Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Twelve Mile Circle

  • Cross-Country, Part 4 (Zoos & Brews)

    I came for the county counting.  Although, let’s recall I had to bribe my older son before this road trip could even begin.  How many zoos could we see during six days of driving from coast to coast, plus a week in Phoenix?  A lot.  We visited six, well seven actually, although we only got…

  • Cross-Country, Part 3 (County Counting)

    I wanted to grab some new counties. That basic objective served as a guidepost, the unifying premise for the entire trip.  We would see other things along the route and during most of a week in Phoenix, Arizona, of course.  However, make no mistake, I wanted the new counties more than anything else.  As noted…

  • Cross-Country, Part 2 (Weatherford Art Thou?)

    A strange alignment revealed itself as I planned my cross-country trip. I used the same basic set of assumptions for each of the four potential routes. First I divided the total driving duration by five to come up with approximately equal days on the road. That would average about seven hours of driving each day…

  • Cross-Country, Part 1 (The Plot Thickens)

    Don’t get me wrong, I loved our trip to Australia and New Zealand last summer. I already want to return there and someday I will. However, my relentless need to count counties took a serious hit in 2018 as a direct result. My map barely changed as the year progressed. I gave up on the…

  • Portmanteaus, Acronyms and Anagrams

    Longtime readers know how much I enjoy a good portmanteau, a word created by mashing together two other words. I’ve featured geographical occurrences several times on Twelve Mile Circle, for example Dueling Portmanteau Placenames. I’ve also traveled intentionally to various portmanteau locations such as the towns of Mardela Springs and Delmar along the Maryland-Delaware border.…

  • German Jaunt

    I received an offer for an all-expense paid trip to Germany. However it came with a catch, a big one. It wouldn’t be a vacation, I’d be working. Usually my work travel takes me to less memorable places like the five trips to Philadelphia last year so I appreciated the variety. Still, it’s not like…

  • Australasian Adventures, Part 12 (Changes)

    I thought it would be fun to wrap up this series by comparing impressions from my original visit to Australia in 1997 to my return there in 2018. A lot remained the same although I also noticed some discernible differences too. Of course I couldn’t ignore the two decades of changes within myself, and that…

  • Australasian Adventures, Part 11 (Lists)

    We’re getting close to the end with this penultimate article in the Australasian series. Thank you for bearing with me. I thought I would shift my focus and provide an update on various lists that I maintain. I’m known to be a bit obsessive-compulsive and I tally visits to places or objects that I consider…

  • Australasian Adventures, Part 10 (Breweries)

    Longtime readers probably guessed that eventually I’d talk about beer and breweries that I found during the trip. I’m so predictable. Naturally I focused some research on this topic ahead of time so I’d be prepared. I did find one surprise, though. It turned out that beer trends in the United States seemed to cross…

  • Australasian Adventures, Part 9 (Epic Runs)

    All those large restaurant meals began to take a toll on my waistline even with our busy touring schedule. I hadn’t come close to my normal fitness regimen even with frequent walks and hikes to various sites. I was on vacation and I supposed that should be expected. Still, I needed to get out and…

Latest Comments

  1. That was its original range before people spread it all around. Now it’s in lots of different places, including Oklahoma.

  2. I think that range needs to be expanded greatly. I’m in the Oklahoma City area and those are fairly prevalent…

  3. The law in the 1800s when most of the countries was being broke down into smaller one stated that you…

  5. Hi Mr. Howder — Just going from memory, I recall that your “rule” for counting a nation/state/county is “if I’m…