January 10th, 2018

Yes indeedy, that is one of my Colorado plates hanging from a nail in our utility room.  I just can't bring myself to throw it away.   I remember when we first moved here, that plate on the car was the signal to everyone in the area that we were Florida visitors or snowbirds. We had to explain over and over that no, we are not tourists or seasonal dwellers but that have moved here to live year 'round. It was such a relief to get the Florida plates on the cars. 

​It was a perfectly understandable mistake.  This is a vacation destination, this town we have chosen and this time of year, in particular, we see license plates from all over the US. In fact, when I was driving around the parking lot seeking a spot earlier this week the thought occurred to me that I could tell what the weather was in other parts of this country just by looking at the license plates in town.  The most prevalent one right now is Ontario. Ok that makes perfect sense to me.  But Ontario was quickly followed by  Michigan. Also logical.  There were quite a number of Wisconsin and Minnesota's too.  And then Pennsylvania and Ohio.  But it is my understanding that they are having one heck of a winter there this year so, given the option, yeah, I'd come here too!  ​

​The biggest surprise to me are all the plates from California.  Hey, don't you guys have your own beaches?  We almost never see Arizona or Nevada or even New Mexico.  Occasionally maybe Texas.  Lots of New York and New Jersey.  In fact, Most of New England is well represented.

​Actually the first surprise for me here was that when you register your car in Florida, you only get one license plate. It goes on the back.  Why only one?  What if the bad guy is behind the police?  They look in the review mirror and see....nothing. That's not helpful.  And worse, now there is this naked spot on the front of the car.   That blank place was kind of bothering me until I realized that a person can buy a fakeyfake plate for that front spot.  It can say all sorts of things, "I heart my dog",  " I heart my kids'" ....  Oddly enough I didn't see an "I heart my spouse".  Interesting.  But I did see "I'd rather be fishing" and "Pirate girl" complete with skull and crossbones.  I finally found one that was in the, "well it's better than nothing" category and Tim found it in his Christmas stocking this year.
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 Looks spiffy on his car I think.  And he seems to like it just fine too.  I mean, it's on the car afterall and not in the trashcan so I must have chosen well.

​I wonder how this one license plate trend is impacting kids playing the license plate game on road trips?  Did you play that one as a kid (or an adult?)  If not, the goal is to spy at least one plate for all 48 contiguous states as you drive (or in my case, as someone else drives".  Maybe it's just a family rule that it's just the lower 48.  I have on very rare occasions seen Alaska plates which garners extra points.  But the only place I've ever seen Hawaii plates was when we were actually in Hawaii.

​I will say that now that they have these fancy license plates, it's gotten harder to play that game.  Cars go so fast on the road that it's hard to read the part that says the state.  It used to be  - long ago and far away - that I could tell the state from the colours on the plate.  Yes, we travelled so much by car when we were kiddos that we knew most of the states just from the colours.  Crazy.

​Of course there is that other game, which Tim excels at.  Taking the letters on a license plate and making a phrase out of it.  Oh I described that badly.  Okay.  For example, on my old Colorado plate, the letters were LWP.  To remember that plate I came up with the phrase, "Lions With Pride".  It doesn't have to make sense to you, it made sense to me and that's how I remembered it.  So when Tim and I play this word/license plate game while driving, it will be no surprise to you that all of the phrases I come up with are equally lame.  His are awesome.  Sometimes a little naughty to be fair, but still awesome.  We laugh a lot when we travel.

​I don't know what's it's like where you live, but I kind of enjoy strolling through parking lots reading license plates.  But then I am easily amused. :)

​Have a spectacular Day!

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