But Wait! More Rankings!

In the words of Aragorn, son of Arathorn, as he prepared his forces at the Black Gate, "There will come a day when Tim does not make a post involving rankings, but it will not be this day." I've had the privilege to travel a lot in my 27 years here on Earth, both internationally and nationally, and through my travels I have seen a lot of what this country has to offer. I personally have been to 25 states, not including the District of Columbia. My wife and I have a plan to go to every state together before either of us reaches 40. (The way time is currently working, she will make it to 40 before me.) This will involve going back to states we have individually been to if the other party has not. For example, Cate has never been to Colorado, but I have. I have never been to Washington, but Cate has.

We drove Route 66 for our honeymoon in the summer of 2016 which, while being an outstanding trip and grounds for a separate post, gave us the opportunity to hit several states together. Even with all of this travel, there are still many states I have never been to. What follows is my list of the Top 5 WORST States that I have never been to, based on pure conjecture and no research, in no particular order.

1) North Dakota

As is the case with every state on this list, I've never been to North Dakota. However, I'm not in any rush. From everything I hear there is not much to see or do there and it's been overtaken by oil companies offering good money but nothing to do with the money. Every person I know from the Dakotas is from South Dakota and all of them are great people. When people hear me talk down about North Dakota they try to say "Well what about ____." 9 times out of 10, whatever they mentioned is actually in South Dakota.

2) Delaware

There was a period of time a few years back where it looked like Cate and I might move to Delaware to further Cate's career aspirations. For various reasons we did not make the move, which gives me the opportunity to put Delaware on this list. I spent a lot of time looking into Delaware when I thought we were going to move there and let me tell you it's just one giant suburb. I'm sure parts of the coast are quaint, but the rest seemed incredibly dreary.

3) West Virginia

Even putting aside the giant public teacher strike from earlier this year, West Virginia has always seemed like such a sad state. What was once thought to be a beautiful state has been ravaged by coal companies. I read a John Grisham called Gray Mountain which took place in a small coal mining town. The book took place in Virginia, but the corruption of the coal mining companies and the terrible health conditions described in the book made me think of West Virginia the entire time.

4) Arkansas

In just two weeks I will be going to Arkansas for the first time and this list will have to be updated. We are going to what is supposed to be a wonderful museum in a beautiful part of the state. Until that point, I will continue to list Arkansas on this list because my Missouri raised wife once said "people in Missouri think of Arkansas the way Chicagoan think of Indiana." If that's true, and in solidarity with my wife, I must really not like Arkansas.

5) New Jersey

I went to college with a guy named Russell. We were in the same fraternity and he is one of the most genuine guys I ever met. He is from New Jersey. Therein ends all of the good things I have ever heard about the state. The state gave us Jersey Shore and WAY too many sit com episodes where the New Yorkers go to Atlantic City. Everything seems dirty. I picture a gray haze covering the state whenever I think of it.