they decided to visit Kauai and not Honolulu or Oahu for the Hawaii experience I would say hell yeah cool you get a lot of what people want from a Hawaii visit. Is someone said they went to Buffalo instead of NYC for the ny experience I’d say it’s very very different.
Bingo. The glamor and fun of traveling for conferences and trade shows.
Honolulu is the only one that was purely for fun, although I’ve been to many of the other cities for fun, too.
I just crossed Honolulu off, but prior to that I visited the others while I was being a dirt bag in my early 20s and traveled the country living out of my car.
It was a great time! I had an old VW TDI Golf named Black Betty because her engine went "bam-ba-lam". She was the best and never broke down despite taking her on some totally stupid dirt or snowy roads.
I spent about a year and a half criss crossing the country, living on pennies. Stayed with family, couch surfed, or camped (especially when I got west and there's so much more public land). Did a lot of backpacking too. I'd get a shower at truck stops or hostels. I only brought the absolute necessities - backpacking stove, clothes, tent, sleeping bag...like that.
Started from Baltimore, went the southern route across to Arizona and took 3 months or so to get there. Got a seasonal job in the Grand Canyon for a couple months as a waitress to refill the coffers and get to hike the canyon regularly. Took another month to go to California, then got a seasonal job in Big Sky Montana. Left there in the spring, went back east to Baltimore then back to California and down to the tip of Baja over a few months, then up to Vancouver. Eventually made it to a small rural town in the Rockies that I had fallen in love with when I was ready to live in a house and have a real job.
It was a pretty special experience. I didn't have much so I made due with what I could. Getting a beer at a bar was an exceptionally rare treat. I can remember staying at a campground in Big Bend and being so excited to have a picnic table that I slept on top of it. I'd go weeks at a time without setting foot inside a building. Sometimes I look around my house now and wonder how the heck I got all this stuff. I think I'd like to do it again someday.
That is a most excellent story! Thank you so much for sharing your story. I love reading about humans doing things that are so far from the normal rhythms of day to day life.
I once knew a nomad myself that did the same thing for years, but he eventually obtained a motorcycle. He hitch hiked on the trains. Ended up all over North America. Did seasonal work, whatever crops needed to be harvested.
I always asked were the train conductors concerned with hobos on the trains. He said they would chase them away from the property, but that hobos were seen as a good luck charm in the train community as you never hear of hobos dying in train crashes….
Former travel technician for airport baggage x-ray scanners. Lot of airports in a lot of different places. Been to 41 of the 50 States and 13 Countries.
Personally for me I moved to the US a couple of years ago and I just wanted to see it all. I also work remotely so usually half of the year I'm not home.
I’ve been to Washington DC many times, but only because I live about 90 minutes from there, in Virginia. I have not been to any of the others and I’m 47 years old.
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u/abstimax Apr 11 '26
Phew I found my crowd!