NEW YORK CITY & LONG ISLAND!

In late April, we took a trip to Long Island, NY. For collecting counties,  the New York City area can be tricky, as the traffic makes renting a car useless, as parking is often non-existent or very expensive. Long Island is much more vehicle-conducive, but we also wanted to visit NYC. So, with that in mind, we flew into Long Island MacArthur Airport, touching down in Suffolk County. We rented a 2025 Mercedes GLE350 and drove to Oyster Bay (hitting Nassau County in the process) to see the final resting place of President Theodore Roosevelt. We also stopped for lunch at Taby’s Burger House, where I had a nice hamburger. After that, we drove to our hotel, the Hyatt Regency Long Island.

The next morning, we took the Long Island Rail Road into New York City. The train took us naturally through Queens County. After stopping at Penn Station, we hopped on the subway, crossed the East River, and ended up in Brooklyn and, thus, King County, our last new county of the trip. While there, we walked a few blocks to the famous Dumbo (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) location for a few photos. From there, we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge back to Manhattan. Feeling hungry, we wandered a few blocks west and had a slice of pizza at Joe’s Pizza—one of New York City’s iconic stops.

With our bellies full, we hopped back on the subway, heading north to Central Park. We walked a few blocks to the Dakota, the former home of the late John Lennon, where he lived and died. Across the street, within Central Park, we visited the famous Imagine mosaic, where a woman played various Beatles and Lennon solo songs to the crowd. Shortly thereafter, we got on the subway again, headed north, and walked over to the tomb of President Ulysses S. Grant. Having fulfilled our plans for the day, we took the subway and LIRR back to Long Island. For dinner, we stopped at Cosmos Burgers Creamery in Islip Terrace.

The next day, we decided to explore Long Island. Our goal was to travel as far east as we could. Along the way, we stopped in front of the home of another Beatle, Paul McCartney. We were surprised at how accessible his house was. We didn’t knock on his door, but we could have. Instead, we drove off, stopping for lunch at the Lunch Lobster Roll in Southampton. From there, we drove to the end of the island, where we stopped to take a few photos of the Montauk Point Lighthouse. Having satisfied our desire to drive as far as possible, we turned around and headed back to the hotel.

On Tuesday morning, we flew back home. So, all in all, we picked up only four new counties, but we also visited several iconic locations. What’s next? We have a July trip planned for Wichita, so stay tuned!

NEW COUNTIES - 4

                  TOTAL COUNTIES FOR 2025 - 54

                 ALL TIME COUNTY TOTAL - 2807

FINISHING GEORGIA & THE CAROLINAS!

In March, we decided to take our first county-collecting trip of the year. Our destination was the southeastern region of the U.S. We flew into Atlanta on a Tuesday morning, rented our Volvo XC40 Hybrid, and were off and running!

We headed northeast out of town on HWY 19 and picked up Forsyth, Dawson Lumpkin, and Union Counties. When we got to Blairsville, we took a side trip to the west on HWY 76 until we crossed into Fannin County. Upon arrival, we immediately double-backed to Blairsville, continued east on HWY 76, and entered Towns County, our last new county in Georgia for the day. From there, we entered Clay County, North Carolina, and worked our way over to HWY 74, getting into Cherokee County, then later to a tri-county point to hit Macon and Graham Counties. We then went northwest across HWY 129, eventually crossing into Swain County and then the state of Tennessee.

The Tennessee portion of HWY 129 was very twisty and winding. It's a known stretch of road where motorcyclists get their pictures taken as they zoom around the turns. It’s popular enough that we saw three photography companies taking photos of every vehicle passing by. Eventually HWY 129 also twisted into Monroe County. We then continued northwest to pick up Loudon and Roane Counties, our last new counties of the day. Our final stop was the Hyatt Place in Downtown Knoxville. After we checked in, we walked over to The Kennedy for dinner before calling it a night.

We had a relatively light travel day on Wednesday—at least for us. Our next hotel was in Asheville, NC. But before heading there, we had to clear some counties northeast of Knoxville. We headed northeast on HWY 11W until we entered Grainger County. Once we hit the city of Blaine, we headed west on HWY 61 and crossed into Union County. As soon as we reached HWY 33, we turned northeast again, and entered Claiborne County. We then drove back into Grainger County before heading northeast on HWY 131 until we reached Hancock County. From there, we turned around, found our way back to HWY 25E, and crossed into Hamblen County.

We then headed for our first stop of the day, President Andrew Johnson’s grave, museum, and home. We drove into Greene County, then stopped at the gravesite first, visited the museum, then took a private tour of his home. Our private tour was simply because no one else signed up for that particular time. It was cool, nonetheless. After our fill of Andrew Johnson, we went to our hotel, the Tru by Hilton Asheville Blue Ridge Parkway. Along the way, we crossed the North Carolina border and Madison County. After checking into our hotel, we ate Mexican food at Mama’s and Beer.

We started our day on Thursday with a tour of the Biltmore Estate, the largest privately owned home in the country. The impressive 250-room French Renaissance chateau includes 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces. After the tour, we started our drive to Charlotte. As usual, we took a roundabout way to get there. We initially followed I-26 north, exiting HWY 19 and traveling east into both Yancey and Mitchell Counties. From there, we headed south until we crossed into McDowell County, where we got onto I-40 east. We stopped for lunch at Arby’s in Morganton. We followed the highway (or a parallel route), snaking our way to pick up Burke, Caldwell, Alexander, Catawba, and Iredell Counties. We then exited the interstate, somewhere not far northeast of Cool Springs. From there, we headed south and performed two turnarounds about a mile apart to enter Davie and Rowan Counties. We spent the next few nights at the Hyatt House in Charlotte/Rea Farms. After checking in, we walked to the Improper Pig, a barbeque restaurant featured on an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, for dinner.

Friday was a non-county day, where we worked and relaxed around our hotel area. We ate lunch at Penn Station Subs and dinner at a nearby Italian Restaurant called Little Mama’s.

On Saturday, we drove a loop route through South Carolina, visiting several new counties, before returning to our hotel in Charlotte. We started by heading south on I-77, picking up Chester and Fairfield Counties. We then took a side trip to visit Congaree National Park. The park was bustling, and we weren’t confident that we had parked legally, so we wandered around one of the trails for a few minutes before getting back in the car to finish our day.

After leaving Congaree, we headed northeast on I-26, where we picked up Newberry County. In Newberry, we got onto HWY 34, mainly heading west. We stopped at Dollar General for snacks and drinks when we got to the small town of Chappells. We then went south on HWY 39 to reach Saluda County. We turned around, went west again on HWY 34, and entered Greenwood County three miles later. We then turned around again, returned to Chappells, and went north on HWY 39 to Laurens County. When we got north of Clinton, we got onto HWY 56 and took it north into Union County, followed by Spartanburg County, a half mile later. We eventually worked our way up to I-85. We drove northeast through Cherokee County (our last county in South Carolina), and Cleveland County, NC. From there, it was straight back to our hotel. We ate dinner at a place called Margarita’s. You can imagine what their specialty is.

Sunday was a travel day back to Atlanta, but we still had two states to finish on the way. We headed west out of Charlotte and drove through Rutherford, and Polk Counties. We then crossed into Henderson County (where we’d been several years earlier) before crossing into Transylvania County, where we drove through the city of Brevard. Brevard has a lot of interesting small statues on the top of many of their traffic signals. As the road became more mountainous, we finally finished North Carolina by entering Jackson County.

We hooked up with HWY 23 as we crossed the state line into Georgia, picking up Rabun County in the process. We then stopped for lunch at the McDonald’s in Clayton. After eating, we continued south into Habersham County. From there, we took a side trip on HWY 123 near Ayersville to pick up Stephens County. After getting back on HWY 23, we continued southwest for about 10 more miles before taking a small 4-mile side trip to reach White County. From there, it was a direct path to our hotel, which took us right through Chattahoochee County and Hall County, our last new county of the trip, and our very last county for the state of Georgia. With 159 counties, Georgia has the second most, behind Texas’s 254, so it was nice to get this one done.

We spent the night at the Hyatt Place Atlanta / Centennial Park. We walked a few blocks to Ruth's Chris Steak House for a pricey (but delicious) steak dinner. We also walked across the street to the Georgia Aquarium, Centennial Park, and the World of Coca-Cola to do some touristy Atlanta things. Later that day, we drove to the Hyatt Place near the airport, where we spent our final night of the trip.

When it was all said and done, we’d picked up 50 new counties and completed two states. So, what’s next? We’ve got a visit to Long Island that’s already been completed. So, stay tuned!

NEW COUNTIES - 50

                  TOTAL COUNTIES FOR 2025 - 50

                 ALL TIME COUNTY TOTAL - 2803