MICHIGAN!

At the last minute we decided to take a small road trip to our neighboring state of Michigan. Unlike many of our trips, this one started on a Saturday morning and ended with a return home Sunday night. We got up early and left before 8:00. Our first stop was the city of St. Joseph. It would take about 3.5 hours to go “around” Lake Michigan via Chicago and northwestern Indiana. We hit no new counties on the way. But we did meet up for lunch with some old friends in St. Joseph (Berrien County). Silver Beech Pizza is the top-rated restaurant in town. And it’s worth the hype – and the one-hour wait.

After lunch we headed north, basically hovering aside Lake Michigan. My entire life has been spent living within five miles of the Great Lake – but on the Wisconsin side. How odd it was to drive north knowing the lake was on my left. Once we hit Muskegon we ventured northeast on HWY 120. And from there we were in the middle of nowhere for a couple of hours. There were two separate “four corner” areas where four counties come together at a point. For the sake of efficiency (and time) we tailored our route to get as close to these areas as possible. So we saw some of the hidden back roads (and dirt roads) that Michigan has to offer. It wasn’t until we hit Traverse City that we felt we were back in civilization. Such is the life of county collecting. And we loved every minute of it.

By the time we’d arrived in Traverse City we’d picked up Van Buren, Allegan, Ottawa, Muskegon, Newaygo, Oceana, Lake, Mason, Wexford, Manistee, Benzie and Grand Traverse Counties. As the West Arm of Grant Traverse Bay opened up we took a left turn, drove about a mile to the Leelanau County border, turned around and headed back east - passing by a fair as we went.

Our hotel was in Houghton Lake. And our eastern route on HWY 72 took us into Kalkaska County. Instead of heading directly to our hotel thought we went northeast to pick up both Antrim and Charlevoix Counties. From there we headed directly south to our hotel, picking up Otsego, Crawford and Roscommon Counties along the way.

As we exited the highway with our hotel literally in sight to the left, we instead turned right. About two miles down the road we hit Missaukee County as the sun was nearly done setting. With 20 new counties on the day, our hotel rest was well-earned. We ended up spending the night at the American Inn and Suites, Houghton Lake.

On Sunday morning we headed out a little after 9:00. Heading south on HWY 127. Clare County became our first new county of the day. After turning west on HWY 10 we hit a milestone about 15 miles down the road. Osceola County became the 1000^th county we’ve visited as a couple. Only 2142 to go!

We turned south and hit Mecosta, Isabella, Montcalm, Gratiot and Clinton Counties. At this point we decided to add a couple of bonus counties to our route. We have a future trip planned for the eastern portion of Michigan. And we could knock off about an hour of that trip if we spent about 45 minutes extra on this one. It was a no-brainer. So we continued west, picking up both Shiawassee and Saginaw Counties. After that we put home in the GPS. Our trip back hit both Ionia and Kent Counties – are last new counties of the trip.

Kent County is also where we stopped for lunch – Red Robin Restaurant in Kentwood, a Grand Rapids suburb. Lastly we headed to downtown Grand Rapids to the Gerald Ford Museum and gravesite. We didn’t have time to go in. But the grounds were lovely.

All in all we hit 31 new counties on this impromptu trip. What’s next? The annual summer week-long road trip with our kids starts this coming weekend. I believe that one features 18 states, several independent cities, a district and even a foreign country. Stay tuned!

                                                   NEW COUNTIES - 31

                                                   TOTAL COUNTIES FOR 2015 - 247

                                                   ALL TIME COUNTY TOTAL - 1009


7/17/17 UPDATE: We recently realized that in putting our county list together, we had inadvertently failed to include two counties that we had previously entered. On a summer, 2014 road trip, we went to Disneyland in California (Orange County). And upon leaving Disneyland for Las Vegas, we entered Riverside County as well. So even though it says 1009 total counties in this post above, the actual number at the time was 1011.

CALIFORNIA HERE WE COME!

Taking advantage of a three-day weekend, we used a couple of Southwest Airlines vouchers to take a trip to San Francisco. We left on Thursday evening, arriving in San Francisco around 10:00 PM. The airport (and our hotel) was in San Mateo County – our first of many new counties for the weekend. We spent the night at the Best Western Plus, Coyote Point. And on Saturday we started our sightseeing.

On Saturday morning we checked out and drove up to San Francisco – which is in San Francisco County. We weaved through the city streets enjoying the ridiculous hills as well as the extremely crooked portions of both Vermont and Lombard streets. We also saw Fisherman’s Wharf and the sea lions (or in this case just one sea lion) by Pier 39. The tickets to visit Alcatraz were sold out. So all we could do was stare at it from the shore. From there we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and entered Marin County. The county border is actually halfway across the bridge.

Our destination for the night was Reno. So our route cut across California in a relatively easterly path. We made a quick pit stop in San Anselmo (home of George Lucas) for a photo opportunity with the Yoda and Indiana Jones statues. Then we were off. We ran into some heavy traffic near Sacramento which cost us about 30 minutes of time. We stopped to pick up some lunch at Burger King. And we rolled into Nevada around 5:00. Along the way we picked up the California counties of Sonoma, Solano, Napa, Yolo, Sacramento, Sutter, Yuba, Placer, Nevada and Sierra.

As we crossed into the state of Nevada we entered Washoe County. Although our hotel was here (in Reno) we continued further east. We had one more county to hit before the day was done. We had to drive maybe an additional 20 miles to enter Storey County. And although we could have entered it 10 miles earlier, we continued on in order to enter it later. Why? Because that’s where Electric Avenue was located. And we just had to get a picture there. Did we rock down to it? Absolutely!

We spent the night at the Grand Sierra Resort & Casino Featuring The Summit. Although we ended up eating dinner at a neighboring casino – the Atlantis.

We woke up on July 4^th and checked out around 8:30. From there we headed south into the independent city (and state capitol) of Carson City. We immediately headed east. About four miles later we entered the small community of Mound House – and Lyon County. Before turning around and heading back we saw a VW Bug perched on “spider” legs. Why? Who knows. But there it was. From there we headed back into Carson City, picked up breakfast from McDonald’s, drove due south on HWY 88 (thus entering Douglas County) and crossed the border back into California – and Alpine County.

We stayed on HWY 88 for quite awhile, working our way through a mountainous, forested area. We entered Amador County then had to exit the highway in order to enter El Dorado County by a burned-out former lodge (we think) in an area called Iron Mountain Sno-Park. Our next new county was then Calaveras. According to the Mob Rules County website, Amador and Calaveras Counties are two of the least-visited amongst county collectors. We got honked at for slowing down to take a picture of one of the county signs. But it was cool getting the two signs which were on opposite sides of a bridge which spans the Mokelumne River

After stopping for lunch in Denica’s in Livermore, our next destination was the former headquarters of Atari. Back in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, a lot of magic was created at 1265 Borregas Avenue in Sunnyvale. Today it’s just an empty office building. Just down the street at 1196 Borregas Avenue was another one of their offices – a place they moved to in the mid-1980’s. To get there we passed through San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Alameda, Contra Costa and Santa Clara Counties.

We then headed to the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose – former home of Sarah Winchester, heir to the Winchester Rifle fortune. This 160-room mansion features stairs to nowhere, doors that open to drops to the floors below and cupboards with less than one inch of storage space. To say it’s odd would be an understatement. But it’s definitely worth a tour. Unfortunately photography is not permitted inside the mansion. But pictures outside are ok.

Since there was still plenty of daylight left, we decided to take a diversion from our planned route and take a drive up the coast on HWY 1. In order to get there we took HWY 101 south out of San Jose and worked our way over to the coast. In doing so we hit two bonus counties: San Benito and Monterey. We then drove along the coastline on HWY 1 getting wonderful views of the Pacific Ocean as we headed north. Our final new county was that of Santa Cruz – a county that would have been #28 for us. Instead it ended up being #30. We then returned to the same hotel that we’d stayed at in San Mateo two nights earlier. Our flight back home was leaving at 6:00 the next morning. So an early rest was necessary.

For the weekend we hit 30 new counties and independent cities – 25 in California and five in Nevada. Where are we going next? We’ve got a nine-day road trip to the northeast planned two weeks from now. We’ll see you then!

                                                   NEW COUNTIES - 30

                                                   TOTAL COUNTIES FOR 2015 - 216

                                                   ALL TIME COUNTY TOTAL - 978

                                               

7/17/17 UPDATE: We recently realized that in putting our county list together, we had inadvertently failed to include two counties that we had previously entered. On a summer, 2014 road trip, we went to Disneyland in California (Orange County). And upon leaving Disneyland for Las Vegas, we entered Riverside County as well. So even though it says 978 total counties in this post above, the actual number at the time was 980.

ARKANSAS!

The first weekend in June saw us decide to take a small weekend getaway to Arkansas. Arkansas was one of the few states we hadn’t ever spent the night in. So now was as good a time as ever.

On Friday night we drove straight through to Fairview Heights, IL. – more-or-less a suburb of St. Louis. Our destination was the Holiday Inn St. Louis/Fairview Heights. Having covered most of the counties in Illinois already, we hit no new ones on the way. The next day would be different.

On Saturday we set out due south from Fairview Heights. We then hit our first two new counties of the day: Monroe and Randolph – both in Illinois. In Randolph County we drove through the city of Chester, whose claim to fame is being the home of Popeye. The creator of the Popeye comic strip was born in Chester. And the city has embraced his legacy by building a Popeye museum and putting up statues of Popeye characters all over town. They plan to add several more over the coming years.

After leaving Chester we crossed the Mississippi River and entered Missouri. The majority of our Missouri driving had us weaving through the Mark Twain National Forest. The Forest is spread out over 29 counties – the most of any National Forest.  We saw a lot of trees, many windy roads, a deer and a turtle. Along the way we hit the new counties of St. Francois, Madison, Wayne, Reynolds, Carter, Shannon, Oregon and Ripley. Apparently our route took us right past a ranch where the Beatles spent a weekend getaway in 1964.

Leaving Ripley County we crossed the state line into Mammoth Spring, AR., and Fulton County. We stopped for gas and continued west toward Mountain Home, and Baxter County. Mountain Home was the furthest west we would go. We had to get to our hotel. So we headed southeast on HWY 5, entering Izard, Stone and Cleburne counties. Our entire drive through Arkansas was mountainous and remote. There were no major cities. But there were plenty of twisty roads. Eventually we hit the city of Concord. From there we headed northeast on the final leg of Saturday’s drive. We drove through Independence, Sharp and Lawrence Counties. We made a pit stop in the city of Walnut Ridge. Apparently the Beatles switched planes here once (en route to that ranch in Missouri). And the small city of Walnut Ridge has embraced this claim to fame. A local artist has created Abbey Road. There’s also a few other Beatles sights to be seen. Not to be overshadowed, Walnut Ridge also features a “guitar walk” which pays tribute to several country and western artists. Not bad for a town with less than 5000 people!

After leaving Walnut Ridge we headed north (on the Rock & Roll Highway) to our hotel in Pocahontas. In doing so we hit our final county of the day – Randolph. We had dinner at the El Acapulco Mexican restaurant and spent the night in the Days Inn & Suites: Pocahontas.

On Sunday we had about 10.5 hours of driving ahead of us. But before we left we had to visit the “meteorite” in Pocahontas. A farmer in 1859 “found” this rock and insisted it had fallen from the sky. Geologists have since confirmed that it is in fact an Earth-born local rock. But the city doesn’t care. And so it’s proudly displayed in front of the courthouse.

After leaving the meteorite we headed northwest and into Clay County. From there we went north and crossed into Missouri, and Butler County. We then hit Stoddard County and Bollinger County – the latter of which required a drive a couple miles out of our way, north of the city of Advance. No county left behind!

From there we headed east into Illinois. We had only four new counties left on the west side of the state. And our route was going to hit them all. Thankfully all four were stacked “on top of each other.” And with a straight northerly route, we hit Jackson, Perry, Washington and Clinton Counties. We stopped in the city of Centralia for Monical’s Pizza. (Which we highly recommend!) And from there we had a six-hour drive back home to Wisconsin with no new counties. We did however see a cool rainbow.

When it was all said and done our small weekend getaway featured about 25 hours of drive time. And we were back by 8:00 Sunday night. What’s next? Over the 4^th of July weekend we’re flying to California. We’ll see you there!

                                                   NEW COUNTIES - 27

                                                   TOTAL COUNTIES FOR 2015 - 186

                                                   ALL TIME COUNTY TOTAL - 948



7/17/17 UPDATE: We recently realized that in putting our county list together, we had inadvertently failed to include two counties that we had previously entered. On a summer, 2014 road trip, we went to Disneyland in California (Orange County). And upon leaving Disneyland for Las Vegas, we entered Riverside County as well. So even though it says 948 total counties in this post above, the actual number at the time was 950.