Friday Five: "On the Road"

This week's RevGalBlogPals Challenge:

Name five places that fall into the following categories:

1) Favorite Destination -- someplace you've visited once or often and would gladly go again
Oh, that one's easy -- the Empire/Sleeping Bear Dunes/greater Grand Traverse region. And -- yay! -- we're going there again this Memorial Day weekend. This is my favorite place, period.

2) Unfavorite Destination -- someplace you wish you had never been (and why)
This probably isn't what the designer of this quiz had in mind, but...one day on the way home from church several years ago, my mother in the car with me, I thought I'd be a wise gal and find an alternate route up north to the main highway running through Outer Podunk, instead of our usual circuitous route home. I'd Mapquested the area and found a road that appeared to be a fairly straight shot from church. But as I rode along the pavement disappeared...then several feet of road width disappeared...and suddenly I found myself bumping along a sandy two-track in the middle of a woods festooned with junked cars and rusty abandoned trailers, in a place I'll call Methlabville. I finally had the presence of mind to turn around and head back, although not before passing a couple of gunrack-bearing pickups filled with grizzly, tooth-needy individuals who practically channeled the Deliverance theme. I'm not particularly interested in revisiting this area of Podunk County again.

3) Fantasy Destination -- someplace to visit if cost and/or time did not matter
Oh, my -- where to start? I'd like to visit Scotland, Ireland, Wales and the more rural, village-y parts of England (FT nods enthusiastically); I'd like to visit northern Europe, including Iceland (although I might refrain from some Icelandic delicacies like rotten shark); I'd like to travel around the Mecklenburg region of northern Germany, where my mother's family came from, and the part of Bavaria where my dad's people came from before they emigrated to German settlements in Poland and Russia back in the 19th century; and I'd like to visit the Baltic countries, for the wonderful natural beauty and for what I'm told is the cool retro architecture and hip feel of the large cities there. Over on this side of the pond I would love to revisit Canada, this time traveling through the Maritime Provinces. And -- another yay! -- this fall I will be traveling to New York City for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and extended-family Thanksgiving dinner, and am looking forward to being in the Big Apple in general. (A goal of mine that weekend is to patronize the best deli in Brooklyn, our home base for the holiday -- deli nominations cheerfully accepted from my readers.)

4) Fictional Destination -- someplace from a book or movie or other art or media form you would love to visit, although it exists only in imagination
How geeky would it be to say Middle Earth? Specifically, I'd like to visit Lothlorien, home of the Elves.

5) Funny Destination -- the funniest place name you've ever visited or want to visit
Visiting Hell (Michigan) was a blast -- and I got out of Hell with a souvenir T-shirt to show for it, too. I've also been to Paradise (Michigan), where I enjoyed a pasty as well as the "Ya, fer sure, eh?" Yooper cadence of the friendly locals. I don't think I've been to Climax (Michigan) yet, though -- I guess if I can't remember I probably haven't.