Just to throw a funny story out there. A few years ago I went to Europe with my dad. A man who never travels outside the state, except Seekonk and Attleboro. I warned him that nobody would know of RI, so just say we are from outside of Boston. He did not like the idea of saying he was from Boston.

A few days into the trip, we ran across a family from California. My dad jumps on the chance to say we are from RI. Me and my sister look at each other, knowing where this is going to go. The parents seems confused, but act like they know. The teenage girl with them, said something along the lines of "oh I love the hamptons". I corrected her, saying no not Long Island, Rhode Island. She responded that she "knew". But clearly she didn't.

A side not, I graduated H.S. out in Phoenix. Nobody there knew what RI was. They all just assumed it was a synonym for Long Island. However, on a trip to HI, a waiter knew of RI and referred to it as "one of the colonies". Something I had never heard before.