Counties?

[huskeroadgeek]

I haven't yet done my own map and I will wait until later this summer when I will probably pick up some new counties to do my map. One question I have is what standard do most people use to determine whether they have visited a county or not? I intend to use my own standard, but I'm curious to know other people's standards.
My standard for the most part is as long as I remember and was aware that I visited a county, I will count it-whether I actually set foot in the county or just drove through. I prefer to actually see some physical proof that I was in a county(like a county line sign), but that isn't absolutely necessary-sometimes a county line sign isn't put up for some reason(particularly on some toll roads-which annoys me). Also, I do have some cases of where I traveled through some counties while I was sleeping as a passenger in a car or riding on a bus-I count those too. There are also some counties that I know I traveled through when I was little(before I started following along with trips on the map)-those I probably will not count because even though I know I traveled through them, I was not aware at the time that I was traveling through them.
The one I'm most curious to see how other people handle them is visiting a county just by flying into an airport to change planes and never leaving the airport. Miami-Dade County in Florida is the only county that fits this description for me(there are others I have changed planes in too, but have also visited by road at other times). I might be inclined not to count it if not for the fact that I have visited it 4 times in that manner and spent almost a total of 24 hours there-which is more time than I have spent in most other counties. I also am counting Richmond County, NY which I only visited by riding the Staten Island Ferry(and never leaving the ferry terminal before the return trip).
So do most of you count every county you have ever physically been in, or do you require something else-like actually getting out of the car and setting foot in the county?

[the49erfan15]

I got a bit weird with this, I counted every county I had physically been to (airports included) but I don't count those as states I've visited. I've only been to the airport in Salt Lake City, I counted that county but I don't count Utah as a state I've visited.

I also counted everything from family trips when I was little, but they didn't add that many because we never went too far away. Counted my trip on Amtrak from Portland to Spokane as well.

[Eth]

The one I'm most curious to see how other people handle them is visiting a county just by flying into an airport to change planes and never leaving the airport.

I'm conflicted on this.  Right now, I count them on my map, but something still seems a little off about it.  This affects three of my counties (the one in Colorado and the two in Texas).

And as for my map, here it is:



Still a little irritated that I didn't clinch MD and DE before moving back south, but c'est la vie.

[oscar]

Unlike some fastidious county-counters who insist on a visit to the county seat or something else more or less meaningful, I shamelessly count every county I've "entered" (not necessarily "visited"), which means crossing the county line at more or less ground level.  I have some "spinbacks" in both my U.S. and Canada totals (crossing the line, then quickly turning around -- but sometimes the "line" is unposted, so you need to continue to a village or highway junction to make sure you crossed the line).  But I don't have a count of those, and the number slowly shrinks as I make more legitimate revisits to some of the "spinback" counties.

Three of my counties in Alaska, all of which I include in my U.S. total, raise the airport question noted above.  One of them, the Petersburg census area, I passed through on a ferry which docked in Petersburg but I didn't get off in port; I later took a flight from Wrangell to Juneau that stopped at the Petersburg airport, but I stayed on the plane then too.  For the Wade Hampton census area, my only contact with the county was a flight to the St. Mary's airport (one of the places featured in the "Flying Wild Alaska" TV series), where I got off the plane to catch a connecting flight which itself made a stop in another airport within Wade Hampton on the way to Bethel.  My plan had been for a more substantial visit to St. Mary's village during the layover, but alas the on-and-off local taxi service was "off" when I visited, and nothing worth seeing was within walking distance, so I was stuck at the airport.  Bristol Bay borough was similar to Wade Hampton, except a tight flight connection removed the option of leaving the King Salmon airport during the layover.

Every other county I've flown or ferried into, I've either also driven to or through on some other visit, or I've gotten off the plane or ferry to at least set foot in the county.

[Duke87]

I would say changing planes at the airport is good enough for both county and state. I currently have no states I've only visited this way so the latter is irrelevant, though I do have a couple of counties clinched this way.

For visiting a state, I have to put my feet on the ground. For visiting a county, all that's necessary is being in something on the ground - driving through by car is fine. So is landing and taking off in the same plane without getting off, for that matter (though, again - no counties currently clinched this way).

Passing through a county by boat also counts. I have one county currently taking advantage of this.


It counts if you don't remember it (either on account of being asleep or being too young at the time), but I have no counties or states in either category.

Here's a current version of my map:


347 US counties, plus 31 in Canada.
It's about to balloon like hell over the next couple months, though. Big Trip planned!

[the49erfan15]

Eth, that's a very clean map. Did you make that yourself or use a different program? It looks great.

[Eth]

Made that one myself.  The base map came from Wikipedia, and I think I altered it to remove the visible county borders.  It's an SVG, so pretty easy to work with.

[Alps]

I don't count airports, but at this point I've been to all of the counties I ever laid over in. Your mileage may vary, but I counted the counties in BC and AK that I only ferried through. My take on it is that as long as I was within the state boundaries, I was also within the county boundaries, and at least I'm on something moving at ground level. I definitely have taken photos within counties without having set foot. I don't use the set-foot rule while driving, either, for either county or state clinching.

[hbelkins]

I know some people have different qualifications for their county visits. James Schul has to visit the county seat before he counts it. Brian Reynolds enters and leaves the county at different spots.

For me, if I have been in the county, it counts. No stop required, don't have to place my feet on the soil for it to count, and I count the ones that I was in as a child on family vacations even if I don't remember the trip. I've only been to Florida twice in my life, once on a family vacation and once on a high school band trip. On the family vacation, my dad (from whom I think I inherited roadgeek tendencies and took them to a new level) wanted to drive US 25 north from its southern terminus, so I was able to go back and trace the counties we traveled through in Georgia, Florida and South Carolina by looking at maps. Ditto for some trips to Virginia and North Carolina, although I later did the Virginia counties on my own.

I would not have Ohio, Indiana, Virginia, Pennsylvania or Vermont complete without what Oscar calls "spinbacks." I managed to complete Tennessee, Delaware, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Jersey without the need to do that. Clinches of Kentucky and West Virginia came without making a conscious effort to visit every county, although my dad and I did take a trip to allow him to say he'd been in every county in the state.

[agentsteel53]

I know some people have different qualifications for their county visits. James Schul has to visit the county seat before he counts it. Brian Reynolds enters and leaves the county at different spots.

so do I, mostly.  I enter in the northbound lane, I exit in the southbound.

the most bizarre county clinch I've done is to stick my hands over a ranch fence in Texas.  We weren't sure if the county line was down the middle of the right of way, at the edge of it, or at the fence, so ScottN and I made absolutely sure by waving our hands over the fence.

yes, it counts if only part of you is in a given county.

[Scott5114]

For my map I will count it as visited if I can reasonably "prove" that I have entered that county. I don't necessarily have to see the sign, but if I know, say, that I went through an entire state on some highway and the Wikipedia exit list shows that county along the way, it counts. I also count airports (although the only "layover" I've ever had was when a flight was temporarily rerouted to Chicago Midway due to fog, and I've since visited Cook County) since I can look up what county that's in. There have also been instances where I guessed the location of the county line by a pavement change/bump in the road.

For "slept here", I have to have slept indoors. (Naps count!) This is because I have gone on some camping trips, and I don't remember where a lot of them were, and wouldn't have any way of verifying which county the tent was pitched in. For "lived here", I still count Greene County, MO, even though my legal permanent residence was still in Oklahoma–I slept in MO on a regular basis, and that's enough for the county to be shaded pink on my map.

I have one "questionably clinched" county on my map. That's one where I was county hunting in Texaswith Jake, and we went down a FM road to try to get a county. The road ran right along the county line, just to the east of the county we wanted to get. We were looking for a county road or some sort of driveway to turn down to unquestionably cross the county line–no such luck; there were no turns to the west before the FM road veered away from the line! So we decided to park, and walked over to the edge of the ROW and waved our arms over the fence into the adjoining property, figuring that fence was probably pretty close to the county line. I would like to go back and make 100% sure I entered the county, but until such a time I'm quite content to consider it "questionably clinched". (While I was posting this Jake posted about the exact same thing!)

[agentsteel53]

Scott, do you remember which TX county that was?  I want to see if I've re-entered it in a more formal fashion.

[Scott5114]

Scott, do you remember which TX county that was?  I want to see if I've re-entered it in a more formal fashion.

A quick check of the map shows it as Stonewall County.

[agentsteel53]

A quick check of the map shows it as Stonewall County.

then the only way I have it is with the arms method.

[formulanone]

Some airport layovers are brutal enough that they darn well do count! I only have three of those.

PHX wasn't too bad in Maricopa County, per se...but a three hour wait.

MSP in Hennepin County is a ridiculous walk...how many malls can you shove into one airport? And who laid out the terminals? No connections between them, use your feet and Run Forrest Run!

I suppose landing in CVG and hanging out for 90 minutes doesn't count for much, but I did watch UK defeat Baylor to get into the Final Four (while waiting for my flight to LAX that was supposed to go out of ATL that day), which kind of validates your stay, along with the purchase of a bottled water.

[ftballfan]

Finally got finished with mine.

I started college in 2005 and before then, I'd only been to SC, NC, TN, VA, and WV. I've logged 36 states and a ton more counties in the 6 years since then, multiple trips from Alaska to SC, a drive from SC to Los Angeles, traveling for college basketball, and a few other scattered road trips will do that!

Haven't clinched my home state of SC, missing a few rural counties on the SC/GA border. The only state I've clinched is Delaware. 

Did you play college basketball?

[the49erfan15]

[map snipped]

Finally got finished with mine.

I started college in 2005 and before then, I'd only been to SC, NC, TN, VA, and WV. I've logged 36 states and a ton more counties in the 6 years since then, multiple trips from Alaska to SC, a drive from SC to Los Angeles, traveling for college basketball, and a few other scattered road trips will do that!

Haven't clinched my home state of SC, missing a few rural counties on the SC/GA border. The only state I've clinched is Delaware. 

Did you play college basketball?

No - though looking back at my post, it reads that way. I was actually our mascot, and my friends and I traveled to a lot of the away games as fans. Helps when you're on the visiting travel list for free tickets! Our conference had teams in SC-NC-VA, and we'd usually play at least a few out of conference games to make big trips out of.

[ftballfan]

[map snipped]

Finally got finished with mine.

I started college in 2005 and before then, I'd only been to SC, NC, TN, VA, and WV. I've logged 36 states and a ton more counties in the 6 years since then, multiple trips from Alaska to SC, a drive from SC to Los Angeles, traveling for college basketball, and a few other scattered road trips will do that!

Haven't clinched my home state of SC, missing a few rural counties on the SC/GA border. The only state I've clinched is Delaware. 

Did you play college basketball?

No - though looking back at my post, it reads that way. I was actually our mascot, and my friends and I traveled to a lot of the away games as fans. Helps when you're on the visiting travel list for free tickets! Our conference had teams in SC-NC-VA, and we'd usually play at least a few out of conference games to make big trips out of.

That's really cool!

[DBrim]

I don't count layovers as counties/states unless I leave the terminal.  Until earlier this year, the only reason I had Missouri is because I got stuck there overnight after a flight cancellation.

[the49erfan15]

Did you play college basketball?

No - though looking back at my post, it reads that way. I was actually our mascot, and my friends and I traveled to a lot of the away games as fans. Helps when you're on the visiting travel list for free tickets! Our conference had teams in SC-NC-VA, and we'd usually play at least a few out of conference games to make big trips out of.

That's really cool!

Thanks! I had a lot of fun with it. I start grad school in August, and it looks like I'll be suiting up there, too. I'm really excited about it.

[mukade]

I don't count layovers as counties/states unless I leave the terminal.  Until earlier this year, the only reason I had Missouri is because I got stuck there overnight after a flight cancellation.

My rule is if I died while there and the death certificate would specify that county, it counts. Therefore, layovers count. OTOH, waving over a fence would not count, just like flying over a county does not count.

[froggie]

MSP in Hennepin County is a ridiculous walk...how many malls can you shove into one airport? And who laid out the terminals? No connections between them, use your feet and Run Forrest Run!

You must not've been there lately.  There's a tram directly connecting Concourses A-D, there's a Concourse connector between A and G, and the Hiawatha LRT connects the Humphrey and Lindbergh Terminals (and is a free ride between the two).

[formulanone]

^ that's what I get for following the crowd...walking from Terminal B to G was exercise I needed, but with 45 minutes between flights, minus 15 minutes of "no, you can't board", plus unfamiliar large airport equals me-looking-stupid.

I don't need a multi-million dollar facility to make me look stupid, because I can do it for a fraction of that!

[agentsteel53]

that's still kind of insane, having the domestic and international terminals approximately five miles apart.  I've missed a flight before, because I had to make that trip, and then go through customs and security.

[Kacie Jane]

I don't count layovers as counties/states unless I leave the terminal.  Until earlier this year, the only reason I had Missouri is because I got stuck there overnight after a flight cancellation.

My rule is if I died while there and the death certificate would specify that county, it counts. Therefore, layovers count. OTOH, waving over a fence would not count, just like flying over a county does not count.

A morbid rule, but a clever one, and the one I'll probably use when I make my own map.  (I've got a road trip to Denver next week, although I'm not sure it will add any additional counties.  I'll probably post a map after that.)