Travel...

Lol, sorta. :) In 2011, me and another girl named Emily Hamilton both qualified for Nationals in the Junior division. :) They mixed up our name tags, and to try to prevent further confusion, they started announcing that there were two of us everywhere…

Did you go anywhere else on your trip when you went to Rome?

Yes… I was actually on my way home from Ethiopia with my dad… We adopted two children so I was over there to pick them up… Africa is a pretty strange place! Very different then USA!

I like to travel!!!

As long as it is flying… Perhaps I'm hyperactive, but I really don't like sitting for 13 hours. ;)

I personally like long car rides…when you can read book after book. I have never been on a plane before so I don't know if I like it or not :D

I wonder, what is flying like? :)

@ Biblebee: Well, I'm have a hard time reading because I'm so slow. ;)

@Carissa and Danielle: You guys have never flown???? O.o

It's great to travel a few thousand miles in just a few hours!

And I agree with Bet, the Strangs have way too much energy to sit for That long! ;)

You seem to have plenty of time to creep on Madi! Lol jk

That's just the beginning… she hasn't met us yet!!!

Haha! I'm just kidding! We're not weird! I mean, we know a ton of people all over the country and they've never said that about us… at least, I don't think! ;)

Actually, it's kinda funny because whenever we go to an event any where in the country, we always end up talking to somebody and when they hear our last name they say:

"Strang… are you the family that, (Fill in the blank!)"

It always ends up being true!

@ Danielle: That doesn't take hardly any time at all! Remember, our family is a spy ring. That's our job.

Oh yeah, and our dad has worked with the FBI. ;)

Yeah.. we even trained ourselves on a nation wide treasure hunt we did a few years ago! :)

So like we're good at searching on people, cracking codes… You know, things that like Sherlock Holmes did! (Even though I don't like him!)

Haha lol ok so now ur tapping into government records! lol I have ways lol. Jk!

"And I agree with Bet, the Strangs have way too much energy to sit for That long! ;)"

What do you do? Jumping jacks in the plane aisle?! :P J/K

Yeah, some of us (I'm not going name any names :D ) have a hard time sitting still too - it's funny - when we were on our Western trip, almost always when we would stop at a rest area, "they" would run around and "release some energy" :D

Hu hu, very funny. Have u met the Strangs before?

I met Jordan at nationals, but no one else in their family.

Ok. :) lol

Was that when I was with you, Rachel, right before one of the challenge rounds began? I remember that! We talked about piano the whole time, if I remember correctly :)

I've never flown either. :) It sounds pretty neat though. But I have to agree with Carissa, I like reading in the car. :) It must have been so cool to be in Rome!!!
So yeah, I've never been out of the continental US, so the neatest place I've been to (other than Texas:) would probably be either Philadelphia or Washington D.C..

Cool! I've been to D.C. too. (It was on the same trip… Quite exhausting!)

@Rachel: Actually, you met my dad too.
Well, you see we're active people… I mean, the last 3 hour car drive we did, we got to our hotel and then hit the town! ;)

'Rome is a circus!' (Sorry I couldn't resist)

Oh yes! That's right, I did!

Yes it was then! That was so much fun, i enjoyed the conversation! Lots of good memories made that weekend :D

@Jordan: No, I have never flown. I did not meet you at nationals but I saw you around a LOT :D Some of the younger ones had a hard time on our 13 hour trip to NBB.

@Emily - Why do you like Texas so much? I can understand why I like Texas, because I live here, but I've seen several comments of yours that say how much you like Texas and I was just wondering… :)

I like TX because it's not cold! I'd move there in flash just because of that reason…I'm very tired of all this snow that we're getting :(

The farthest west I've been is CA and the farthest east is TN :D I've never been out of the US.

We've already turned on the A/C down here! It's been getting into the 80s lately.

Most of the traveling our family has done was northeast. I've visited all of the Southwest and Midwest states except for FL, SC, VA, WV, and MI. The farthest west I've been is Colorado. Well, there was a plane trip I took to Oregon when I was a baby, but I don't remember that. :) The farthest north I've been is Wisconsin. I've never been out of the US either. Oh, for the record, I'm from San Antonio, Texas. :)

Aw! Lucky! I wish it was in the 80s up here! :)

Yeah, "for the record"; I'm sure the Strangs will be keeping track of that record, knowing them…. ;P

Lol. :)

WHAT?! Oh, my, I can't imagine having that AC on in March, or the 80's for that matter. From my perspective (of being cold all winter long) I wouldn't turn it on till it hit the 100's :D What's the highest it's gotten in the summer over there? The highest I've seen it is 115!

I've traveled through/visited a lot of the states…but more in the midwest/slightly east/all the way west :D

Oh yeah, I guess I do say that a lot…. :) I don't know, I've just always really, REALLY loved Texas, and most everything about Texas. :) Texas is just awesome, what more can I say? :)

Sense you all are talking about this…. I've been all the way from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. I've been far enough South to look over into Mexico, and the farthest North I've been is probably Washington.

I've been to San Antonio… It seems like a pretty neat town! But I was there in July and it was too hot for me!

It probably would have been more bearable if it weren't for the humidity.
Sticky, thick, hot, muggy, air… any other adjectives??? ;)

Fun? I think the people around made it bearable:)

Lol one time in Forida (I think) my dad got in a traffic jam on the highway, (cause their was an accident or whatever). And people just started getting out of their cars and just like hanging out! Lol :)

YEEEESSSSS!!! Now that's true. :) That was a fun trip but only because you guys were there with us.

I'm used to humidity here in MO… :) I think we get both extremes of weather where we live (extremely cold, and extremely hot). And, I was born in AZ and been there numerous times, so I'm used to the heat (though, it's dry heat over there, if I'm remembering correctly).

My favorite kind of weather is when it's humid outside, it's raining all day long, and you can open the windows. :D But, I guess I'm getting off topic :)

Has anyone been to Maine, Alaska or Hawaii?

Those are the last three states I have not been to. And after traveling the country (and Canada) at least 15 times, I can say that my favorite states are Colorado, and Oregon. I really like Oregon because we don't have sales tax:) there's a lot of beauty and variety of terrain here, and all (well most;) of my friends and close family live in Oregon. I like Colorado because its really beautiful there, it snows a lot, and there is a big Homeschooling group there, and, because we have several friends that live in Colorado.

What is your favorite state or country you've visited? And why?

MilesChristiSum lives in Alaska I think….

We have some Bible Bee friends in Alaska who came to visit us on their way home from 2012 Nationals, in December I think. It happened to be pretty warm that day, and they were commenting a lot on how different the weather was here. :) (BTW, they were taking a six-month car trip around the country of which Nationals was just one part. It had something to do with their becoming missionaries. I think they're still on the trip, actually.) I've never been to Alaska. My grandma has, though, and she likes to show us pictures of her travels.

@Bethany: To surprise you even more, early this morning it was cool enough to put a jacket on… :) Yep, San Antonio weather is very unpredictable in the spring. I don't know what the highest summer temp is down here but I know that it does get well over 100 degrees all the time.

@Emily: I guess if that's all you can say, I'll have to be content with it. :) Texas is a great state. I often thank God that I live in a conservative area of a conservative state which is in one of the most Christian countries in the world. I love living here. :D Sooo, if you like Texas so much, maybe sometime you can take a trip and come and visit us down here. Wouldn't you want to see your friends the Minicas besides at Nationals? Then you could meet all my sisters and brothers. Who knows, we could even have another race. :P
Sorry, I just had to do that. I'm partly teasing Bethany. :)

@Nicolas: For the record, I think the Strangs should already know where we live, unless they happened to not get a NBB program last year. :P

@Matthew - I don't get it, how is that teasing me? I'm confused…

Hey! Maybe y'all should come up here, and then you could enjoy all this beautiful weather (it's been in the 50's and 60's) and meet the rest of our family!

@Elanee – TX and TN all the way. Just because all other places seemed the same and nothing unique about them (especially KS and AZ, though AZ does have some pretty nice mountains!).

You said that already on my introduction post recently, so I was copycatting you. :) But seriously, I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon. I wish we could, though.

Oh, I see :) I know it's not going to happen, sadly :( Well, you'd better tell us if you're ever in MO…or you or Courtney will get a talking too! JK!! :D

We will! You do the same for us! :D @All - And that goes for everyone else too. :)

Well, I live in a conservative area of a very liberal state, so yeah, I really like the idea of a conservative state. I know of course that there are other conservative states, but Texas is just Texas and nothing can beat that. :) There's lots of reasons I like Texas, but the politics of the state is probably the top of the rather long list.
I soooo wanted to do the same thing, so I almost asked Bethany if she would come out here to see us besides at Nationals, but then decided not to. :)

I thought you lived in TX?!?!

@Elanee: You like CO?!?! I think I have insiders info!

@ Bethany, Tennessee is actually not bad, but I don't think I could bear the heat and the ticks:)

@ Jordan, yea, I think you know a bit too much about why I like CO. I guess the people who live there make it pretty much what it is to me:)

I don't think I could bear the heights (if I had to be on the mountains. I wouldn't mind looking at them from a distance).

We did Bethany! :)

Who, me??? I wish! =D No, I live in California.