Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Category: Terrain

  • Little Loudoun Loop

    I traveled an hour west of Washington, DC for a Loudoun Wine Adventure back in 2012. In the time since then, beverage tourism has only increased in this Northern Virginia county. Now visitors can select from about 50 vineyards, 35 breweries, and a smattering of distilleries, cideries, and meaderies within this single jurisdiction. I’m beginning…

  • Niagara Weekend, Part 3 (Down)

    With niceties out of the way including a few hours at Niagara Falls, I could focus on the primary purpose. Three more New York counties needed my attention: Wyoming, Cattaraugus, and Allegany. Collectively they created a significant doughnut hole on my map. Obviously that wouldn’t do so I drafted the most efficient route to grab…

  • Niagara Weekend, Part 2 (Falls Redux)

    I started Twelve Mile Circle back in 2007. Sometimes I wish I could return to those earliest pages and rewrite them though. They didn’t have nearly the thoughtfulness that I applied to later efforts. Even before that though I posted a number of travel topics including a visit to Niagara Falls in 2003. Eventually I…

  • Ohio River, Part 8 (Ark Loop)

    After a warmup loop the day before, we set our sites on something more ambitious. This took us on a course extending northeast of Louisville to the outskirts of Cincinnati. From there we crossed into Indiana and followed the Ohio River. This combined one very specific destination along with some less structured county counting. I…

  • Ohio River, Part 7 (Corydon Loop)

    We used Louisville, Kentucky as our home base for the week and we took several day trips into the countryside. Because the drive to Louisville took a toll on us we decided to relax early in the week. Then our first foray focused on Corydon in nearby Indiana, barely a half-hour away. Something else figured…

  • Ohio River, Part 3 (Onward towards Louisville)

    I created a jagged route as we passed between Portsmouth, Ohio and Lexington, Kentucky, before reaching the Interstate and continuing onward to Louisville. I needed to fill a county-counting hole in northeastern Kentucky. So I bounced between county lines for awhile and recorded seven new captures along the way. Of course I found a few…

  • Carolina Wetlands, Part 5 (The Swamp Fox)

    So we finally get to Brigadier General Francis Marion, the so-called Swamp Fox. He was born on the family plantation sometime around 1732 although no definitive record exists, strangely enough. Then he spent much of his life there except for brief forays that included a stint in the French and Indian War. Nonetheless he was…

  • Carolina Wetlands, Part 3 (The Great Outdoors)

    I bypassed all sorts of interesting and historical places because I wanted to avoid indoor spaces during the pandemic. So I searched for outdoor attractions to keep us busy. Typically we do a lot of this on our trips anyway, but we really took it over the top this time. A whole lot of walking,…

  • Carolina Wetlands, Part 2 (All About the Water)

    Water, water everywhere! Well what else would anyone expect? After all, the whole area was basically a swamp. They even called one big chunk of South Carolina the Lowcountry for its very specific lack of elevation and percolating water table. Liquid gurgled, flowed, pooled or crashed just about everywhere I stepped during the week. So…

  • Highlands and More

    Various Points in Scotland (January 2000) We used to be able to take spur of the moment trips before we had children. Thus, all the way back in 2000, one of the airlines offered an absurdly low fare for a last-minute trip to Glasgow, Scotland. I think it was something really crazy like $120. But…