Advancing the license plate game

 

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.

 

If you have any comments or questions, please e-mail me at Bob@inmybackpack.com