3M TA3
One of my more charming – and more nerdy - quirks is my fascination with license plates. No, not making them just keeping an eye out for them as I drive along.
Some states have really attractive license plates. Oregon, Nebraska, and South Carolina are among the best. (Although Maryland’s brand new Chesapeake Bay plate has a lot going for it.) Some states have really dull plates. Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Washington come to mind.
Some plates have a slogan on them. My favorite is Idaho’s (“Famous Potatoes”). Ohio’s tag says “Birthplace of Aviation.” I think that’s somewhat of a dubious claim but as Ohio’s got nothing else going for it, I’m willing to give it to them. I’ve always wondered how it feels to be a prisoner stamping out license plates in New Hampshire. Its slogan is “Live Free or Die.”
Most plates are rectangular. The only one that isn’t has to be the coolest license plate by far. Canada’s Northwest Territories has a license plate shaped like a grizzly bear. Not just the picture of a bear printed on a rectangular plate, the plate is stamped in the shape of a grizzly bear.
On long trips I’ll see how close I can get before I spot the first tag from my destination. It's rare when I can go more than 100 miles before seeing the first tag from where I'm going. I keep an eye out for creative vanity tags such as “POETIC” and “GR8DANE”. They’re a sort of jolly word puzzle offered up to bored drivers to ponder as they drive along. I love spotting license plates from faraway and exotic places. My kids have long grown accustomed to hearing me holler out things like “Look! There’s one from Guam! How do you get your car back from Guam?” or “Hey, look! There’s a guy from big, Beautiful, WYOMING! He must think he’s died and gone to hell driving around Maryland.” or “Guys, guys…there’s a car from North Dakota! Has anyone actually been to North Dakota? And what’s a peace garden anyway?”
Today, while driving to work, I spotted the tag on the car directly in front of me:
KEM-666
Kem – me.
666 – The number of the Beast.
And today is Ash Wednesday.
I'm guessing God is telling me to give up driving for Lent.
K-
I'm a bit of a license plate aficionado, too. About a year ago I saw a plate from Venezuela right here in Springfield, Illinois. I really wished I had my camera with me.
KEM-666?? On Ash Wednesday?? What are the odds? :>
I remember when I was a kid and we would be travelling somewhere playing the great license plate game. This only worked, really, if we were in our home state. We would look for plates from other states, then slap the nearest person and yell "Out of state!" It was great because you had a perfectly good excuse to slap a sibling! *snicker*