Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Category: Roads

  • Saint Martin Borders and Boundaries

    Borders? We don’t need no stinking borders. You didn’t really think I’d go all the way to St. Martin and sit on the beach all week, right? Well I’ve done a bit of that too, and I’ll focus some attention there in my next post. However, today it’s all about all the awesome border crossings…

  • Geo-Oddities of Portland, Oregon

    Every once in awhile I’m honored to share content or even an entire guest post written by a loyal Twelve Mile Circle reader. We are very lucky today. Marc Alifanz contributes his expert knowledge of Geo-oddities in Portland, Oregon. Marc is an experienced blogger both in his professional and personal life and as he demonstrates…

  • Potomac in Oregon

    Is there a Potomac River in Oregon? I’m only aware of the one that forms a boundary between Virginia and Maryland/Washington, DC and out to West Virginia. However, I’ve been receiving a slow but steady trickle of search engine queries on the topic for the last several weeks. Maybe I’m missing something. Is there a…

  • What’s “Almost Heaven?”

    We examined a song containing a blatant geographic inaccuracy in a recent article, “In Them Old Cotton Fields.” I left a hint for readers when I stated that I too took offense at a song with an equally irritating error, one having to do with the Mountain State. Many of you probably knew the answer…

  • Memorable Crossings (Mexico)

    I examined several border crossings between South Africa and its neighbors that are available in Google Street View in the previous installment of this series. This time I move back across the Atlantic Ocean to North America, examining similar situations in Mexico where there is actually much greater image coverage. United States There are numerous…

  • Memorable Crossings (South Africa)

    Google Street View came to South Africa as part of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. It remains the only portion of continental Africa[1] with Street View coverage as of the time I posted this in February 2011. So it definitely provides opportunities to explore South Africa. However, it leaves me wanting for images of its…

  • International Clip

    I’ve always had a thing about collecting and counting geography. You’ve seen plenty of examples of that on Twelve Mile Circle before. For example, reference my ongoing tally of U.S. counties that I have visited. Sometimes these “visits” are exceedingly brief, even measuring to mere seconds. Yet, they still count according to the arbitrary rules…

  • Penciling-In Reagan

    I discussed the erasure of Martin Van Buren from geographic features as his popularity waned during the Nineteenth Century. Interestingly the opposite phenomenon seems to be happening with a more modern historical figure, Ronald Reagan. His stock continues to climb as the years progress. Also his February 6, 1911, birthday generated great publicity on its…

  • Low Clearance

    I’ve seen an unusual website mentioned on several aggregator and blogging websites called 11foot8.com. I’m sure that some of you’ve seen it too and it probably doesn’t need much introduction. It features an 11 foot 8 inch (3.56 metre) overpass on Gregson Street in Durham, North Carolina that has the propensity to peel the tops…

  • Random Canada

    Many months ago I toyed with an idea that I called “Throw the Dart”. That’s where I’d go into Google Street View, drop the cursor onto some random part of the world and then try to create an article from thin air. It worked pretty well in October 2009 when I hit a spot outside…