Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Category: Roads

  • Bought the Town

    The article-generating loop continues with the recent Creative Marketing article leading directly into this one. It’s not quite a geo-oddity perpetual motion machine although that would certainly be an interesting thought. It’s hard enough to find meaningful topics without having to stitch them together end-to-end. So I think the coincidental associations will end here at…

  • Arizona Strip

    Arizona’s observance of time demonstrates considerable weirdness. This article isn’t about time, however, although it’s about Arizona. I think of Arizona at least twice a year, in Spring and in Autumn when the United States toggles between standard and daylight saving time. A disconnected memory triggered by the upcoming time change floated back into to…

  • Captain Thunderbolt

    Captain Thunderbolt, despite a name seemingly custom-designed for a comic book, was not a superhero. He certainly couldn’t stop bullets from penetrating his chest. I went in search of places named for “Captains Less Prestigious” recently. The effort intended to find memorable places associated with second-tier captains who never achieved the same level of fame…

  • Canada to Mexico

    [EDITOR’S NOTE: Google Maps changes its algorithms periodically. Times and distances were correct when published in 2012; they have changed in the meantime] The Twelve Mile Circle continues to generate all sorts of interesting search engine queries, an endless stream of potential article topics. I remember back in the early days of the blog I…

  • Gephyrophobia

    Gephyrophobia is a fear of bridges. People who experience this anxiety are gephyrophobiacs. I’ve known people with this fear to varying degrees although I didn’t realize it had an actual name until recently. I noticed a search engine query on Twelve Mile Circle from someone who appeared to be a gephyrophobiac. The person wanted to…

  • Ferry from Maryland to Virginia

    It’s time to provide another Public Service Announcement. These are Twelve Mile Circle articles that answer burning questions from one-time visitors in the general public that may not appeal to the regular audience. I’ll talk about maps, transportation and a little about history that may interest a localized segment of readers. Feel free to continue…

  • Longest Distance in an Hour

    It’s the easy questions that seem to be the most difficult to answer sometimes. The search engine query captured in my web logs appeared to be a simple affair. “What is the longest distance someone can drive in an hour.” I figured the answer would probably be the portions of the Autobahn in Germany that…

  • Barron County Street Grid

    I stumbled upon Barron County, Wisconsin — figuratively speaking — as I researched the Big Zero article. There seemed to be a plethora of zero-themed streets in the United States. In fact I think I’d claim that no other nation competes with the sheer number of zero streets, avenues, lanes, drives, etc., found throughout the…

  • Big Zero

    I noticed something I hadn’t seen before as I gazed upon a map of the Canada – United States border. Well, maybe I’d noticed it before although it must not have registered at the time if that’s the case. What? You don’t stare at maps of the border? It’s one of my fixations. I’ve learned…

  • Locomotive Engineer for a Day

    All children want to be a locomotive engineer at one point in their childhood. Or maybe that was just me? It’s one of those exciting jobs like astronaut or fireman or race car driver. So I had an opportunity to reach back to my childhood dreams recently. I got as close as humanly possible to…