Category: Distance

  • Tennessee I-40 Time Zone Crossing

    So you’re driving along Interstate 40 in eastern Tennessee and you want to know where the time changes. Let’s make this easy. It happens between Mile Markers 340 and 341. If you’re driving westbound, going from Eastern Time into Central Time, set your coordinates to: 35.895888°, -84.701530° If you’re driving eastbound, going from Central Time…

  • Niagara Weekend, Part 3 (Down)

    With niceties out of the way including a few hours at Niagara Falls, I could focus on the primary purpose. Three more New York counties needed my attention: Wyoming, Cattaraugus, and Allegany. Collectively they created a significant doughnut hole on my map. Obviously that wouldn’t do so I drafted the most efficient route to grab…

  • Niagara Weekend, Part 1 (Up)

    I had a three-day weekend coming up and four unvisited counties in western New York staring me in the face. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Of course you are, but how could I sell it to the family? County Counting It’s getting more difficult to reach those unvisited counties to add them to my…

  • Ohio River, Part 9 (Evansville Loop)

    We continued to follow the basic path of the Ohio River, this time heading west from Louisville. At the far end we hit our most westerly destination, the city of Evansville, Indiana. Once again the day began with intentional destinations in mind. However, as once before, the second half of the journey focused on county…

  • Ohio River, Part 1 (Orientation)

    The COVID pandemic began to wane as summer approached. Sure, we’d taken pseudo-vacations since its arrival. We went to a couple of lakes and the beach, and experienced an almost normal trip to the South Carolina Lowcountry. Basically we went to places where we could hide for awhile and stay away from other people. So…

  • Carolina Wetlands, Part 3 (The Great Outdoors)

    I bypassed all sorts of interesting and historical places because I wanted to avoid indoor spaces during the pandemic. So I searched for outdoor attractions to keep us busy. Typically we do a lot of this on our trips anyway, but we really took it over the top this time. A whole lot of walking,…

  • Exploring the Mitten, Part 4 (On the Road)

    We took only one substantial day-trip during the week. It followed a loop focused on Sleeping Bear Dunes designed to captured as many counties along the way as possible. Obviously, I wanted to see more than big piles of sand in return for a 270 mile (435 kilometre) drive. I consulted my article map for…

  • Exploring the Mitten, Part 1 (Pivot)

    My county counting hadn’t gone so well this year thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. I did manage to make that one brief trip to Pennsylvania to complete the state. There I picked up a dozen new counties. Not bad. However, that hardly moved the needle overall. I knew one more opportunity loomed as the summer…

  • Bonneville Salt Flats

    Near Wendover, Utah, USA (July 2011) Something strange looms in the Utah desert along Interstate 80 west of the Great Salt Lake, about an hour-and-a-half outside of Salt Lake City. The terrain begins to change, starts to flatten-out. Streaks of white appear along the ground, gradually growing into patches, then into the dominant feature. Salt.…

  • Finishing Pennsylvania, Part 1 (Planning)

    I wanted to go to Idaho this summer. Then COVID-19 happened and threw those plans into disarray. Airplanes seemed unsafe and I couldn’t tell when I might fly again. My last real trip happened in February when I went to Bermuda. Back then the pandemic seemed a million miles away, something taking place on the…