Spotting half the states in January is pretty good and not unusual, but will you take a look at the map, specifically at #8 and #10? OMG. #8 is Mississippi and #10 is North Dakota, the eternally elusive, the Holy Grail of the license plate game.

This particular North Dakota is the same one I spotted last August and have seen several times since, always on Saturdays and in the M.V. Hospital back parking lot. Word is it belongs to a travel nurse who’s working at Windemere nursing home on contract till early summer. Mississippi was also in the back lot at the hospital, but I don’t know what its story is.

The East Coast is solid except for Delaware — no surprise there, and I’m not counting West Virginia as East Coast, no way.

Hell, I spotted Mississippi and North Dakota before I scored Connecticut (#11), Maine (#14), and Rhode Island (#16). The New England states are at some disadvantage, though: they’re common enough that I don’t always register them when I see them.

California’s absence from the January map is highly unusual. I’m pretty sure I saw it fairly early in the month, but by the time I realized I hadn’t written it down, I’d forgotten where I saw it. According to my rules, this makes it an unconfirmed sighting. Wouldn’t you know I haven’t seen it since?

Still, it was a good solid January, elevated to spectacular by the appearance of North Dakota and Mississippi. February is usually a slow month, though in 2021 a whopping 10 new sightings turned up in the year’s shortest month, so we shall see.