I'm finally home. Whew, what a busy weekend!

Friday night was the barbecue and fireworks (with a k) in Cherry Valley, IL. I mapquested it, and the quickest and most direct route, although not the shortest, is 71.91 miles from my home. During those nearly 72 miles, I saw twelve out-of-state license plates. I'm used to seeing some, as the roads I was on are routes from Illinois to either Iowa or Wisconsin. However, I saw some plates from just about all sides of the country. To make this interesting, I found images of all plates on the net, so you can see all the states that were represented during my drive. In alphabetical order:

California plates are interesting because they stay with the car, for the life of the car. So all the really old cars from the 60's and 70's have very different plates. The most common "old" plate you see in CA is black with yellow lettering.

Obviously, this is a sample plate. This is the current style issued to passenger vehicles. As you all are aware, states now offer dozens of styles for just about anything you can think of. Colorado even offers one for Horseless Carriages.

This is the most common Florida plate I've seen. Some states still have the state nickname listed on the bottom.

I like how they put the peach for the "o" in Georgia. This state has the respective county listed at the bottom.

Iowa is one more state in the U.S. that has made their plates more representative of their state in the last few years. According to the Iowa License Plate database, when I moved to IL in 1982, the Iowa plates were dark green with white letters. Then they went to dark blue with white letters in 1986, and in 1997 switched to the image you see above.

Kansas is a plate I see commonly, since Interstate 88 in IL meets up with Interstate 80, the main route through Iowa before heading south to Kansas. They have a new design that will be coming out in 2010.

Michigan has a variety of styles available, I see several of them, so I always have to do a double take to make sure I'm reading the state correctly. In addition to this Great Lakes Splendor, they have a white one with a blue banner across the top where the state is listed, and the state's website is listed at the bottom; the other one is the Spectacular Peninsula plate, also with a picture of the Mackinac Bridge on it, with a cityscape and pine trees.

Missouri's famous state motto: The Show-Me State. According to their website, they have also had a re-design, with the new plate showing an outline of the state, with the state bird underneath it, and the motto on top underneath the state.

Mississippi is the Magnolia state, so it makes sense for them to put a big 'ole Magnolia blossom smack dab in the middle of the plate. They also include the respective county on their plates.

On the top left is Niagara Falls, and on the top right is New York City, the two most well known places to visit in New York State. And they just happen to be at opposite ends of the state. I wonder how NY got the nickname The Empire State?

Pennsylvania was the first state to include their website on their license plates. That was back when the internet was first invented by Al Gore. I remember thinking how silly it is to put their website on a license plate. Although, with all the people who have internet access these days, I bet it helps the state residents remember where to go for information about plates and registrations.

Wisconsin, America's Dairyland. Or as those in Illinois like to say, Home of the Cheeseheads. Drive through southern Wisconsin, and you see dairy farm after dairy farm after dairy farm. There's no shortage of them. I see Wisconsin plates almost every day, as my commute to and from work is on a main route between Wisconsin and Illinois.

There you have it, the 12 different license plates I saw on Friday afternoon. It was interesting looking up the history of some of these plates. I hope I didn't bore anyone.