My Favorite Places Are the Ones People Fly Over

I was blessed to spend a good stretch of my career working overseas. Singapore, Shenzhen, Shanghai, all over Southeast Asia, Dubai, London, Paris. I got to see places I might never have visited otherwise, and I’m grateful for every bit of it.

Then I moved back to the States, and my travel schedule changed.

The work was more focused on manufacturing. Suddenly, I was heading to Fargo, North Dakota. Lincoln, Nebraska. Des Moines, Iowa.

Places people like to call “flyover cities.”

You know what I discovered?

Some of those became my favorite places.

The food was fantastic. I had amazing experiences and a whole lot of fun. These became the cities I actually tell people they should go see.

Yes. Fargo. Put it on the list.

I think we sometimes decide how interesting a place is before we ever get there. We recognize a famous skyline or a destination we’ve seen a thousand times, and we already have an idea of what the trip will be.

Then a work trip takes you somewhere you haven’t thought much about, and you come home telling everyone how much you enjoyed it.

That happened to me over and over in the Midwest.

Manufacturing gave me a reason to visit. The places themselves gave me a reason to want to go back.

And that’s a big part of why I live in Milwaukee.

It’s a fantastic city. A wonderful place to raise a family, hang out, and have a good time. I love living here.

I also feel like I should stop telling people that, because I’d like to keep it a little bit of a secret. Come visit. Have a great weekend. Let’s not all immediately start looking at houses.

I realize writing a whole post about it is a terrible strategy for keeping it quiet.

But I can’t help it. I love the Midwest.

If your experience of this part of the country has mostly been the view from an airplane window, come spend some time here. Give Fargo a chance. Go see Lincoln. Spend a little time in Des Moines. Come check out Milwaukee.

Some of my favorite trips started with a work assignment to a place I hadn’t thought to visit.

What’s a city you visited for work that you now recommend to everyone?