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.