On the road

Mrs Walles and I did go to Long Island last weekend but we never made into New York City because of the intense heat wave that was plaguing most of the country.  Long Island is the bit that sticks out to the right of Manhattan, which makes it a good base for visiting the city, but even though it was only a few minutes away, it didn't seem worth it just to melt in the city, when we could melt perfectly well where we were.  So we left the Big Baked Apple for later in the year.

On the trip I decided to start keeping note of which state number plates I'd seen.  I'm always on the lookout for unusual ones, but I was at the point where I'd see one and couldn't be sure if I'd seen it before.  It's a good travel game racking up the states and also seeing what each one looks like.  I'm particularly fond of the New Hampshire ones with the aggressive state motto "live free or die" (numbers blurred to protect the innocent).

It's an old revolutionary slogan, I believe, but it always makes me think of the citizens of New Hampshire as a testy bunch, always ready to open a can o' whip ass whenever things aren't going their way.

Anyway, just on the trip to New York and back I counted plates from Texas, New York, New Jersey, Florida, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Michigan, Georgia, Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, North Carolina, Washington D.C., Tennessee, Maine, Quebec, Delaware, Missouri, New Hampshire, Nevada, California, Wisconsin, Ontario, Illinois, Colorado and Indiana.  That's 26 states, just over half, plus Washington and two Canadian provinces.  If you needed proof of the centrality and importance of New York (not that you really did) there you have it.