An American Tale

So anyone that knows me will undoubtedly know that the perfect present for an Americophile, such as myself, would be a scratch off map of where you've been in the USA.

I guess then that no one knows me better than my son because guess what? He found the very thing!!

Here ^ ^ it is pictured pristine and fresh out of its tube on Father's Day.

It is no accident that I am posting this on July 4th is it? 
Clever I thought!! Independence Day and "Lo and behold" ~ the finished scratched off map of the USA!!

As correctly pointed out by the purchaser of said map, it is not really finished until I have visited all 50 states is it?


So here it is : 28 states visited plus DC and although the map doesn't reflect this Mexico and 4 provinces of Canada as well!

"Not bad for a Brit hey?"

Here's another thing though and again fittingly enough on America's Birthday, 25 of the states plus DC, 3 provinces of Canada and Mexico were all done in one trip! Almost entirely by Greyhound Bus!! 

According to Greyhound a journey of 10,578 miles, which is really quite interesting and I can only assume that Greyhound cut the odd corner or two because Rand McNally make the same journey 10,693 miles.

Just a postscript on the actual map. It may be a good idea to market a little tiny vacuum to take away the result of the scratchings! 
Incidentally do you ever feel sorry for Alaska and Hawaii? If Alaska had not been rescaled the whole map would have been a lot larger and as for Hawaii f it was the same scale as the rest it would have been less than the size of a postage stamp!!

Of course I will update you should any need for further scratchings take place!!