New Travel Log

• 8 new counties collected

  • 8 Virginia

Quick swing up to Roanoke, VA. Dipped into Craig County, VA before heading to a bar in Roanoke to chat with locals. Left, dipped Bedford County, VA then headed to Martinsville for a nap in the car. After waking up, I swung through Stuart and US 58 to clip Floyd County before heading back to Boone.

• 41 new counties collected

  • 16 Indiana, 9 Ohio, 8 Kentucky, 4 West Virginia, 4 Virginia

This trip was a disaster. I was driving a friend up to Laona, Wisconsin for 400 dollars plus gas money when my transmission blew up outside of Remington, Indiana. I was in the process of moving back to Boone, and REALLY needed the money, so I was willing to take the risk. It had been given a death sentence the year prior when a lousy mechanic forgot to close a line when doing work on the car, causing me to slowly spill all my transmission fluid out as I left the shop.

I ended up getting a recommendation for a trustworthy local shop from an Indiana state trooper and had my 2010 Explorer towed to Rensselaer, Indiana and got a motel room to wait over the weekend for the diagnosis--the transmission was completely shot, and my only practical option was to junk it for $300. After reviewing my options, Amtrak was the best, cheapest way to make it back to North Carolina. This made it so that 2025 would not be a good year for county collection. I had to take a salvage my father owned as a loaner since I no longer owned my own vehicle, and I am not free to take it very far. As for my friend, his company booked him travel home.

Hopefully, this is the last mishap in a series of unfortunate travel disruptions.

• 13 new counties collected

  • 9 South Carolina, 4 Georgia

I needed to blow off some steam, and decided to grab the last of South Carolina's counties I had been missing.

• 5 new counties collected

  • 2 Alaska, 2 Illinois, 1 Washington

• 2 new counties collected

  • 2 Virginia

• 5 new counties collected

  • 4 New Mexico, 1 Arizona