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Poll Results (Fave US Parts) & New Poll Announced!

Last Week's Results:

Thanks to all those who voted! You made this better than I expected. The results of this poll were pretty telling, but it's what I learned during the process, rather than the results of the poll itself, that was the most enlightening.

First, it seems people were having trouble finding the poll. The mobile version does not allow you to see the sidebars. It does allow you to switch to web version, but only if you know to scroll to the bottom for the link. This is more than less than unhelpful. I had no idea this problem was happening. I was wondering why no one had voted by the weekend, and only found out Sunday, just in time to make changes and get some votes in under the wire. I decided to do away with mobile altogether. This means you have better access to all features on the site, and double-click on any part of the site to zooms in; pinch-zoom also works. Ah, beta testing.

As for the answers themselves, I gotta say, I'm neither shocked nor surprised, and still I found the results unexpected. There were 17 total voters who made this one happen (and I hope to see those voters back for future polls 😃). Here are the major stats:

  • 1st - The West Coast at 47% with 8 out of 17!
  • 2nd - This was a 3-way tie between New England, the Rocky Mountain area, and Hawaii. They each took 6 votes (35%).
  • 3rd - The Southwest came in right behind with 5 votes (29%).
  • All other choices were under the 25% mark, with Alaska coming in dead last with only one vote.
So, what does this mean? Well, that's where the data takes a bit of a turn. After all, what states constitute each of the areas listed in the poll? I realized that I hadn't gone and specifically researched that beforehand, and just did a little searching. 

What I found is that no one really knows. For each area, there is a great deal of overlap. The Southwest sometimes often includes Texas, which makes sense, though Texas could also be claimed by the Deep South. The Southwest then sometimes goes farther than Arizona and New Mexico (which is what I thought of), and claims parts of Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and Oklahoma. To complicate matters more, The Rocky Mountains claims not only Northern Rockies states, but also the aforementioned (excluding Oklahoma). And don't get me started on what is considered "Mid"West.

At that point, it occurs to me that what people view as the boundaries of these areas has more to do with the type of environment represented by that area: climate, terrain/topography, vistas, etc. It inspired me for this week's post...

This Week's New Poll:

Why I Chose This One:

This month, I'm trying to focus on some geographical and physical aspects of traveling on this rock we call Earth. At times, it will be about boundaries (like last week), climate, and (as with this week) types of terrain. 

I find that we are all drawn to different types of places. I could name each of these as equally interesting, and each for their own reason. For that very reason, I made this one a "choose only one" poll, forcing us all to dig deep and see what really drives us. I expect it will be painful. I'm a Pisces, after all. 

I did a bit more research on this one, as well, to go beyond what my brain initially thought of as "terrain." Although not listed under that heading, I reminded myself that cities and towns can also be a draw for people. That, of course, opens up the question of what constitutes proper terrain, topography, etc., and now we're down the rabbit hole. So feel free to comment below or on Facebook. Let's get a discussion going, and straighten out this conundrum once and for all...or at least leave it firmly crooked.

Let me know if you have any more troubles; I'm not trying to make this difficult for you...or am I? 

Enjoy!

*NOTE: I realized as I was posting, that swamps were left out and decided to put that under the category of "Wetlands" with Rainforests.



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