I Wonder If I’ve Made Mistakes

I mean, of course I’ve made mistakes. I should have gotten San Diego and Albuquerque right the first time. The entire debacle of Arizona wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t make mistakes. I make mistakes all the time. But I’ve been wondering about how I approach travel and finding new counties, and it’s got me wondering if I have a mistaken methodology. When I first started, I would grab whatever I could wherever I could get to on an afternoon after work or a weekend morning. Once I started making what I then considered bigger trips, I would go out to an area and hit all the counties I could, going back and forth until entire sections of Texas were done. That served me well because my primary aim, in the beginning, was to complete the Texas County Challenge, and nothing beyond that was especially considered. Once I was done with that, though, I began to think bigger and—more importantly—farther. Once I started on Louisiana, I was focused on completing the state, not merely with the blind acquisition of counties. But I didn’t finish Louisiana before starting New Mexico with the same thinking, nor did I finish New Mexico before Arkansas, Arkansas before Oklahoma, and so on. That’s a little ironic because I finished Oklahoma and New Mexico before Louisiana. My point here (and I do have one) is that I’ve mostly been focused on completing states or entire areas. But now, I’m wondering if I should have taken a different approach.

I’ve been thinking for a while about doing some kind of radial travel. Using Austin as a center, I could have gone outward in a direction as far as I could, grabbing counties along the way, of course, before turning back home, again grabbing new counties on the way back. That method is not as attractive to me now because I currently have to drive ten hours to get to a starting point (except for it only being eight hours to Jackson, but I’m holding off on that because, well, you know), but I’m considering it for working on the South. I’ll probably base myself in a city for several days, make radial trips around it, and make sure that I’m back behind a locked door at a reasonable hour (no night caching in the South because, well, you know). I guess that’s more of a hybrid between the two methods, but imagine if I had started that way? Chicago is only seventeen hours away, Jacksonville is fifteen, and Atlanta is fourteen. I’ve been as far as Sioux City and Evansville, and they’re both only a little over thirteen hours away. I’ve driven to Cheyenne, and that’s sixteen. Maybe I could have been farther and to more counties if I had adopted a different pattern. I imagine my map with a giant semicircle of darkened counties through Florida, Tennessee, Ohio, and Minnesota. Perhaps I might have finished Mississippi and Alabama, taking another slice of each every time I passed through. Perhaps I might have even reached as far as North Dakota. Heck, I could totally see myself getting a wild hair and going all the way to the other San Diego.

I guess my real point here (and I really do have one) is that I need more counties. Someone I know recently surpassed my count on their trip to Morgantown. I cannot allow that! And I’m more than willing to engage in any method that gets me going forward again—preferably soon!