Places you want to visit/have visited solely for political/demographic reasons

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Want to visit:

Jackson County, KY
Elliott County, KY
Prinsburg, MN
Sioux County, IA
Some mining towns in northern Minnesota

I actually almost did the last one a few months ago, I got all planned and everything, went to a gas station in Spring Lake Park in that southern panhandle of Anoka County, and bought a map and car wash. The car wash was what thwarted me, by the time I got to Mounds View in northern Ramsey County my car shorted out and died. I had to get it towed to Columbia Heights, and learned one of the charger deals had a short and the car wash killed it. As it is that was probably a good thing as it rained the next day and it would've died anyway. Also good I got my car wash there and not in Duluth or some small town along the way.

Unfortunately I haven't gotten around to that trip since then.




Have visited:

Some exurbs like Nowthen, Corcoran, Hassan Township, etc.
Wanted to see what exactly this territory looked like as I read about all the time. Turned out to appear to be mostly rural scenery-wise. Just with large lumps of housing developments. No real business or industry interestingly, except for farming equipment stores. Everyone's a farmer or commuter.
Another reason: Many of these places have small unincorporated towns within them that I wanted to check out. Not much to say though.

Skyline, Minnesota
This place is sort of an urban legend in Mankato. Very few people are aware it exists, even people I met who had grown up in Mankato. It's a strange place in its existance yes, no businesses whatsoever, not even a gas station, just lots of suburban housing. There's a sign upon your entry, one road in, one road out. Don't know why it's indepenent, but it's there.

Some other areas around Mankato.
One was Lime township, which I initially was led to believe was a trailer park, later learned Mankato's odd borders included the park, Lime is mostly suburban development. The unincorporated town of Lehillier was another. A third was a strange place that's on Google Maps, Benning, yet nothing's there except industry.

Maplewood, Minnesota
A strange town in southern Minnesota which votes quite Democratic, even for the generally DFL area. Even stranger is that it's basically a "suburb" of a larger town nearby, Austin, which is Democratic but not to that extreme. It's indistinguishable than Austin's neighborhoods though, and the only business is a liquor store. The source of its partisanship remains a mystery.

Some weird places in North Dakota, including some ghost towns

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Want to visit:
Prinsburg, MN

What's that supposed to be like?

Voted over 91% for McCain, over 62% for Collin Peterson's joke opponent, over 85% for the LOSING Republican candidate for State House, and over 57% for fundie extremist State Supreme Court candidate Tim Tingelstad while failing to break 40% statewide.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Wouldn't mind checking out a reservation. Never met a "real" Indian before, other than random people remarking that they are some tiny fraction Cherokee or whatever.

Having actually lived on one, I remember when I was young I thought it was unusual when visiting other cities (Bismarck, ND was the "big city" to me) to not see graffiti everywhere and how there was no trash on the streets. I remember going to a mall in Bismarck with my mom when I was in kindergarten and thought it was the most amazing thing ever, not only was there tons of things to buy and do, but everything was actually clean.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Actually I think it did the opposite. It conditioned me in favor of finding run down places to be normal.

Also please note at the time I defined a "big city" as anywhere with a traffic light. Living in a place that gives you such an impression also conditions you to wanting to live in a large city.