EXTREME County Counting

Many of us are County Counters here on Twelve Mile Circle. I’m a practitioner myself and I’ve been known to go a couple hours out of my way to pick up a few new ones. However, what would you say about a plan to visit every single county in New England within a 24-hour period?

Welcome to Vermont. Photo by howderfamily.com; (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Would you call this misguided? Insane? I call it genius, and about the coolest idea I’ve heard in a long time. I wish I was in a position to actually try something of this level of enlightenment and endurance. The guys at “Every Whatever” — an intermittent blog that I love to follow [update: which no longer exists] — not only considered the idea but hit the road and tried to achieve it. The expedition took them a couple of hours longer than their goal but they did reach every single county. It’s a great story and you can consult their website to review all the posts they created live from the road as the adventure unfolded.


The Movie

Here’s something even more incredible: they mounted a dashboard camera in their car and took more than 12,000 still photos. They then compiled the photos chronologically into a a 20-minute video so viewers can experience the same journey vicariously [again, sadly lost to history]. I watched the trip at lightning speed as it progress throughout the day and into the night, then back into the sunlight as a new dawn rose on the horizon.


The Plot

The path starts with an airplane (Nantucket and Dukes Counties in Massachusetts are islands), but the action quickly switches to an automobile barreling down interstate highways and all manner of minor roads. There are cities occasionally but what is most striking is the vast preponderance of rural countryside. The constant motion is punctuated by brief stops at convenience stores and the rare lengthy stoplight.

It was difficult to identify exact locations because images flashed by too quickly to read any road signs. I think I may have caught a glimpse of Boston in the dark — or something very similar to the architecture of the Bunker Hill Bridge over the Charles River and the Big Dig tunnel.

It’s hypnotizing and addictive. Yes, I did make it through the entire twenty minutes. It’s definitely worth visiting if you’re a County Counter or if just want to experience a whimsical road trip with a purpose.


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3 responses to “EXTREME County Counting”

  1. Bill Cary Avatar

    Fascinating video. I watched the entirety in amazement that someone could pull this off yet I am perplexed that they couldn’t run a sidebar to connote the counties and state boundaries that they passed through. It;s nice to watch but I have no clue where any of the images were snapped are on the map. I have no idea which roads they took and shown, and worse, I have no way of following their course on a map because they claim that their chosen route is “proprietary”. I’d love to have been able to follow along on an atlas watching as they crossed the county lines. Who knows, I might have shaved off some time for them (doubtful, yes, but something I’d have looked into).

    Sadly, they must have traversed the mountains at night as I didn’t see anything near the number of non-flat places out the window that I had anticipated. Vermont and New Hampshire deserved better. Possibly, they could recreate this next summer and do all 62 New England Counties in “24 daylight hours!” Sleep at night, film starting at sun rise and tell us where you are are the images flash by.

    Of course, Tom… had you done this trip and made the video there wouldn’t have been any of the above questions and no dilemma. These guys were good and innovative but they really should leave the descriptions and videos to the pros.

    Thanks for sharing the link!

    Bill

    1. Twelve Mile Circle Avatar

      I’m not sure I could have pulled it off as well as they did, with my crappy camera and shaky video!

  2. DrJayBoston Avatar

    Thanks for the kind words, and glad you enjoyed the video. We may make some tweaks to try to let viewers know where we are along the way (but yes, it was the Big Dig tunnel and the Bunker Hill Bridge late night in Boston).

    Great site you have here – keep up the good work.

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