What counts as a visit?

Comments

6 responses to “What counts as a visit?”

1. 

   Zach

   January 9, 2010

   When my friend and I took a regional road trip that included several states to which neither of us had never been, our rule was that we had to transact some sort of commerce in a state before we could count it – that might be a sign that we were law students.

   Hence a midnight Dairy Queen visit in New Albany, IN, across the river from Kentucky, and Arkansas crossed off the list after staying overnight in West Memphis and dining at the local Iron Skillet.

   Reply
2. 

   Craig

   January 9, 2010

   If I started to require some foot-on-ground or transaction rule, I’d have to uncount several states I went through as a child, so I’ll stick to “riding through in a car or on a bus or train is good enough”.

   I don’t count flyovers, because I have no reasonable way to know the path of most(all?) of the flights I’ve ever taken, except for the termini. However, I guess I do count layovers/stopovers; otherwise, I’ve never been to Texas.

   Besides, I grew up in Delaware and I don’t begrudge anyone who says they’ve “been to Delaware” when they’ve only paid the toll and driven the 23.43 miles of I-95 through the state. 😉

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3. 

   Mike Lowe

   January 10, 2010

   Hi. My name is Mike and I’m a county counter.

   {the 12-step audience says “hi Mike”.}

   I didn’t know I was a county counter until I started reading this blog a while ago. I just thought it would be a fun road trip to hit every unvisited county in Texas south of I10 during a long Easter weekend.

   I used to be happy just to bag a state. My soon-to-be wife got me into that when she told me that she’s been to every state except for Hawaii, Idaho, Utah, Montana, North Dakota, and Alaska. Now she only needs the last three. Those are hard for a Texan to get.

   The roots of county counting start at an early age. Texans are taught we have 254 counties. Then I fell hard into county counting. But I’m _not_ an addict. I _can_ handle it. I have 636 counties which is 20.2% of 3142. I’m _not_ obsessed. I only visit the Mob Rule site a couple times a week. The link for my name goes to my county map.

   {Mike sighs}

   Oh who am I kidding! I have a fantasy route in Microsoft Streets and Trips of 6000 miles that goes from home to MT and ND and back with special emphasis on hitting more counties. It would complete Texas for me.

   Anyway, let get back on topic. I share the opinion of our fearless Twelve Mile Circle leader on what counts. Great circle routes are a bit hard to track from an aisle seat in cattle class of our wondrous airlines. I don’t count trips taken while an infant. If I did, I’d have Interstates 90 and 94 from WA to WI and Interstate 5 from WA to CA. Nope.

   I had a crisis of conscience on whether to include my visits to MD and eastern VA. I knew I had been to DC twice and Jamestown once. I had to use my parents’ memories for the other areas. How does a 14-year-old kid in the back seat of a rental car know if they’ve visited Arlington versus Alexandria versus some other spot on the Potomoc? I count those counties. The parentals had fun helping.

   In the end it’s all for fun.

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4. 

   WKHarrisjr

   January 10, 2010

   Craig-

   Are you a pilot with Southwestern Airline? If so, it’s me, Bill from Stanton! If not, never mind!

   Reply
5. 

   Steve

   January 13, 2010

   Oh man. Tom, you’re really pushing my buttons to get going on my own count with these every-so-often posts.

   I do agree with your counting method and here’s something crazy: Craig, I too am originally from DE and my only visits to TX have been in DFW airport (many times.) And yes, I count that.

   Anyway, like Mike, I’d have to sit with a huge Atlas and my dad to accurately county count. Or, like I’ve done with my other lists, I could just start at the point when I began traveling with my wife… But that would drive me batty b/c my county count would be 10% of what it truly is. And it’s not like I do that for my state tally (missing AK,SD, ND, OK, MS, AK)…

   sigh.

   So you see my dilemma.

   Reply
   1. 

      Twelve Mile Circle

      January 13, 2010

      I am saving my children from this dilemma by tracking every new county they’ve visited by year, since birth. I realize this practically guarantees that neither of them will ever have an interest in county counting.

      Reply