Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Category: Distance

  • Mackinac’s Orbit, Part 2 (Counting Fingers)

    The purpose of the trip wasn’t county counting, it was visiting our older kid who worked on Mackinac Island for the summer. Even so, I still had a bunch of uncounted counties in that area so I planned to use that convenient occurrence to my advantage. That’s how a day that normally should involve a…

  • Le Tour De Shore

    It seemed like a good idea last January when a friend mentioned Le Tour De Shore to me. He wanted to try a long distance bicycle ride and what better place to try that a place almost completely devoid of hills? There’s almost nothing but flat out on the Delmarva Peninsula. So he convinced me…

  • Indiana Toll Road Time Zone Crossing

    So you’re sitting somewhere outside of Chicago, Illinois cruising along the Indiana Toll Road. Most people know that Chicago and all of its nearby Indiana suburbs follow Central Time. On the other hand, much of the rest of Indiana follows Eastern Time. You just want to know when to change your watch, right? Let’s cut…

  • Florida I-10 Time Zone Crossing

    I’ll bet you’re checking your phone right now, driving along Interstate 10 in Florida and wondering where the time changes. I think I can help you. It happens between Mile Markers 160 and 161. If you’re driving westbound, going from Eastern Time into Central Time, set your coordinates to: 30.633557°, -84.904119° If you’re driving eastbound,…

  • 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,…