Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Category: Roads

  • Three of Them

    Sequences of three came to mind, a trio of possibilities. Little did I know that so many places also focused on a similar theme. I found an abundance of opportunities. Of course, that equated to long lists for me to review as I started searching for something memorable. By “memorable” I meant to me personally.…

  • Highest Numbered Street

    Newer cities created on grid patterns often used street naming systems based on numbers. The closest street to an important urban feature became 1st Street. Numbers increased from there. Distinct patterns emerged in different cities, of course. Maybe numbered streets increased outward in two directions, north and south or east and west. Plenty of other…

  • Autumn in Huntingdon

    I completed the little adventure I described in County Hunter a few days ago. The first leg involved a track through previously unvisited Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. Don’t confuse this with Huntington (with a T) elsewhere in Pennsylvania, a township in Adams County near Gettysburg. I kept messing up searches because my mind wanted to spell…

  • C&O: Carderock to Georgetown

    I ride my bike most weekends and I like to switch-up the route whenever possible. Sometimes I complete a circuit. Other times I’ll go for an out-and-back. When I do that I enjoy playing a little game I call “how far can I get in an hour.” We’re blessed with an abundance of well-maintained, scenic…

  • Four Corners, Part 1 (Orientation)

    Our family visits a different part of the United States every summer. This year we decided to travel through northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. We made it as far west as the Four Corners monument although we we spent only a few moments in Utah and Arizona. We toured through parts of Utah back…

  • Tendril of Fairmont

    Last October I took a trip through various parts of northern West Virginia to count some counties. This included a stopover in Morgantown, home of the state’s flagship West Virginia University. I bypassed this area a number of times previously so I enjoyed being able to stop there for once. Research at the time brought…

  • Cigarette Hill

    I focused attention on unusual street names awhile ago. That theme played itself out over time so I left it behind for the most part. However, every once in awhile, I come across something interesting enough to mention on Twelve Mile Circle. This time it appeared in Texas. What was it about Texas? Once I…

  • Heartland, Part 4 (Beyond Covered)

    I couldn’t seem to shake my ever-growing fascination with bridges during my recent Heartland excursion. It started a few years ago, specifically with covered bridges, and expanded to various other styles for some unknown reason. I wouldn’t put this particular fascination at the same level as my county counting or my brewery obsessions although it…

  • Heartland, Part 3 (Foiled by Memorial Day)

    I figured I’d have to give this article a sneaky title or nobody would read it. Once again I decided to focus a portion of my journey on local breweries and brewpubs found along our route. These posts tend to underperform as some of the least popular items on Twelve Mile Circle. I know that…

  • Heartland, Part 1 (Why, oh Why?)

    Here we go again! I just finished a drive through the Midwest, all the way to Iowa and back, and returned on Saturday. We didn’t stay anywhere for very long and kept moving most of the time. We also stayed in different hotels for seven of the eight nights, and covered about 2,200 miles (3,500…