June License Plate Report

Posted on July 3, 2025 by Susanna J. Sturgis

Good haul in June — Louisiana, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Montana, Kentucky, and Kansas — bringing the year-to-date total to 36, but I’m getting this one up PDQ because on the first of July I spotted one of the rare ones. See the state that’s just south of Montana and northeast of Utah? That one.

Good heavens. Just noticed that the state directly south of that one — the one east of Utah and west of Kansas — isn’t colored in. Colorado isn’t especially rare. My theory is that seasonal workers who ski in the winter do water sports in the summer. I’m sure I’ve seen several Colorados since the year began — in 2022 and 2024 I spotted it in January; in 2023 in April.

According to the rules of the license plate game, however, you’ve got to write it down when you see it, when the when and where is still fresh in your mind. Since I made this particular rule, I’m of course gonna stick to it.

I’ll keep my eyes on the road. Check back early next month because I can’t wait to report my July 1 sighting.

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Fall License Plate Report

Posted on December 2, 2024 by Susanna J. Sturgis

Yes, it’s been a while since the last license plate report: five months to be almost exact. Here’s my excuse. No, make that plural: Here are my excuses.

You’ll notice from the map that though I had one sighting a month in September, October, and November, there’s nothing on the map for July and August. The island is swarming with out-of-state cars in the high-summer months, but this year I was not swarming with them. The #1 reason is that my inspection sticker expired at the end of June.

That’s a story in itself: blame it on pressing deadlines and very, very long lines at my usual no-appointment-needed inspection station. I figured the lines would get shorter in early July, once my deadlines were met and I had time to wait several hours in line — but then my usual inspection station stopped doing inspections “indefinitely.”

Uh-oh. Most inspection stations on the island only do inspections by appointment. As you can guess, summer is a terrible time to get an appointment. After calling around, I took the best one I could get: for September 24. So for almost three months, I was driving around with an expired sticker. As you can guess, I was very cautious. I did my errands as close to home as possible. And I didn’t go one mile an hour over any speed limit. I was also lucky.

Malvina Forester passed inspection on the appointed day. Whew. The “6” on the sticker is for June, my usual inspection month. You don’t get free months for being a scofflaw. Fine with me. In 2025 I’ll be making my appointment well before June arrives.

Being legal on the road again was a big relief, and it paid off in license plate sightings: Kentucky in September! Hawaii in October!! And at the Ag Hall for the Artisans’ Fair on the very last day of November, what should I spot but West Virginia!!!

So as December gets under way, we’re down to four holdouts: South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Arkansas. The first three are all among the perennial holdouts. Arkansas isn’t exactly common, but it’s the most likely of the four. OTOH, I once spotted Nebraska parked outside the West Tisbury church during the last week of December, so I’m not giving up.

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June License Plate Report

Posted on July 6, 2024 by Susanna J. Sturgis

June seemed slow, with only one new sighting — Michigan — in the first three weeks. Then it was boom boom boom, with Louisiana, Utah, and Kansas all showing up in the last week. This is the best midyear tally in years. At the end of June 2019, the last pre-pandemic year, there were 42 states accounted for; in 2017 the number was 40. None of the years between then and now got out of the 30s.

The perennial holdouts of Wyoming, Nebraska, and South Dakota are joined by Hawaii, Arkansas, Kentucky, and West Virginia. A week ago I had a reliable report of West Virginia vacationing in Vineyard Haven but haven’t been able to check it out. The traffic, surprise, surprise, is awful, but hey, it’s Fourth of July weekend, and when the Fourth falls midweek, the weekend is L-O-N-G.

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May License Plate Report

Posted on June 7, 2024 by Susanna J. Sturgis

The April License Plate Report was both big and small — how better to describe it when only one state was spotted, but that state was Alaska?

May more than made up for it with five new states on the map: Iowa, Missouri, Delaware, Nevada, and New Mexico.

For comparison: Last year’s May tally was an underwhelming 2; in 2022, I managed 4, one of which was Hawaii, which maybe should count double; in 2021, May brought in 3; and 2020 saw a measly 1, but since that was at the beginning of COVID lockdown this isn’t too surprising.

Massachusetts made a concession to the pandemic: If your vehicle was due for its annual inspection in March or April, you got a two-month grace period. Malvina Forester’s month had been March, so we slid up to May. The following year Malvina flunked the emissions test so I drove around with an R for REJECTED sticker till it got fixed. During those two or three weeks, I noticed just how many cars and trucks on Vineyard roads were sporting R stickers. I think it was the following year that I showed up for inspection, as usual, during the last week of the month, only to be warned by the attendant that my tires weren’t gonna pass and I might want to do something about that. Getting new tires took a few days and slid us into June, so giving Malvina a bath and checking lights, blinkers, etc., is on this weekend’s agenda.

Malvina’s flunk sticker from 2021. The “Expires 2022” on the right is misleading: if you flunk for safety reasons, you have IIRC 7 days to get it fixed.
Finally we were good to go, and we went.

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April License Plate Report

Posted on May 12, 2024 by Susanna J. Sturgis

Only one new sighting in April, but it was a big one in every sense of the word: See Alaska in the upper left? Since Tam is an Alaskan malamute, we’re especially fond of Alaska.

April’s harvest is usually more abundant than this. In 2021 and 2023, I spotted four new plates in April, and in 2022 I scored a whopping eight. However, in 2022 that only brought the year-to-date tally up to 30, while this year it stood at 35. In 2021 and 2023, April closed with 36 and 34 states, respectively, on the map, so this year seems to be on track.

Fun fact: Alaska closed out April 2023 at #34. In 2022 it didn’t show up until August, and in 2021 it didn’t show up at all.

May preview: May isn’t half over, but there are already three more states on the map!

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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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