County counting

Since I've been married, and particularly since I've had kids, I've had a difficult time answering the question, "What are your hobbies?" It's not that I don't have any. It's just that the time I have to spend on them has pretty much disappeared. I can tell you a whole lot more about hobbies that I've enjoyed in the past or interests I'd like to pursue in the future than I can about hobbies I'm involved in right now. There are a few things outside of raising kids and household chores that I do spend a little time on. I thought I'd write a blog about each of them, as I get time.

"County counting" may not seem like much of a hobby, but I've been having fun with it. Our friend, Dan Miller, from Cincinnati introduced me to this one through his blog, Every Whatever. He's a fun-loving guy with many hobbies, some of them pretty off-the-wall. He found this website, www.mob-rule.com/counties/, that allows you to keep track of every county that you've visited. Did you know that there are 3141 counties (or county equivalents--parishes, etc.) in the United States? So far I've visited 625 of them (19.90%). Here's my map. Thanks and credit mostly go to my parents and Jeff for moving me to several states in various places across the U.S. Most of my counties I got without even trying. I do have plans to get a few more counties in Texas before we move back to Utah this summer. Then when we move we'll alter our normal Texas to Utah route just a little to get some new ones as well. Here's an interesting map of the U.S. showing which counties have been visited most frequently by "county-counters" on the website. You can have fun checking out the county-counting website to see where people have visited, or you too can be a county-counter by starting your own account following the simple instructions here.