WWTBAM Bored

I have long thought that I have been to about half the 3,100 (or so) counties. Lots of long driving trips on different roads add up counties quick.

We (4 of us, minus Littlest) did a short trip this week. Based on a John Deere plant in Moline, Ill and the Field Museum in Chicago. As "Ghost and the Darkness" is a favorite movie-the 2 oldest wanted to see the Lions of Tsavo there.

Me and Li'l Spock killed several miles by arguing over whether I had half or not-he says "No."

I did pick up a few in Iowa (which is getting harder to do) and some in Illinois and Wisconsin.

I have been to 86 of the 87 counties in Minnesota-as I tried to tell Li'l Spock-this gives me a strong base to start on the rest.

Mrs S and the Spocklette laughed at me as they predicted that I would talk about basing future travels on picking up counties.

I have been to 49 states (driven to the 48).

My biggest geographic hole (county-wise) is the northwest.

Large parts of Nevada, Oregon, Washington and northern California.

The Trouble will be with states like Indiana, which is much longer than it is wide. If you drive east to west in Indiana, you probably only hit 5 or 6 counties, depending on which highway you're on. But if you go north-south, you hit a much greater number. But since there are 92 counties, and only three major E-W interstates, and 2 N-S interstates, you have to do some creative driving to get close to hitting half of them, let alone all.

Of course, the converse is true of states like Kentucky and Tennessee.

mrkelley23 wrote:The Trouble will be with states like Indiana, which is much longer than it is wide. If you drive east to west in Indiana, you probably only hit 5 or 6 counties, depending on which highway you're on. But if you go north-south, you hit a much greater number. But since there are 92 counties, and only three major E-W interstates, and 2 N-S interstates, you have to do some creative driving to get close to hitting half of them, let alone all.

Of course, the converse is true of states like Kentucky and Tennessee.

I have hit Indiana 3 or 4 different ways. I didn't realize there were 92 counties there. It is a target rich environment-LOL.

Delaware is easy to figure out, I have 3 out of 3.

Oregon is surprisingly hard to figure out. I have only been to Pendleton in the far northeast, but I don't remember which route we took from Idaho.

Some guesswork will be involved-but in essence, it will be 6 of one, half dozen of the other. If I credit myself with "Route A" and "County Kelley" and I am wrong and we actually took "Route B" and actually hit "County Littlebeast"-It still will be close.

Oregon aside, I am pretty good at remembering routes.

I'm a 49er too. Need to get to Hawaii sometime.

silverscreenselect wrote:

LOL-Not far off really.

I was planning to take transit from Hotel to Field Museum-but we decided it would be simpler to just drive in. Roosevelt Road was just a few blocks north of our hotel (in Naperville area) and it ended right at the Museum complex.

Let's just say that Roosevelt Road has not been gentrified and appeared to be off the beaten tourist path.

I suspect that many in Chicagoland have never driven Roosevelt Road so I got that going for me anyway.

Spock wrote:Mrs S and the Spocklette laughed at me as they predicted that I would talk about basing future travels on picking up counties.

I have been to 49 states (driven to the 48).

My biggest geographic hole (county-wise) is the northwest.

Large parts of Nevada, Oregon, Washington and northern California.

I've been to 49 states and driven to 48 & D.C. I'm too old to drive to Alaska.

There's a lot of territory in Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and northern California you can't drive to. I've probably driven on all the major roads in them as well as many of the minor ones.

flockofseagulls104 wrote:I'm a 49er too. Need to get to Hawaii sometime.

Yes you do!

I only have 5 states left all up in the Northwest-ish area. I wish I had played hookie when I was in N Dakota for 2 weeks but it was a business trip so not advisable. Plus I have no idea how Fargo is to the border of S Dakota but I am guessing it would have been a long drive by myself.

christie1111 wrote:

flockofseagulls104 wrote:I'm a 49er too. Need to get to Hawaii sometime.

Yes you do!

I only have 5 states left all up in the Northwest-ish area. I wish I had played hookie when I was in N Dakota for 2 weeks but it was a business trip so not advisable. Plus I have no idea how Fargo is to the border of S Dakota but I am guessing it would have been a long drive by myself.

Fargo is only 62 miles from South Dakota, plus there is a casino at the border-so if work calls you to fargo again we could meet you at the casino for supper and you could get South Dakota.

Oh, and the interstate from Fargo south is completely flat, literally.

I'm a 46er. I have WV, NH, ME, and AK left.

Not sure how many counties I've been to, but because of this thread I have a new distraction while in the hotels alone traveling. I'll do Texas first as it will be the most time consuming and in need of lots of analysis. A lot of counties I may have been to/through depending on the route I took on a particular trip. I will need to make some educated guesses on some.

BackInTex wrote:I'm a 46er. I have WV, NH, ME, and AK left.

Not sure how many counties I've been to, but because of this thread I have a new distraction while in the hotels alone traveling. I'll do Texas first as it will be the most time consuming and in need of lots of analysis. A lot of counties I may have been to/through depending on the route I took on a particular trip. I will need to make some educated guesses on some.

We used to highlight the roads we took on various trips in a road atlas, but that has been lost.

I know I have over-thunk this, but my plan is to-

1) build a spreadsheet for each state with counties in alphabetical order. Then code each county with a numeric "1"

2) Code the counties I have been to with a numeric "1." That way percentages for each state are easy.

3) Using a blank base map of state counties-highlight the ones I have been to. This will make areas that I need to travel to in the future easy to see.

4) Ideally, Highlight in a road atlas as well.

Spock wrote:

BackInTex wrote:I'm a 46er. I have WV, NH, ME, and AK left.

Not sure how many counties I've been to, but because of this thread I have a new distraction while in the hotels alone traveling. I'll do Texas first as it will be the most time consuming and in need of lots of analysis. A lot of counties I may have been to/through depending on the route I took on a particular trip. I will need to make some educated guesses on some.

We used to highlight the roads we took on various trips in a road atlas, but that has been lost.

I know I have over-thunk this, but my plan is to-

1) build a spreadsheet for each state with counties in alphabetical order. Then code each county with a numeric "1"

2) Code the counties I have been to with a numeric "1." That way percentages for each state are easy.

3) Using a blank base map of state counties-highlight the ones I have been to. This will make areas that I need to travel to in the future easy to see.

4) Ideally, Highlight in a road atlas as well.

Or you could use this Web site. --Bob

Spock wrote:

BackInTex wrote:I'm a 46er. I have WV, NH, ME, and AK left.

Not sure how many counties I've been to, but because of this thread I have a new distraction while in the hotels alone traveling. I'll do Texas first as it will be the most time consuming and in need of lots of analysis. A lot of counties I may have been to/through depending on the route I took on a particular trip. I will need to make some educated guesses on some.

We used to highlight the roads we took on various trips in a road atlas, but that has been lost.

I know I have over-thunk this, but my plan is to-

1) build a spreadsheet for each state with counties in alphabetical order. Then code each county with a numeric "1"

2) Code the counties I have been to with a numeric "1." That way percentages for each state are easy.

3) Using a blank base map of state counties-highlight the ones I have been to. This will make areas that I need to travel to in the future easy to see.

4) Ideally, Highlight in a road atlas as well.

Some years ago, someone posted a link to a website that allowed you to mark the roads you've traveled on then gave you a count of the counties. I spent quite a bit of time doing that then crashed the website when I saved it.

I don't get around, but my Where's George bills do....



lb13

I did Illinois as it is fresh in my mind.

I have 36 (solid) out of 102.

35 Percent.

One time I got lost on gravel roads in western Illinois, on a short jog from Missouri, but I can't figure out where that was.

Spock wrote:I did Illinois as it is fresh in my mind.

I have 36 (solid) out of 102.

35 Percent.

One time I got lost on gravel roads in western Illinois, on a short jog from Missouri, but I can't figure out where that was.

Granite City?

Bob78164 wrote:

Spock wrote:

BackInTex wrote:I'm a 46er. I have WV, NH, ME, and AK left.

Not sure how many counties I've been to, but because of this thread I have a new distraction while in the hotels alone traveling. I'll do Texas first as it will be the most time consuming and in need of lots of analysis. A lot of counties I may have been to/through depending on the route I took on a particular trip. I will need to make some educated guesses on some.

We used to highlight the roads we took on various trips in a road atlas, but that has been lost.

I know I have over-thunk this, but my plan is to-

1) build a spreadsheet for each state with counties in alphabetical order. Then code each county with a numeric "1"

2) Code the counties I have been to with a numeric "1." That way percentages for each state are easy.

3) Using a blank base map of state counties-highlight the ones I have been to. This will make areas that I need to travel to in the future easy to see.

4) Ideally, Highlight in a road atlas as well.

Or you could use this Web site. --Bob

Thanks, I looked at at it some and some point it might be fun to transfer my stuff there, but I don't want to be dependent on a website that may just die over time. I do see that they linked the Degree Confluence Project which I mentioned here years ago.

Years ago, during Spock College V2(The Geography Years) I had good mapping software and I was going to work on it then, but that is a couple of computers ago and it just won't work now.

There's a geocaching challenge to get a cache in every town in your state. Massachusetts has 351 towns and we have been to 350 of them. The only holdout requires a bit of a boat ride to visit, but we'll get there:

Spoiler

Vandal wrote:There's a geocaching challenge to get a cache in every town in your state. Massachusetts has 351 towns and we have been to 350 of them. The only holdout requires a bit of a boat ride to visit, but we'll get there:

Spoiler

I once knew a man from

Spoiler

Nantucket

He'd feed the crabs on the beach from a bucket

BackInTex wrote: I once knew a man from

Spoiler

Nantucket

He'd feed the crabs on the beach from a bucket

When Vandal does go there, he needs to look up that man; he's so famous that he's had thousands of poems written about him.

silverscreenselect wrote:

BackInTex wrote: I once knew a man from

Spoiler

Nantucket

He'd feed the crabs on the beach from a bucket

When Vandal does go there, he needs to look up that man; he's so famous that he's had thousands of poems written about him.

I'm pretty sure the literary world has done more with

Spoiler

"There once was a girl from Nantucket"

But I don't venture into that part of the bookstore very often.

Vandal wrote:

silverscreenselect wrote:

BackInTex wrote: I once knew a man from

Spoiler

Nantucket

He'd feed the crabs on the beach from a bucket

When Vandal does go there, he needs to look up that man; he's so famous that he's had thousands of poems written about him.

I'm pretty sure the literary world has done more with

Spoiler

"There once was a girl from Nantucket"

But I don't venture into that part of the bookstore very often.

Say hello to Elin Hilderbrand! I've read all her stuff.

Vandal wrote:

silverscreenselect wrote:

BackInTex wrote: I once knew a man from

Spoiler

Nantucket

He'd feed the crabs on the beach from a bucket

When Vandal does go there, he needs to look up that man; he's so famous that he's had thousands of poems written about him.

I'm pretty sure the literary world has done more with

Spoiler

"There once was a girl from Nantucket"

But I don't venture into that part of the bookstore very often.

You could look her up too, but you might want to make sure your wife's not around when you do.

There once was a man from Nantucket
Who kept all his cash in a bucket.
But his daughter named Nan,
Ran away with a man
And as for the bucket, Nantucket.