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Not overrated, either. I think that most people have an understanding of the beauty of the three states you mentioned. Especially Michigan...I'll agree on that. The Driftless Region is probably underrated, as it is stunning. People probably don't have a clue. I'm not a big fan of the north woods....but I do love the hundreds of lakes. I also love Wisconsin's entire eastern border that is Lake Michigan...that's hard to beat. Every now and then, someone on this forum will say that Wisconsin is flat....couldn't be more far from the truth. That just tells me, that they've never been here.
I really don't think that's true. Ask any random non-Midwesterner what they think of Minnesota, Wisconsin, or Michigan, and they'll tell you three things:
Flat
Cornfields
Frozen wasteland
Most Americans (particularly coastalites) just sincerely don't know any better because they aren't interested in American geography and/or aren't travelled enough to formulate an accurate perception.
I really don't think that's true. Ask any random non-Midwesterner what they think of Minnesota, Wisconsin, or Michigan, and they'll tell you three things:
Flat
Cornfields
Frozen wasteland
Most Americans (particularly coastalites) just sincerely don't know any better because they aren't interested in American geography and/or aren't travelled enough to formulate an accurate perception.
As a Michigander who lived in the south for six years, I can tell you that Michigan = Detroit. Detroit = the worst place imaginable.
I always tried to tell people there is a LOT more to Michigan than Detroit and that Detroit wasn't what the media likes to force you to believe....
I really don't think that's true. Ask any random non-Midwesterner what they think of Minnesota, Wisconsin, or Michigan, and they'll tell you three things:
Flat
Cornfields
Frozen wasteland
Most Americans (particularly coastalites) just sincerely don't know any better because they aren't interested in American geography and/or aren't travelled enough to formulate an accurate perception.
I have no solution to their ignorance. To that, I say, whatever, and consider the source.
I really don't think that's true. Ask any random non-Midwesterner what they think of Minnesota, Wisconsin, or Michigan, and they'll tell you three things:
Flat
Cornfields
Frozen wasteland
Most Americans (particularly coastalites) just sincerely don't know any better because they aren't interested in American geography and/or aren't travelled enough to formulate an accurate perception.
Sincerely Agree.
My state's entire media image was formed by "Fargo" and some lesser known movies where the movies take place during winter and portray us all as goofy sounding, passive-aggressive wonks.
My state's entire media image was formed by "Fargo" and some lesser known movies where the movies take place during winter and portray us all as goofy sounding, passive-aggressive wonks.
Honestly I find that's true of most places. Peoples impressions about things they haven't experienced are formed by things they've seen, including fiction unfortunately. I have found that people on the interior of the country do the same thing to the coasts in reverse.
I work in seasonal outdoor recreation here in New Mexico, and my coworkers are mainly from here, Colorado, Utah, and the PNW.
Since our work is seasonal, and job/location hopping is the norm, we were talking about where we wanted to be next season. When I mentioned I wanted to be a backcountry guide in New York, the first comment I got was, "How do you find 'backcountry' in a city park?"
When I explained that I meant New York State, not City, another response was, "Yeah, but it still seems so crowded, can't you see all the skylines from all the cities?"
When I mentioned that Adirondack Park has over 3,000 lakes and 1,200 miles of rivers and is bigger than Yellowstone, Everglades, Glacier, and Grand Canyon National Park combined, I got blank stares.
I brought up some pics on my phone, and the response was that is was "pretty". Condescending west coast bastards! :-)
Location: Appalachian New York, Formerly Louisiana
4,409 posts, read 6,536,583 times
Reputation: 6253
Quote:
Originally Posted by ABQConvict
I work in seasonal outdoor recreation here in New Mexico, and my coworkers are mainly from here, Colorado, Utah, and the PNW.
Since our work is seasonal, and job/location hopping is the norm, we were talking about where we wanted to be next season. When I mentioned I wanted to be a backcountry guide in New York, the first comment I got was, "How do you find 'backcountry' in a city park?"
When I explained that I meant New York State, not City, another response was, "Yeah, but it still seems so crowded, can't you see all the skylines from all the cities?"
When I mentioned that Adirondack Park has over 3,000 lakes and 1,200 miles of rivers and is bigger than Yellowstone, Everglades, Glacier, and Grand Canyon National Park combined, I got blank stares.
I brought up some pics on my phone, and the response was that is was "pretty". Condescending west coast bastards! :-)
Similar to when I described where I was from back when I first moved to Louisiana. They spent over an hour trying to convince me that what I thought was "rural" didn't count because of all the cities I so clearly must have been a stone's throw from.
They acted like they knew NY better than I did despite none of them having ever been there save for flying to NYC.
And they say northerners make assumptions...
Ignorance is annoying but willful and prideful ignorance is infuriating.
The worst was when they said they didn't believe me when I described some of the poor conditions I grew up in. "You're from NY, there are no poor people in NY". Hate that.
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