Posted on 3 Comments

Road trip fun: the license plate game!

The License Plate Game, a printable from Polka Dot Cottage

As promised yesterday, a new printable for you. I’m happy to give this to you for free, but if you want to buy me a cup of (iced) coffee, I won’t protest. It’s darn hot out there this week, folks ♥

So, this whole thing came about on our recent trip to Burlington. For many years, I have kicked off this four-to-five-hour drive by printing a simple license plate checklist from the internet. We’d fill it up as best we could, and then keep the list in the car for the rest of the summer and try to fill in any gaps. It’s a diversion we all enjoy.

This year, though, I thought it was rather too bad that the list only had one “bonus” box. We saw plates from at least six Canadian provinces this time, and it would have been nice to have a way to record them all.

The License Plate Game, a printable from Polka Dot Cottage

So I made us a way!

The first page contains the usual 50 United States, and it would be fine to stop there, of course. If, however, you are an intrepid license plate detective, you’ll also want to print the two bonus pages. These contain US territories and such, Canadian provinces, and Mexican states. Honestly, here in the Northeast, we see plenty of cars from Canada, and approximately nothing from Mexico. Still, I added both of our North American neighbors, because I suspect those of you in the Southwest US see the opposite, in terms of Mexican and Canadian vehicles.

The License Plate Game, a printable from Polka Dot Cottage

When we play the license plate game, we also tend to use the list to quiz ourselves on state capitals. Each year, we forget a different handful of them. This time it was Kansas and South Dakota. (Topeka and Pierre, I later looked up. And then smacked myself in the head and said, “yes, of course!”) I was going to add a page to the PDF with state capitals listed, but Eamonn told me not to: “That would be cheating, Mom!” So, you can blame Eamonn if you find yourself ready to lose your mind over the capital of Iowa, with no way to look it up, while barreling down the Massachusetts Turnpike.

P.S. I am kind of a license plate geek, and I found this website yesterday that I think is all kinds of cool. If you’re into license plates, you need to check out Jim Moini’s License Plates.

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Posted on 3 Comments

3 thoughts on “Road trip fun: the license plate game!

  1. […] [edited 7/16: The game is done – check it out here.] […]

  2. Thank you. Using this for family ministry for families headed on vacations for the summer – it is adorable – will give you credit and try to direct them to your site 🙂

    1. Excellent! Thank you for spreading the word 🙂 Happy travels!

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