another take on the states & countries meme

[wrog]

	WA Counties	NJ Counties	CT Counties
Places Lived (i.e., stayed overnight for more than four consecutive weeks)	King	Morris, Mercer	Fairfield
Overnight Destinations (primary purpose of trip or visited someone there). Italics indicate campouts	Spokane, Okanogan,	Atlantic, Bergen, Hunterdon, Middlesex, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union, Warren	New Haven, New London
Incidental Overnights	Adams		Hartford
Daytrip Destinations	Chelan, Clallam, Grays Harbor, Island, Pierce, Skagit, Skamania, Snohomish, Thurston, Whatcom,	Essex, Hudson, Monmouth, Gloucester, Cumberland
Meals Places where I got out of the car long enough to consume food.	Lincoln, Lewis, Jefferson, Kittitas, Yakima, Kitsap
Drive-thrus	Clark, Cowlitz, Grant, Benton, Franklin, Klickitat, Douglas, Pacific, Mason, Pend Oreille	Burlington, Camden, Salem	Middlesex, Tolland, Windham
Never Been There	Asotin, Columbia, Garfield, Whitman, Ferry, Stevens, Wahkiakum, San Juan, Walla Walla	Cape May	Litchfield

Naturally, for nearly every entry in the first few rows of the table, there's a story of some kind. Then again, most of these stories are pretty boring, but it is one way to get oneself into a serious reminiscence loop.

It's also kindof cool that the Census bureau posts free shapefiles of every county in existence.

... which means it's now time for Stupid Postscript Tricks:

Anyone know what the deal is with Wahkiakum County (the little gray thing at the bottom left)? I mean, why?

Skamania (the square red county at the bottom) also doesn't make a huge amount of sense. It consists entirely of Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams and all of the random wilderness in between. The county is 99.44% federal land (National Forest/Park/Monument/Whatever). There are no population centers --- or is it that there used to be some population centers but they got blown away in 1980?

I don't know why, but there's something inordinately satisfying about making Connecticut absurdly huge. I think eight is a civilized number of counties; everybody knows everybody. Figure if you have to have more than 30 counties in your state, you're probably doing something wrong and should start over.

But damn, this is dredging up all kinds of memories.

E.g., Atlantic City in the early 1970s (i.e., before casino gambling was introduced, but long after it had completely lost its status as a popular vacation spot), ... in November.

I suppose if I get supremely bored I can do California and New York, next, except I'm sure the granularity will be so fine that there'll be a few random bips where I lived/did-stuff and then lots of lit-up Interstate highway corridors.

Comments

[tuliphead.livejournal.com]

I think eight is a civilized number of counties; everybody knows everybody. Figure if you have to have more than 30 counties in your state, you're probably doing something wrong and should start over.

i've always felt this way about Arizona; it's a fairly large state but only has 15 counties, one of which was carved out in the last 15 years or so. it seems like a very civilized number compared to the mess that is, for instance, Massachusetts. :)