Big Sky Country

Sawyer spots this one in the local newspaper parking lot on the way back from T ball practice.  Glad to see he wasn't too distracted with the ice cream cone to notice it.

34 down 16 to go!

Montana

License Plate Double Shot

Mom and Sawyer stumble on Kansas and South Dakota parked next to each other downtown Appleton. So Mom took his picture from the back of Kansas and then he turned around and they got him in the front of South Dakota.

33 down 17 to go.

Kansas

South Dakota

Land of Enchantment

Mom and kids are on the way to a very cool park in Neenah when they decide to take a detour through a hotel on the way.  They spot a New Mexico!  Crazy how random this is and how lucky we've been.  We really don't know how unlucky we've been because who knows how many states have been right around the corner without us knowing it.

Feel much better about this one considering I just tailed a New Mexico (see post 'Land of Disenchantment') earlier in the week.

Harper has definitely joined this quest and now wants to be included in the pictures whenever she can.  We might have a couple of US geography whizzes on our hands in no time at this rate.

31 down 19 to go.

License Plate Leftovers

Here's a few random ones we found that I hadn't put into a blog post yet.  Mom and the kids spot Maryland on a random trip to Walmart.  They spot both Colorado and a Pennsylvania at the mall on different days.  No, she didn't make Sawyer change shirts to make it appear like they were different days.  My wife really goes to the mall this much.

30 down 20 to go!

Maryland

 

Colorado

 

Pennsylvania

It's fun to stay at the YMCA

I brought Sawyer to the YMCA so I could work out while he played in the kids corner.  On the way out we spot a Massachusetts in the parking lot parked right in front of us.

27 down.....23 to go!

The Evergreen State

A trip to the Kimberly library leads to a little argument over whether a license plate they passed is a special Wisconsin Veterans plate (Mom's guess) or one we don't have yet (Sawyer's guess).  Mom dismisses it and keeps driving but Sawyer convinces her to eventually turn around and they head back to check it out.  Who was correct?  See below for your answer.

26 down 24 to go!

I'm glad we like ice cream....

because then we wouldn't have found this Ohio in the Cold Stone Creamery lot tonight.  We must have been at the Y earlier since I now notice he has his little Y sticker on his shirt.

Did you know Ohio and North Carolina are in a battle to retain first flight bragging rights?  Ohio's plate says 'Birthplace of Aviation' and North Carolina states 'First in Flight'.  And as recently as last year Connecticut has joined the fray claiming it happened there first.

Halfway there already....25 down 25 to go.

 Ohio

North to the Future!

A co-worker of mine had mentioned earlier during the Summer before this quest began that her sister's family was visiting from Alaska and staying at their house.  I thought that was interesting but didn't really think too much of it....since we hadn't started this license plate game yet.

We are a few weeks into this and it dawns on me about what she had said about her sister visiting from Alaska.

I ask her if they are still visiting and if they drove here.  They are still here....for one more day.  And they had their car here with Alaska plates!  So here this car was all Summer long a few minutes drive from me with Alaska plates.  We take a drive over there that night and snap the picture just before they head back to Alaska. Sawyer's sister felt left out of all of this fun so she got in the picture this time.

As an added bonus we spot Tennessee in route and take care of that one as well.

We now have the two most difficult states taken care.....#49 (Alaska) and #50 (Hawaii)!  Never thought that would happen without getting on a plane.

24 down 26 to go.

Alaska

Tennessee

Land of Disenchantment

I left work early to go buy some tickets to a broadway show for my wife's upcoming birthday.  Right in front of me after I turn out of the work parking lot is a New Mexico plate.  Now I really have a problem.  If I call to tell her she will wonder why I'm where I am at the time it currently is.  But it's New Mexico!  I decide to tail it for a while.  First stop is the local hospital to pick someone up.  I'm about to leave after about 5 minutes when the person he's waiting for comes out of the building.  Next stop is a high school to pick someone else up.  Does he know I'm following him by now?  This is either a lot of crazy fun or a total waste of my time.  A girl comes out of the high school and gets in the car and they head out.  After a few more blocks I decide to give up the chase.  I was hoping it would eventually pull into a restaurant or residential area where it might sit for a while but no luck. This one might hard to find again.

The Bubble Guy!

Mom takes Sawyer and his sister to the library for a kids show featuring a guy that does all kinds of crazy stuff with bubbles.  After the show they spot what must be his specialized Illinois license plate in the parking lot.  They thought that was cool so they get their picture taken together in front of it. 

Not the typical Illinois plate you see so fun to spice it up a little bit with this one since this is an easy one.

22 down 28 to go!

State Difficulty Ranking

I came up with a state difficulty ranking near the start of this quest and wanted to share that with you now. These rankings are based on where we live, which states contain people that visit Wisconsin most often, which states have the most people, etc. Some of these are interchangeable and could be slid up or down some spots but here's what I came up with.

State	Ranking	have?
Wisconsin	1	yes
Illinois	2	yes
Michigan	3	yes
Minnesota	4	yes
Iowa	5	yes
Indiana	6	yes
Ohio	7	yes
Missouri	8	yes
North Dakota	9	yes
South Dakota	10	yes
Florida	11	yes
Arizona	12	yes
New York	13	yes
Texas	14	yes
Tennessee	15
Nebraska	16
Kentucky	17	yes
Alabama	18	yes
Kansas	19
California	20	yes
Georgia	21	yes
Pennsylvania	22	yes
Virginia	23	yes
Oklahoma	24
North Carolina	25	yes
New Jersey	26	yes
Montana	27
Mississippi	28
Massachusetts	29	yes
Louisiana	30	yes
Colorado	31	yes
Connecticut	32
Arkansas	33
Nevada	34
Maryland	35
Washington	36	yes
South Carolina	37
Oregon	38
New Mexico	39
Idaho	40
Utah	41
West Virginia	42
Wyoming	43
Delaware	44
New Hampshire	45
Maine	46
Vermont	47
Rhode Island	48
Alaska	49
Hawaii	50	yes

Aloha means hello and goodbye

This is my favorite story from this license plate quest so far.  I told my friend Dan about this license plate game and the blog and how Hawaii and Alaska will be next to impossible to come across.  See my state dificulty rankings in an upcoming post (I have Hawaii and Alaska #1 and #2).  If you read my very first post you may recall that he actually saw a Hawaii license plate in Florida when they were on vacation several years ago.

So I see a text on my phone from Dan on a Thursday night....it's now about 9:30 and the kids have been in bed for a good 30 minutes.  There is a red truck with a Hawaii license plate parked a block away from his house!  I race upstairs to see if Sawyer is still awake.  Not sure if I would have woken him up if he was still sleeping.  Ok, yes, I would have.  He's still awake.  He bolts out of bed when I tell him and soon we are racing out of the driveway to hopefully find a parked red truck from Hawaii a few miles away.

We're in luck....there it is as we pull onto the street.  I think Sawyer nearly shrieked when he saw it.  We jump out of the car and I'm taking his picture as night falls.  A guy is walking by on the sidewalk as I'm doing this.  I keep quiet and go about my business wondering what he's going to say.  'Ahh...taking a picture of the Hawaii license plate I see.'  We start talking and I realize this is a realtor that I met on the golf course last year that I actually played a few rounds with in my work golf league.  He lives right next door from where this red truck is parked.  He loves our idea and tells me to email him which states I'm missing.  He'll let me know when he hears of anyone coming into town looking for a house from those states.  Now I don't want this to be too easy but that might help me get some more I would otherwise struggle to find.  We'll see if he's able to help me out at all. Still can't believe we can check off Hawaii just a few weeks into this thing.  Crazy.  Mahalo Dan!

21 down 29 to go!

Mississippi Burning!

The family is driving to the downtown farmer's market when I come up behind a car with a Mississippi license plate.  Everyone freaks out. We're hoping it will by chance stop somewhere....gas station, restaurant, anywhere.  Luckily, it takes a right and pulls into a bank ATM drive thru.  I sheepishly pull in and wait....I couldn't get myself to knock on someone's window while they are getting money out of an ATM machine....even if it was broad daylight.  They eventually pull out back onto the main street and a few blocks away they unfortunately get up on the interstate and are long gone.  We give up the chase.

Chicago Day 2

Our 2nd day in Chicago consists of Shedd Aquarium and nearby Lego Land in Schaumburg.  Didn't really see much at Shedd but there's not really a parking lot there.  Lego Land is different.  It's next to a major shopping mall and we hit the jackpot.....we hit up lots of southern states.  The North Carolina picture was actually closer to home. On the way back home we stopped at a Wendy's for some dinner and got some ice cream for the road....which Sawyer is holding in the picture.

20 down......30 to go!

Kentucky

California

Florida

Georgia

New Jersey

North Carolina

Texas

Virginia

Chicago Day 1

We stop for lunch at The Rainforest Cafe inside Gurnee Mills on the way down to Chicago.  The parking lot is a license plates goldmine.  Several families were getting out of their cars and we had to patiently wait until they were out of view before snapping a picture.  This is pathetic but the family is all in now on this quest. Here's what we got.....I felt much better when we scored Louisiana considering we just missed it back home a few days ago.  Notice how different Sawyer's hair looks in the Arizona picture vs. the other two.  At The Rainforest Cafe they have water coming down from the celing to simulate a rainforest and of course Sawyer felt the need to stick his head in there!

12 down 38 to go!

Arizona

 Louisiana

Missouri

License Plate Discoveries Up North!

We headed 'Up North' for the weekend to my wife's aunt and uncle's place.  One of the days mom decides to take the kids to Iron River which is in Upper Michigan.  Surprisingly, they see some plates we don't have yet.  They spot North Dakota going through a McDonald's drive through while they are in the restaurant. Mom gets up the courage (thanks to some encouragement from her sister) and leaves the restaurant and asks them if they can take the picture....and they are happy to oblige!  See below for others.....Sawyer's cousin even made it into one of them with their sporty 4th of July hats on.

9 down 41 to go!

Indiana

Iowa

North Dakota

Lost Louisiana!

I'm by myself at Lowe's when I spot a truck with a Louisiana license plate in the parking lot.  I'm meeting the kids for lunch at Red Robin in 5 minutes.  I frantically call my wife hoping to catch them in transit but there's no answer.  I call her again....still nothing.

Disappointed, I drive over to Red Robin and tell her about my rare find.....we are meeting her sister's family for my nephew's birthday.  After dinner we head back to Lowe's but of course the truck is gone.  Might be a while before we see one of those again.

Or will it?

Now we're cooking with peanut oil.....

We went to Star Wars Night at the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers which provided a good opportunity to find some oddball license plates.  As you'll notice we had Sawyer dressed in his Yoda shirt to play the part.  Dad wore his Millennium Falcon shirt....sorry no pictures of that!  Didn't have my hopes up but we were all surprised.

Found several cars here from out of state after Star Wars Night on our walk back to the car including the more difficult to find plates of Connecticut and New York.  Wonder what the stories are of these car owners and what brought them to Appleton for a minor league baseball game. Wisconsin of course is just too easy so thought we'd at least get the Packer and Brewer versions you see here.  Sawyer is without shoes in one of the pictures so not sure how that happened.  He's also holding up one of those little signs you find in plants/shrubs.  He's collecting those as well and found one in the parking lot to add to his collection.  Sounds like another idea for a blog :)  We left quite early (after about 4 innings) so nobody was in the parking lot watching us patrol the lot for plates.

6 states down 44 to go.

We have a Chicago trip coming up so hope to cross off a few more soon.

Connecticut

Michigan

Minnesota

New York

Wisconsin (Brewers)

Wisconsin (Packers)

Explanation of what this is all about

My 6 year old son Sawyer and his mom came across a license plate game at The Learning Shop recently. Sawyer wanted to get it and mom talked him out of it saying we'll probably never even see all of those license plates anyway.  We did end up buying the game a few weeks later (see first picture below).  After that Sawyer started spotting them on the road as we were driving....to prove mom wrong of course.  That evolved into mom taking his picture next to different license plates they came across as those cars were parked (although not all the time as you'll soon find out).  It didn't take long for this to develop into a challenge to get his picture taken in front of all the different license plates we could find......with the goal of getting all 50.

Since we live in Wisconsin that is going to dictate how easy it is to get certain ones without travelling too far.  No I don't plan on taking any family vacations to Alaska or Hawaii to get his picture in front of a license plate.  A friend of mine did say he saw a Hawaii license plate when he was on vacation in Florida....so there is hope yet.

I'm just looking to document this challenge and hopefully meet some interesting people along the way and perhaps have a fun story or two to tell.  So here goes....

Culver's parking lot in the drive thru line to get ice cream.  Kids have pajamas on already and no shoes.  We see a car parked with an Alabama license plate.  Mom and Sawyer quickly jump out of the car after some coaxing and take a picture of Sawyer in front of the back bumper.  Many other people in line in their cars are probably wondering what the heck we are doing.  The wackiness has begun!