What Does It Mean to “Visit” a State?

If you’re going to travel, hit them all.

Like many Americans who have been vaccinated and are eager to run wildly through the streets after essentially being locked in their house for a year, I am desperate to travel. I’ve flown a few times since being fully vaccinated, and while it hasn’t been exactly the smoothest experience, well, it never was, and the vagaries and inconveniences of air travel have always been the price you paid for being somewhere else. After spending 14 months terrified that the entire world might be falling apart, I’m having a difficult time getting too worked up about an inefficient boarding process for a flight to Indianapolis. I’m just happy to be going anywhere.

And I want to go anywhere. One of the best movie experiences I had during the pandemic was watching the film The Trip to Greece, which follows comedians Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon essentially talking for two hours while eating their way through Greece. It was the fourth film in the series, following Trips to northern England, Italy and Spain. I never been to any of those places, but during the pandemic, I didn’t go to any place other than my bedroom, my office and occasionally the couch. Watching them take in the glorious sites and sights, while rest of the planet sheltered in place, was transporting: It was the only way I was seeing anything…