The license plate game

As a kid, our family used to play the license plate game when we went on road trips. Interstates were the best places to see license plates from different states.

During the holidays this year, we traveled around the state of Michoacan: along the Southwestern coast, to the East to see the Monarch butterflies, and around Zamora to the West. Certainly, we saw quite a selection of Mexican license plates, but I haven’t seen such a splattering of this many U.S. plates in a long time.

Three states dominated the list. At the top was California, followed by Texas. Surprisingly, Illinois was a close third.

Each town obviously had its own U.S. connection with a higher concentration of plates form particular states: Oregon, Utah, Missouri, Georgia, North Carolina, Washington, Minnesota, or Idaho. Every once in a while, we would see a lone plate from Nebraska, Arkansas, Ohio, Colorado, Iowa, Nevada, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Virginia, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Florida. (I will continue to update this list as more appear, so stay tuned.)

Yes, even Connecticut and Kansas (Dodge City) made the list.

Conspicuously absent from our list was Arizona and New Mexico.

Everyone made the drive to visit family for the holidays. I suppose one could read into this list as a indication of changing migratory patterns in Michoacan from the historical destinations of California, Texas, and Illinois to nearly all regions of the U.S.

More striking, however, was the types of vehicles on the road. In Mexico, every last possible mile is squeezed out of a vehicle. The most numerous one in operation (by non-taxi drivers) has to be the Volkswagen Bug. So whenever we saw a brand-spanking new SUV, heavy-duty pick-up truck, or mini-van, it stuck out on the road; there was a 90% chance that it had a U.S. license plate attached to the bumper.

My 1987 Honda Civic certainly wouldn't make it down here...