Places I’ve Been

Part 1 - Domestic

I have traveled in 44 of the 50 states. Besides Alaska and Hawaii, I have also not been in Arkansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, or Oklahoma. And since I have little need these days to go to any of these states, I’ll likely never get to these few remaining. Many of them I visited on our 30-day, 30-state marathon driving vacation in 1965, but I’ve also done a fair amount of flying around the country either with work assignments, training, or for AFS meetings.

My very first trip was in 1960, flying from Idlewild (the former name of what is now JFK) to Phoenix on an American Airlines DC-7 to visit relatives. We returned on a triple-tailed TWA Constellation. Both of these were prop planes. My latest trip was also on American Airlines on an Airbus 321 flying to Florida to visit family.

Here are all the airports I’ve been in, alphabetically by state, with the reason I was there:

Code: AFS (exchange student organization), AP (Air Products), TF (only transferring planes on the way somewhere else), H (home, starting/ending point of a journey), OT (other, see explanation)

Alabama

·       Mobile (OT-2, accreditation visits to Southern Mississippi, University of South Alabama)

Arizona

·       Phoenix (TF; OT, my first flight in 1960, see above)

California

·       John Wayne/Orange County (AP, training)

·       LAX (AP, training)

·       San Diego (AP, visit to a subsidiary for Y2K)

·       San Francisco (OT, my sister Dawn’s wedding)

·       San Jose (AP, training)

Colorado

·       Denver (TF; AFS)

Connecticut

·       Bradley Field (H-several, trips to college)

·       Plainville (OT, when in high school the father of a friend got his pilot’s license and took his son and myself on an air tour of the state, flying as far as Block Island before returning)

District of Columbia

·       Dulles (AFS)

·       Washington National (TF)

Florida

·       Jacksonville (AP, visit to customer)

·       Miami (AFS)

·       Orlando (OT-2, visit with family)

·       Pensacola (AP-many, visit to plant)

·       West Palm Beach (OT, wedding)

·       Ft. Lauderdale (TF)

Georgia

·       Atlanta (TF-many)

·       Macon (AP, visit to customer)

·       Savannah (AP, visit to customer)

Illinois

·       Chicago (TF-many; AFS; OT, accreditation visit)

Indiana

·       Indianapolis (AP, visit to plant)

Kentucky

·       Louisville (TF; AP)

·       Paducah (AP-many, visit to plant)

Louisiana

·       Baton Rouge (AP, visit to plant)

·       Monroe (OT, accreditation visit to NE LA University)

·       New Orleans (AP)

Massachusetts

·       Boston (TF, AP-13, I was in charge of a project where the software was being written by an outside firm and made weekly trips there for project status meetings and to answer vendor questions)

Maryland

·       BWI (TF)

Michigan

·       Detroit (TF-many; OT, travel to college at MSU)

·       Lansing (OT-many, travel to college at MSU)

·       Port Huron (AP, visit to Sarnia plant via APCI jet)

Minnesota

·       Minneapolis (AFS)

Missouri

·       Kansas City (TF; AP, recruiting new employees at a conference; AFS)

·       St. Louis (AFS)

Mississippi

·       Columbus (OT, accreditation visit to Mississippi State)

North Carolina

·       Charlotte (AFS; TF-several; OT-13, while working at Olin I was in charge of a project to shut down an IBM 360-20 at a subsidiary and converting everything to run on our corporate mainframe, I flew here every week on Monday afternoon and back home again on Friday for 3 months)

·       Raleigh (AP, plant visit)

Nevada

·       Las Vegas (OT, accreditation training)

New Jersey

·       Newark (H-many)

New York

·       Albany (AP-2, plant/customer visits)

·       Buffalo (TF-many, while on the way to college in MI)

·       JFK (H-many, one of them was my first trip in 1960 – see above)

·       La Guardia (H-13, start of my trip to Charlotte, see NC above)

·       Rochester (OT, job interview for a position I declined)

Ohio

·       Cincinnati (AP, customer visit)

·       Cleveland (TF-several; AP, customer visit)

·       Toledo (TF-several)

Oregon

·       Portland (AFS-3)

Pennsylvania

·       Allentown (H-many)

·       Harrisburg (TF)

·       Philadelphia (H-many)

·       Pittsburgh (TF-many; AP, customer visit)

South Carolina

·       Columbia (AP, customer visit)

·       Greenville (AP, customer visit)

Tennessee

·       Memphis (TF)

·       Nashville (AP-many, plant visits; AFS)

·       Tri-cities (AP, customer visit)

Texas

·       Dallas (AP, training)

·       Houston (AP, plant visit)

Utah

·       Salt Lake City (TF)

Virginia

·       Norfolk (OT, accreditation visit to Norfolk State)

Washington

·       Seattle (AFS)

Wisconsin

·       Milwaukee (AP, plant visit; AFS)

Part 2 - International

In addition to all my US travels, I’ve been blessed to have the opportunity to travel internationally quite a bit, although I did not have a passport until I was nearly 40. Except for a trip into Tiajuana, Mexico during our family vacation in 1960, a few trips across Canada between NY and MI during various trips to Michigan, and a trip through the Chunnel from England to France, all my international travel has been via plane. Thus, the following list of international airports will document the countries I have been to.

My first foreign travel was to China on a People-to-people tour to three cities. This was with a group of computer science educators meeting with our counterparts at high schools and universities there for sharing and presentations. Thus, about half our time was in these meetings and the other half in tourism. My last foreign travel was to Ghana where I escorted a dozen exchange students home after their year in the US and then stayed for over a week to visit with our exchange student daughter.

Belgium

·       Brussels (AP, assess potential acquisition, was stranded here on 9/11)

Brazil

·       Sao Paulo (AP-2, visit to subsidiary)

Canada

·       Calgary (AP-2, visit to subsidiary)

·       Edmonton (TF)

·       Ft. McMurray (AP, visit to remote site for Y2K)

·       Sarnia (AP, visit to subsidiary for Y2K)

·       Toronto (TF; OT, meeting of a user group)

·       Vancouver (TF)

China

·       Beijing (OT, People-to-people trip)

·       Hangzhou (OT, People to people trip; AP, assess potential acquisition; OT, recruiting foreign students)

·       Shanghai (OT, People-to-people trip; OT, recruiting foreign students)

Costa Rica

·       San Jose (AFS)

England

·       Gatwick (AP)

·       Heathrow (AP-several, visit to European HQ)

France

·       Chateau Tilques - Auto/train trip via Chunnel (AP, business meeting)

Germany

·       Frankfort (AFS)

Ghana

·       Accra (AFS, staying with exchange student daughter)

Hong Kong

·       Hong Kong (AP, visit to subsidiary for Y2K; OT-2 visit with exchange student daughter and others; TF)

Indonesia

·       Jakarta (AP, visit to subsidiary for Y2K)

Israel

·       Tel Aviv (AP, visit to subsidiary for Y2K)

Italy

·       Rome (AP, TF point because of visiting UAE and Israel on the same trip)

Japan

·       Tokyo (TF-2; AP-3, visit to subsidiary)

Korea

·       Seoul (OT, recruiting foreign students)

Mexico

·       Mexico City (AP-3, visit to subsidiary)

Netherlands

·       Amsterdam (TF-2)

Norway

·       Christiansen (AP, visit to subsidiary)

·       Oslo (OT, visit with daughter during her exchange year)

·       Stavanger (TF)

Puerto Rico

·       San Juan (AP, customer/subsidiary visit)

Singapore

·       Singapore (AP-2, visit to subsidiary)

Thailand

·       Bangkok (OT, visit with exchange student daughter; AFS-2)

UAE

·       Dubai (AP, visit to subsidiary for Y2K)

Venezuela

·       Caracas (TF)

·       San Antonio (OT, missions trip)