License Plates

I was away on a business trip this week.

I might write a few blogs about my experience, but I wanted to talk about something I do each and every time I travel. It has become a custom for me to track license plates when I travel in the states.
I record each state that I see, attempting to reach all 50 of them. I have been close once, reached 47 when I was travelling in Cape Cod during the summer months. I even had Hawaii, cannot remember what I was missing.
Definitely, there are states which are hard to find their residents do not travel much. States like Alabama, Arkansas and the prairie states of Kansas and Oklahoma I do not see often.

The rules are simple. Excluding semi-trucks, which travel across the country, write down the plates you see. Although I currently include them, rental-cars might be something I exclude in the future. However, sometimes it is hard to tell what is a rental car.

My latest trip took me through Illinois and Wisconsin, and totals 32, not bad
Tennessee
Iowa
Illinois
Wisconsin
Michigan
New Mexico
Florida
Louisianna
Arizona
Georgia
Nebraska
Pennsylvania
California
Texas
New York
New Jersey
Oklahoma
Kentucky
Ohio
Colorado
Idaho
Indianna
Washington, DC
Nevada
Alaska
Mississippi
Utah
Oregon
Missouri
South Carolina
North Carolina
Virgina

The goal would be to reach 50 of course, which would be no small feat. Lately, this little endeavour has been made much more difficult by all of the designer plates which are coming out. Pennsylvania, for example, has a number of different designs and patterns for its plates including some quite fancy ones for saving wildlife. This makes it more difficult to spot the plates as they look unique. Same for Michigan which has recently changed its design from the traditional white on blue to be the now-standard white background. In fact, most of the states now look similar in their designs. Georgia and Florida look quite similar with the main difference being the peach vs the orange.

Something to do I guess. I am also trying to learn the slogans for each of the states as well. The best (bar none) is New Hampshire's 'Live Free or Die'. Thank you, NOT! What a horrible slogan.

Til next time