Over
the years, I’ve told you about my adventures playing the license
plate game. Simple version of it goes like this: (1) When you
head out on a long road trip, keep track of the different states
you see license plates from. (2) Winning the game is finding one
plate from every state.
Closest
I’ve ever come was during a trip from New York to Florida and
back, when I reached 49 states. The missing state was Nevada.
Haunts me to this day.
Usually,
I find it’s not much of a challenge to clear thirty plates if
you’re on a decent enough drive. Forty is a good marker for doing
well. And, you’ll find a plate from Alaska or Hawaii more often
than you’d think possible.
Over
time, however, I’ve stumbled across other versions of the game.
Thought I’d share a few with you that I’ve created or learned
about.
U.S.
Bonus – This is where sightings such as the District of Columbia
come in to play. In addition to the fifty states and the District
of Columbia, there are plates from five U.S. territories and,
according to recent records, more than one dozen Native American
tribes.
Variations
– I think all of us are familiar with the idea that every state
seems to have a variety of license plate styles and images available.
Most of them are fundraising types of opportunities, where you
perhaps pay a bit extra to have your favorite college or a local
landmark depicted on your plate. Idea here is to find as many
of the variations for each state as possible. According to Florida
Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, the state of Florida has more
than one hundred specialty plates. That should be enough to keep
you busy on a drive around The Sunshine State.
Regions
– In this effort, you divide the United States up into regions.
New England. The east coast. States that border Canada. States
with a boundary that touches an ocean.
North
America – Did you know that Canada issues their plates by provinces
or territories, creating a total of thirteen different license
plates by what we’ll sum up as a general identifier? Mexico has
thirty-one states and a federal district that issue license plates.
Alphabet
States – Select a state. Try to find license plates from that
state that have the letters of the alphabet in the plate number,
in order.
That’s
five significantly different or expanded versions of the basic
game. Considering I’ve never been able to fully complete the original
challenge, all of them create interesting tests. Or, at least
have the potential of doing so.
Imagine
you live in the northwest of the United States. Locating the six
states of New England will be nudged right up against impossible.
Similar difficulties await a person in New Mexico being asked
to track down the plates of states that have a border on at least
one Great Lake. Anyone in Montana or Utah will be cursing Rhode
Island when checking off plates from states that touch the Atlantic
Ocean.
How
about creating a multi-page affair? One where you are working
on the normal game of fifty states, but get to branch out into
different in game challenges. Find the fifty states, with the
U.S. Bonus category above breaking ties. Or, find the fifty states,
with different regional grouping games built in to work on with
your results.
The
license plate game. The travel gift that keeps on giving.