Category: Cities/Towns

  • Michigan, Part 2 (Breweries)

    Most people seemed confused whenever I mentioned Grand Rapids, Michigan as our vacation destination this year. They could understand a holiday at the seashore or in the mountains or traveling abroad. A mid-sized Midwestern city specializing in consumer manufacturing seemed considerably less intuitive to them. Then I revealed the true reason: its great concentration of…

  • Going in Circles

    For the obvious reason, any geographic feature related to circles will make it onto the pages of Twelve Mile Circle eventually. I collect examples as I encounter them until I have enough to write an entire article. So this is the latest batch. Circle, Montana Circle, Montana proclaimed itself to be “A Great Place to…

  • Last Places in Commonwealth Countries

    The series of Last Places continued. One should feel free to consult the previous articles, Last Place in England and Last Places in Asia, to understand the premise. I found it more difficult to uncover examples this time so I broadened the base, extending my search to the entire set of the Commonwealth of Nations…

  • Last Place in England

    I wondered what treasures I’d encounter if I searched on the exact phrase “Last place in [geographic area] to”… while leaving the remainder of the statement blank. For my initial effort I chose England. I figured England should produce interesting results because of its long history. Of course, I could also use a few more…

  • New England, Part 4 (A Little History Too)

    New England, with some of the earliest colonies in a place that would later become the United States, harbored hundreds of years of history. The people there also appreciated those ties to the past. Most of my previous trips through the region hugged the coast. I relished an opportunity to wander inland to places less…

  • New England, Part 1 (Give me a Sign)

    I returned recently from another one of my hurried trips, this one to the New England states. All of them. Plus New York for good measure. Those of you who followed Twelve Mile Circle’s Twitter account knew that already. The rest of the 12MC audience may not have noticed anything at all. I wrote a…

  • Rotonda Elsewhere

    The Italian word rotonda means the same as the English word rotunda. They both derived from the Latin word rotundus meaning round. I’d tugged that etymological thread in Rotonda West. However, Rotonda West wasn’t the only Rotonda. Far from it. Many more existed although usually in Italy as one would expect, or in places where…

  • Rotonda West

    Rotonda West looked like a two-dimensional rendering of the Death Star transformed into a planned community along Florida’s southern Gulf Coast (map). It also had an air of familiarity, like I’d seen it somewhere before although I stumbled across it quite by accident just recently. My recollection gets a little hazy now that I’ve posted…

  • Inland Hurricane

    Hurricanes often hit the eastern parts of the United States. Generally they concentrate on the Atlantic side of the nation or along the Gulf of Mexico coastline. However, sometimes they move inland, weakening as they push away from open water. Those can cause massive flooding and damage. None of them ever pushed all the way…