This sadly is very true. I have a friend who would fit that saying perfectly (he's never been outside of the midwest except he went to Ireland for a week a couple of years ago). I have been to Canada, I am going to travel more when I get older problem we haven't gone anywhere is the fact that the country is huge so my family decided to see that first. (Been in every state east of the mississippi river plus kansas, arkansas, louisiana, texas, Colorado and Washington state.) Another factor why we haven't gone to Europe is the fact that my grandma lives in Florida and we always visit her during the summer so that basically takes up a lot of travel time. The greatest vacation I went on was in '00 where we went to Niagra Falls, down thru New York, stayed at Washington D.C., went down the eastern sea board to my grandma's again. Then we went to Boston and Cape Cod one year. That was the last 'real' family vacation because since then dad is always working and can't get time off so its just me (doing all the driving) mom and sis.
But yeah a lot of midwesterners never leave the midwest in there life, ever. My cousin in laws family never leaves dresden, tennessee, ever. If they do its only for a night, they won't even stay at my cousins and his wife's home which is only 2hrs away!
A lot of Congressman boast that they don't have passports. The reason U.S. - Canadian relations have gone in the crapper is because the people running washington have never been to Canada and are from the south so they aren't used to or know of the special relationship between the two countries.
Over the next year I plan to do something with habitat for humanity to build houses in South America or Eastern Europe. (should be fun)
And I've got trip ideas for Quebec and Vancouver. The Quebec one will be a family one because my sister is taking french while the B.C. one will just be myself wondering in the great unknown for a couple weeks (saved up a bunch of money) in British Columbia. Friend ask me why have I become crazy about Canada (same guy thats never left the midwest except to go to Ireland). I don't know why its just natural for me to explore I guess but then again I've shed all my midwestern roots over the past 4 years so I don't see myself as a midwesterner anymore.
