March License Plate Report

Posted on April 9, 2024 by Susanna J. Sturgis

Only two new sightings in March, but they’re both good ones: Arizona and, especially, Montana. Look at that pretty line along the northern border! Until North Dakota started showing up regularly at the hospital, this was a rare sight. Now if Michigan would please show up, the line would be unbroken.

Completing the southern tier will be a little harder, but it’s doable: New Mexico, Arkansas, and Louisiana, the pressure is on you.

And SPOILER ALERT! I spotted Alaska while grocery shopping on Circuit Ave. yesterday. I knew there was a reason I had to Reliable at that particular time, even though it made me a little late to my 5:30 meeting in West Tisbury.

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February License Plate Report

Posted on March 2, 2024 by Susanna J. Sturgis

February’s tally is always dwarfed by January’s for obvious reasons, but considering that I scored a strong 28 plates in January, spotting 4 in February would be a good showing even if the 4 didn’t include Idaho and Alabama. But they did!

Georgia and North Carolina finally showed up, leaving — as usual — Delaware as the last East Coast holdout.

What to expect in March? I just went looking for the March 2023 map — and discovered that there wasn’t one because there were zero sightings in March 2023. So I went further back, to 2022, when March brought the year-to-date tally up to only 22. I’m guessing that reluctance to travel in the heyday of COVID-19 was still a factor, although it’s possible that I didn’t go out much or wasn’t paying attention when I did.

So for March I’m betting on Michigan, Arizona, New Mexico, and Kentucky, and at least one of the four missing states south of Minnesota. Watch this space.

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January License Plate Report

Posted on February 1, 2024 by Susanna J. Sturgis

2024 is off to an excellent start! January inevitably brings the biggest haul in the license plate game, so the significant question is “how big?” Twenty-eight states — OK, 27 states plus D.C. — is big. Maybe not the biggest ever — I have this vague recollection of hitting 30 one January, but I don’t know what year and I can’t lay hands on the map — but still big.

The roster, in order of sighting (but note the * after New York): Massachusetts (surprise, surprise), New Jersey, Vermont, California, New Hampshire, South Carolina, D.C., Connecticut, Maine, Virginia, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island (the last New England state I spotted, although after Massachusetts it’s probably the most common), Wisconsin, Indiana, New York*, Oregon, Maryland, Illinois, Texas, Minnesota, Florida, Washington, Mississippi, Tennessee, Ohio, Oklahoma, North Dakota (!!).

*I’m 99% positive I spotted New York shortly after Vermont, making it #4, but I forgot to write it down. After Massachusetts, New York might be the most common plate on Martha’s Vineyard, so it’s easy to take for granted.

Longtime license plate fans will note that North Dakota, the holy grail of license-plate spotting, has now shown up three years in a row: in August of 2022, January of 2023, and now January of 2024. They were all spotted in the parking lot of Martha’s Vineyard Hospital (prime hunting ground!), and though I’ve got to double-check the latest sighting, I’m pretty sure they were all the same plate. It seems to belong to a travel nurse or doctor who’s on the Vineyard for several months at a stretch. I took a swing through the hospital parking lot on the last day of the month and was rewarded by Oklahoma as well as North Dakota.

Truth to tell, I made a run to Reliable Market in Oak Bluffs on the last day of the month mainly so I could detour through the hospital parking lot. The groceries I bought could have waited a day or two.

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September License Plate Report

Posted on November 6, 2023 by Susanna J. Sturgis

Yes, you read that right: it’s the 6th of November and this is the September license plate report. If you’re guessing that (1) I had a very busy October, and (2) nothing happened license-plate-wise in the year’s 10th month, you would be right on both counts.

September started off with a big bang — two big bangs, in fact: Arkansas and Alabama on the first of the month. Since then? Nada. I’ve almost resigned myself to the possibility that we’re looking at the map the way it will appear at midnight on December 31, but remember the year I spotted Nebraska in the last week of December? I didn’t either, but I just looked it up: 2014.

Even if the drought continues, it’s already been a very good year in the license plate game, with only Hawaii, South Dakota, and Nebraska AWOL at this point. Last I heard, none of my fellow players had spotted either South Dakota or Nebraska, but we’re still looking.

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August License Plate Report

Posted on September 1, 2023 by Susanna J. Sturgis

What, a license plate report on the very first of the following month? Is the sky falling? Am I high on some anti-procrastination drug?

No, and no, but this unusual (though not unprecedented) behavior does have a cause: I saw Arkansas outside the West Tisbury library this afternoon, and I can’t put it on the map till I’ve closed out August.

A very good August it was too. Kansas, West Virginia, New Mexico, and Indiana have turned blue on the map. (Fat chance three of the four will turn blue in the 2024 election. I’m not worried about New Mexico.) This late in the year any state that hasn’t been spotted is by definition hard to find, although it’s true, New Mexico isn’t usually this late. Maybe it’s payback for seeing Mississippi and North Dakota in January. West Virginia is chronically elusive, but early in August there it was, right outside my dentist’s office on State Road, Vineyard Haven.

So when August came to an end, there were five states missing, but as the sun sets on September 1 there are only four: Hawaii, Alabama, South Dakota, and Nebraska.

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July License Plate Report

Posted on August 5, 2023 by Susanna J. Sturgis

As Julys go, this was a good one. Hell, as 2023 goes, July was a good month: four new sightings met the bar set by April and equaled the total for May and June: Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, and Michigan. See how solid the West is looking! (OK, I haven’t got Hawaii yet, but that’s sort of in a category by itself.)

It’s always slim pickin’s the last several months of the year, but I’m holding out hope for several of the missing states, especially New Mexico and Indiana, and why not Kansas, West Virginia, Alabama, and Arkansas? Could I forget the year I spotted Nebraska the last week in December?

We shall see.

Update, Aug. 7, 1 p.m. Since the first of the month I’ve added Kansas and West Virginia to the map. Whoa! I think of August as the beginning of the downhill slide to the end of the year, but I scored seven new plates in August 2022, then one each in September, October, and November. Of the three states I was still missing at the turn of the year, I’ve already got two: Wyoming and West Virginia. Nebraska is still AWOL, but I don’t think any of my fellow license plate spotters have Nebraska yet.

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June License Plate Report

Posted on July 27, 2023 by Susanna J. Sturgis

As promised: Here’s the June report, with the West Coast finally complete: Washington state and Oregon are finally blue — as they are in political life too, thank heavens. Our year-to-date total now stands at 38.

In June, my T-Shirt Chronicles blog finally went on the road — well, up the road apiece to the West Tisbury library, where in mid-June I did a well-received presentation on the first chunk of it, roughly my life from 1976 to 1985 as illustrated by my ridiculously large but very wearable T-shirt collection. If you’re interested in following its progress, you can find the blog here. There should be a “Follow” link in the lower-right corner. If there isn’t, leave a comment here and I will try to fix it.

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May License Plate Report

Posted on July 27, 2023 by Susanna J. Sturgis

No, your calendar doesn’t lie — we’re closing in on the end of July and I’m just now getting around to posting the May license plate report. June will follow shortly, and I promise July will be more or less on time.

New sightings in May: Iowa and Kentucky, for a total of 36. That’s a bit off the usual pace but not by much. It’s definitely odd, however, to be missing two of the three West Coast states at this late date. Spoiler alert: This will be fixed in June, and since I’m running so late you won’t have to wait long.

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April License Plate Report

Posted on May 27, 2023 by Susanna J. Sturgis

Yes, you read the title right: The calendar says May 27, but this is the April license plate report. And no, you didn’t miss the March license plate report, because there wasn’t one. I didn’t spot any new plates in March. This has never happened before. No new plates in September, October, November, and/or December is no biggie, but no new plates in March? That’s downright weird.

Not to worry, however — it’s been an interesting year so far, and not in a bad way. Ferment is happening, and in my life at least ferment is usually good.

So to the April sightings. The April sightings ranged from solid (Wisconsin and Colorado) to excellent (Montana) to stupendous (Alaska). Actually Montana is probably as hard to get as Alaska, but Montana has been sitting outside the same cottage on the Beach Road for at least two months now so it’s not feeling exactly scarce. I’ve seen it often because work on the drawbridge has been ongoing since forever (OK, since late winter), and when I get stuck waiting for the light to change it seems I’m always a stone’s throw from Montana.

Today (keep in mind that it’s May, not April) I spotted Iowa at the intersection of Barnes and the Edgartown–West Tisbury Road and then Kentucky on Kennebec in Oak Bluffs, but I couldn’t color them in till I’d put April to bed so here we are.

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February License Plate Report

Posted on March 13, 2023 by Susanna J. Sturgis

Sorry for very late posting — contrary to the usual, February seemed very long but March so far has been flying by, probably because I’ve been busy work- and otherwise.

All in all, it was a very good February in the license plate game, especially considering that in 2022 I spotted zero new plates in February. Added to the map last month: D.C., Missouri, Delaware, California, Oklahoma, and Nevada.

California was later than usual and both Delaware and Missouri were early. I’ve seen Oklahoma several times on Circuit Ave., Oak Bluffs, and now I’m wondering if it’s the same Oklahoma I spotted in January of last year. Oklahoma is relatively rare — I didn’t see one in all of 2020 — but not as rare as North Dakota, which is still hanging out behind the hospital.

So the tally currently stands at 30. So far I haven’t seen anything new in March, but I haven’t been out much. Time to start prowling the island again . . .

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