Have you ever just wanted to pack a bag to get away? If so, where would you go and why?

@4meAndyou

:) Understand. It's like a big rubber band pulling on me. As the old family died off there were fewer and fewer reasons to go back. Fewer and fewer connections. Yet the rubber band seems to be pulling harder and harder. Go figure.

Nothing is really the same there, I'd even now be a bit out of place.

I have a list of a dozen other places I want to live, all logically better; but the old home town is the only one where there's the rugged-band effect. A sense of where I belong rather than where I want to be.

Go figure ?

@Stereoguy Far western Nebraska.

@Heartlander I know...and I know it will break my heart to see that the places of my childhood have been wiped away. No one lives there anymore, from my family. But I would still like to go back.

@Stereoguy Really hot and dry. It can be 104 degrees...you could fry an egg on the sidewalk...but it doesn't feel AS hot because there is no humidity.

@Stereoguy 😂

@Stereoguy I don't want to go because of the weather...it's more like...a return to my origins. But I get you. I couldn't deal with a vacation in high heat and humidity.

@Stereoguy North Dakota and South Dakota are equally warm...highs about 80 degrees, lows at night in the 60's.

@Stereoguy @4meAndyou We have family in North Dakota, as well as South Texas, so we're pretty familiar with the I-29/I-35 corridor from the Canadian border to the Mexican border. I think I heard about 90s recently in North Dakota. It also gets pretty windy there.

There's something in North Dakota called the "lake effect". It's a social thing where the non-lake dwellers all flock to the lake areas for the weekends. It's sort of like Missouri and Oklahoma flocks to the Ozark, Grand or Table Rock lakes, but more noticeable. With the result being that the lake areas may be way overcrowded, while the towns may seem abandoned during the summer weekends.

But overall a great part of America. Actually the entire stretch from Mexico to Canada is all great.

@Heartlander Actually, Portland, Oregon and that whole northwestern quadrant will be having cool weather...but who in their right mind would want to go there?

@Stereoguy There's a feel of a bit of a different America once you hit Omaha heading North. Even a little before that. Areas of the US that largely escaped the segregation/desegregation transitions. Go off road a bit to experience the Native American reservations.

We rendezvoused with family one Christmas in Nebraska City at a place called Lied Lodge. Wow! A place that would have inspired Norman Rockwell :) Also a place rich in American history.

Also once in Sioux City for a long weekend.

Once you are that far north you may as well slowly inch yourself up towards Winnipeg with a few dozen stops along the way, and get a taste of the Norwegian influence on the US. Oh, we found one the best Mexican restaurants in the Americas in Sioux City, and Fargo has a Cajun restaurant, in addition to America's winningest college football team.

@Stereoguy We crossed into Canada a couple of years ago and one in our party had an outdated passport. So when son-in-law handed the stack of passports to the Canadian gate tender he put the expired one at the bottom.

It didn't work. CAUGHT!

So, off to the waiting room and after an hour wait we got by with a gentle lecture and a warm welcome to Canada.