Road Tripping in the K States and Going Global

The morning is warm and humid. A short walk to the neighbors’ house to one side of us, to pick up their newspaper, resulted in sweaty skin and a shortness of breath indicative of inadequate exercise. I’ve been promising myself that I will return to morning walks, but a corn on my left foot makes that prospect unattractive. At some point, I’ll accept that I really do need to see a podiatrist for relief. Until then, I’ll complain about my foot and buy Dr. Scholl’s corn pads in quantity in a fruitless attempt to relieve the pain by cushioning the corn.

In a short while, I’ll get in my rental car and drive to Texarkana, where I’ll retrieve my pickup truck from the mechanic. The owner of the shop generously offered to have someone pick me up from Texarkana Regional Airport, where I rented the car from Avis. Less than two hours later, I’ll be back home. And then I’ll wash clothes in anticipation of beginning a road trip of unknown duration. We’ve talked about going to Kansas City, Manhattan, Topeka, Tulsa, and various points in other directions. We probably won’t decide where we’re heading until we get in the car. I like that. We used to do that with some frequency; it felt like freedom.

It occurred to me, as I was writing this, that some of the states to which we are going and the state from which we will depart include the letter K in their names (Arkansas, Kansas, and Oklahoma). Unless I missed something in my cursory review, only four states’ names include the letter. So, on this trip, we expect to drive within the borders of seventy-five percent of the states whose names include the letter K. The only other K state, Kentucky, is not on our itinerary. That triviality provides fodder for my rambling this morning.

Yesterday, we talked about flying to Mexico in the not-too-distant-future to visit my brother and his wife. If we plan far enough ahead and don’t wait too long, we have sufficient air miles to cover our tickets. Otherwise, the cost of the trip would be prohibitive. For the purposes of this stream-of-consciousness-ramble, I’ll consider that Mexico has the K sound. Phonetically, I say the English pronunciation is meksiko. If I were to use the presence of a K sound in country names as a requisite for visiting other countries, I wonder where I’d go? Let’s see:

  • Burkina Faso;
  • Cambodia
  • Cameroon
  • Canada
  • Cabo Verde
  • Central African Republic
  • Chad
  • Chile
  • China
  • Colombia
  • Comoros
  • Costa Rica
  • Cote d’Ivoire
  • Croatia
  • Cuba
  • Democratic Republic of the Congo,
  • Iraq;
  • Kazakhstan
  • Kenya
  • Kiribati
  • Kosovo
  • Kuwait
  • Kyrgyzstan
  • Liechtenstein;
  • Micronesia;
  • Mozambique;
  • Nicaragua;
  • North Korea;
  • South Korea;
  • Pakistan; Qatar;
  • Republic of the Congo;
  • Saint Kitts and Nevis;
  • Slovakia;
  • South Africa;
  • Sri Lanka;
  • Tajikistan;
  • Turkey;
  • Turkmenistan;
  • Ukraine; and
  • Uzbekistan.

Did I miss any?

 

About John Swinburn

"Love not what you are but what you may become."― Miguel de Cervantes
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