The fall was a wash. Sigh. Nothing new since the end of August. Double sigh.

Still, 2015 wasn’t a bad year. I didn’t spot Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Nevada, Alaska, Nebraska, and North Dakota, but I did spot my first Montana since 2011. Wonder of wonders, I spotted a second Montana in the last week of the year, and right outside Up-Island Cronig’s. That has to be a harbinger of something interesting.

Last year my first Nebraska likewise appeared when I’d given up hope. Maybe fate tried to pull off the same feat this year, but forgot I already had Montana. ‘s OK, Fate. Good try. I appreciate it.

My buddy Don Lyons, he who got me started on this game around 1988, said he found North Dakota in the hospital parking lot this past summer, and South Dakota on the same day in the same place. I’m thinking of staking out the hospital parking lot next summer, or at least making regular passes through it. I spotted Montana and West Virginia there this year, good catches both.

So I’ve printed out a blank map for 2016. Massachusetts and New York are already on it, and without my getting in my car or doing more than crossing a paved road.

Here’s what the map looked like when 2015 rolled over into 2016. Here’s to a full map in the coming year.