Gotta Catch 'Em All

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 01/08/2019 at 17:42 • Filed to: None

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My dad is an inveterate license plate counter and, when my family was preparing for our first long road trip, he sent us this license plate game for the car. It’s been in the van for more than 10 years now, and we still play it every time we hit the road. On our 3,500 mile road trip to VA over the holiday, we managed 49 state plates —yes, even Hawaii— and the District of Columbia. The only state we didn’t see was Wyoming.

Anybody other Oppos  out there count plates?

TysMagic > ttyymmnn 01/08/2019 at 17:47

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this game is a genius set up, interactive without parts that come off. I am a fan and want one now 

CaptDale - is secretly British > ttyymmnn 01/08/2019 at 17:48

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Yeah. When we went on road trips with out dad we would always play. It got to the point we started playing with only out of state plates from states that didn’t border the state we were in. That was a fun geographical addition.

ttyymmnn > TysMagic 01/08/2019 at 17:51

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I’m not sure they make it like this any more. It’s Melissa and Doug. One side of the block has the license plate on it, and the other has the name of the state and the state capital. It has held up admirably over the years, despite kicking around in the van with three kids.

ttyymmnn > TysMagic 01/08/2019 at 17:52

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Here . Looks like the plates may have been updated.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > ttyymmnn 01/08/2019 at 17:53

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Did you also manage to get Ontario and Quebec on the trip or any other Canadian provinces? Fun when a random European one will sneak in too.

ttyymmnn > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 01/08/2019 at 17:56

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Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia,  and a few Mexico plates. Mexico plates pretty common here in TX.

Pich, with Z32 now featuring Civic [Si] / No > ttyymmnn 01/08/2019 at 18:01

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that’ s cuz Wyoming doesn’t exist, just ask Garfield  

Chariotoflove > ttyymmnn 01/08/2019 at 18:06

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My daughter started us on the game during the drive from Indy.  We got 38.  A really good haul.

Chariotoflove > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 01/08/2019 at 18:06

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Lots of Ontario.

ttyymmnn > Pich, with Z32 now featuring Civic [Si] / No 01/08/2019 at 18:07

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But I’ve been there! Didn’t find the spaceport, though.

ttyymmnn > Chariotoflove 01/08/2019 at 18:10

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49+DC is our record. We’ve never caught ‘em all. 

Chariotoflove > ttyymmnn 01/08/2019 at 18:12

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We were joking that we’d never get Hawaii.  That’s a real score.

ttyymmnn > Chariotoflove 01/08/2019 at 18:27

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We’ve gotten HI three times. Once in AZ at Meteor Crater, another time somewhere in SD, and on this trip somewhere in AR (0r maybe TN). My parents live in Norfolk, VA, which is home to the world’s largest naval base, as well as a huge medical school. Out-of-state plates are all over the place. 

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > ttyymmnn 01/08/2019 at 18:30

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Looks like a spaceport to me

ttyymmnn > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 01/08/2019 at 18:33

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We took a hike around the base of the tower, and every time we passed somebody I asked them if they’d seen the spaceport. Most people had no idea what I was talking about.

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > ttyymmnn 01/08/2019 at 19:00

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WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO WHEN YOU GO TO CANADA????

Chariotoflove > ttyymmnn 01/08/2019 at 19:15

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We passed through rural IL, MO, AR, and TX.  If we caught a HI, I’d be dying to know the story behind how it got there.

Svend > ttyymmnn 01/08/2019 at 19:35

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There is a spotters group in the U.K. that try to get all the names of a local to me haulage company. Eddie Stobart has over 2,000 trucks and each truck has a different female name.

((There are some trucks with male names, for certain reasons, namely tributes to people who have been lost))

Eddie Stobart also have two airports and their trucks are named also.

There’s Cherry, the cherry picker.

Aqua, the water carrier.

Loo-ise, the aircraft effluent collector.

Etc...

The fan/spotter group is around 25,000 people. 

ttyymmnn > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly 01/08/2019 at 19:43

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Ask  for asylum.

ttyymmnn > Svend 01/08/2019 at 19:45

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That’s actually quite cool. Thanks. 

functionoverfashion > ttyymmnn 01/08/2019 at 21:06

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I do, but not formally - I should start that with the kids. They do already notice various plates. It helps that I have a big collection, in fact, on the ceiling of our basement there are something like 100 plates, all 50 states with no duplicate plates and a variety of others, too.

On a related note, I saw a Wrangler with big tires on the highway on Christmas Eve, with Hawaii plates. That guy had to be hating life for several reasons - driving a lifted jeep with big tires on ANY interstate, plus the added punishment of it being about 34F outside. 

ttyymmnn > functionoverfashion 01/08/2019 at 21:38

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That guy had to be hating life for several reasons

Life’s all about making choices.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn 01/08/2019 at 22:06

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They'll have their wall built by then and your children will be taken from you and sent to Yellowknife and you'll be turned back without them.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn 01/08/2019 at 22:07

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You date yourself. Dreyfus was terrible in that movie.

ttyymmnn > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 01/08/2019 at 22:21

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I disagree. We watched it before our trip and it absolutely holds up. 

dtg11 - is probably on an adventure with Clifford > ttyymmnn 01/08/2019 at 22:25

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I have before, not anymore though. Our record was a 4000mi trip out west, 49 states, DC, all canadian provinces, 3 states in mexico, france, switzerland, germany, and italy.

No Delaware

I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker > ttyymmnn 01/08/2019 at 22:39

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There’s an Evo in my town with Hawaii plates. I don’t understand at all.

ttyymmnn > dtg11 - is probably on an adventure with Clifford 01/08/2019 at 23:11

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Delaware hung us up one other time, kept us from getting 50 states.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn 01/09/2019 at 00:49

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The movie is alright; Dreyfus sucked, imho.

facw > Chariotoflove 01/09/2019 at 03:23

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There was a car with Hawaii plates at my apartment complex in Houston. Don’t know specifically why it was there but we had lots of people come in who were studying at Rice or doing residency/fellowship/etc. at the Medical Center who didn’t bother getting new plates since they knew they wouldn’t be around long-term (most of them were probably required to anyway, but that’s a bit hard to enforce ).

facw > ttyymmnn 01/09/2019 at 03:32

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But did your kids use the 2-player mode?

In any event I did this as a kid, though I didn’t have such a fancy scoreboard. I think we just wrote down the states we saw.

Also, looking at it makes me feel bad about how many state capitals I no longer remember (I knew them all as a kid from Where in the USA is Carmen Sandiego). I blame foolish people who thought putting capitals in the middle of nowhere would insulate them from corrupting big-city money (it turns out corrupting big-city money can get to the countryside much more easily than muck-raking big-city reporters).    

pip bip - choose Corrour > ttyymmnn 01/09/2019 at 04:37

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i saw all ours over the Xmas/new year period.

all up tally is only 8 though.

Victoria

New South Wales

Queensland

Northern Territory

Western Australia

South Australia

Australian Capital Territory

Tasmania

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > ttyymmnn 01/09/2019 at 09:18

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Very nice!

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > dtg11 - is probably on an adventure with Clifford 01/09/2019 at 09:18

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Wow. 

Chariotoflove > facw 01/09/2019 at 10:12

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That plate means someone shipped their car all the way over, which is what interests me. I would assume that would be expensive and/or a pain to do. So I’d think maybe there’s a story behind the car. 

facw > Chariotoflove 01/09/2019 at 10:20

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Looks like it runs around $1000, which is a bit much given the value of the car (IIRC this was a Soul or something), but not impossible . There’s always the possibility that an employer agreed to cover it as a moving expense. Maybe the military has arrangements as well?

Chariotoflove > facw 01/09/2019 at 12:29

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I believe they do.  I’m figuring one would do it if they have some kind of attachment to a car.  When we moved to Texas, it was only a two day drive, but we still sold my wife’s car rather than drive two down. Still, I guess it could be economical depending on the value of the car.

ttyymmnn > facw 01/09/2019 at 13:37

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We have never used two-player mode. It’s always a family job, and the person in the middle seat in the van is responsible for working the board.

I’ve forgotten many of my state capitals, too. There was a time when they taught that to kids in school. Now it’s gone the way of basic penmanship, cursive, correct spelling.....

dtg11 - is probably on an adventure with Clifford > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/09/2019 at 14:00

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That’s what happens when you drive from Illinois to Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana, hitting all the major national parks 

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > dtg11 - is probably on an adventure with Clifford 01/09/2019 at 14:36

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Need to take that trip again...

Last summer we did 5,000 + miles  from Oklahoma to California, including  Route 66 icons like Cadillac Ranch, Grand Canyon, Sequoia, Yosemite, Muir Beach, Mono Lake, Mammoth Lakes, Death Valley, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Arches, Canyonlands, Moab, Colorado National Monument, Vail Mountain, and more...

facw > ttyymmnn 01/09/2019 at 17:17

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I’m fine with not teaching cursive. I mean I guess there are few places where it would be useful to be able to read it, but there’s really no need to drill the muscle memory required to write it into their heads. Plenty of more valuable things they could teach.

ttyymmnn > facw 01/09/2019 at 17:50

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I agree to a point. My handwriting skills, though never very good, have atrophied horribly in the age of the keyboard and smartphone. But my middle schoolers’ handwriting is damn near illegible. While cursive may be a bit archaic, I believe  the fine motor skills used in writing clearly, along with learning attention to detail, can have far-reaching benefits.

facw > ttyymmnn 01/09/2019 at 17:55

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I bet you could still find a better way to hone those skills than a writing system that is not used in modern society. Really unless they are going to be a historian or something, they won’t need to read cursive, and even then they won’t need to write it.

ttyymmnn > facw 01/09/2019 at 17:56

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But they can’t print, either.

facw > ttyymmnn 01/09/2019 at 18:04

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I think that’s probably still important, but even then I don’t expect that there will ever be a need to write out a long-form letter or anything. Writing legibly is important, but you shouldn’t need to be writing enough for writing fast to matter. And really, most places that require you to write anything out by hand probably should be providing a way to submit electronically, except in very small-scale uses, writing by hand should be a fallback rather than a requirement.

ttyymmnn > facw 01/09/2019 at 18:05

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Geez, let me be old for a minute!

facw > ttyymmnn 01/09/2019 at 18:39

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I was going to suggest that more time spent practicing touch typing would be a better use of their time, but between mobile devices and modern voice recognition I’m not even sure how useful that would be. Plus maybe we’ll get mind-machine interfaces one of these days.