Top 10 states, ranked

I'm sure you'll 100 percent agree with this list, except for where I listed each state and what I like about it.

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In this issue: My 10 favorite states and a decades ago encounter with the Secret Service that scared the crap out of me.

These are my 10 favorite states

1. Utah. It’s like Mars only with great whitewater rafting, epic hiking and best-in-class rock climbing.

2. Alaska. Pro tip: Go in the winter and only in the winter or you’ll miss (most of) what makes Alaska great. You need to feel negative 40, if only for a minute or two. Only in Alaska have I ever felt cold in my eyeballs.

3. Hawaii. Upside: Volcanoes, beaches, mountains, surfing. Downside: meals at McDonald’s cost $8,567 and spam is a thing (though getting it the first few times is fun). This was the 50th state I visited, and this trip came just in time: Covid shut down the world a few weeks later.

4. Michigan. I’m biased. I grew up and spent the first 25 years of my life there. I love returning in the summer because the cool mornings and nights represent a refreshing change from living on the surface of the sun oops I mean St. Louis.

5. North Carolina. Living there completely changed my life as I was introduced in a new way to the magnificence of hiking, camping, fishing and more. I also learned the importance of barbecue as a food and not an event. A friend joked that Charlotte was a great place to live, but he wouldn’t want to visit there. He was completely right that it’s a great place to live and completely wrong about visiting there.

6. Colorado. I don’t know how anyone who lives in the Rockies ever gets any work done.

7. California. Go to Yosemite. Hang out until there’s a blizzard. Then go to Mariposa Grove and watch snow crystals fall off of Giant Sequoias.

8. Maine. Mount Katahdin. Lighthouses. Lobster rolls.

9. Virginia. Being close to D.C., but not containing it, is a big plus. The Shenandoah Valley/Blue Ridge Mountains/Appalachian Trail are endlessly explorable.

10. Missouri. Many major events of my adult life have happened here, and I suspect I’ll remain for the duration. The Missouri and Mississippi rivers are massively under-rated as sources of outdoor adventure … really the whole state is. It’s like we have three states rolled into one – the major metro areas of KC and STL are one, the rural area in between them are another, and the Ozarks are a third.

Also receiving votes: Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, Montana.

This scared the crap out of me

In 1992, I was a student at Central Michigan University. I took a class that was a joint effort between the journalism and political science departments, and it “covered,” in a sense, the presidential election.

As part of the class, we attended a Bill Clinton rally in East Lansing. A few of us got separated from the group. We went to the parking garage where our car was. We were a few floors up, and I leaned out to see if I could find our friends.

Within a few minutes, the Secret Service stormed up there and berated me for hanging my head out of the building while a presidential candidate was in the area.