Gribblenation

A popular pastime within the roadgeeking hobby is county collecting.  In a nutshell, you keep track of all the counties in the US - and now Canada and Mexico - that you have been in.  It is one of those quirky little things that not only roadgeeks enjoy but also pretty much anyone that likes to travel.  Mob-Rule.com is the home for most county collectors and it is an interactive site that allows you to track your counties and label them however you wish.  You can label them by year visited, by if you have resided or spend the night there, how you visited them and even with whom.  Others even have rules for the counties to count, they or their spouse has to actually be driving, must visit the county seat, must do some sort of activity or transaction within the county. I started keeping track of my overall counties about 15 years ago.  It was a lot easier to remember where and when you went there when you were 26 then now at 41.   County collect...

...and here's why. You will find White, Red, Yellow and Violet colored fire hydrants pretty much everywhere.  But there's a reason for this - and it's because of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).  This association has issued guidelines for color coding standards for fire hydrants.  These color codes from the body of the hydrant, top of the hydrant, and in some municipalities the outlet caps are designed to allow fire fighters to know what type of system, water flow rate (Gallons Per Minute or GPM), and level of water pressure.  This guideline is known as NFPA 291 and is intended to be used universally throughout the United States. The NFPA guidelines are specific to the body and the top cap of the hydrant.  If a hydrant is WHITE or YELLOW - it means that it is connected to a public/municipal water system.  If a hydrant is RED - the hydrant is connected to a private system, typically a well.  These are most common in rural o...

Something road related but more on the December side of things.  This previous Saturday night I went to the 95th Christmas Tree Lane which is held on the northern segment of Van Ness Boulevard in the City of Fresno. Christmas Tree Lane is setup every year on Van Ness Boulevard between Shields Avenue two miles north to Shaw Avenue.  Every year Van Ness Boulevard is adorned with Christmas lights above the roadway and there seems to be an extra emphasis to participate from the homeowners.  Van Ness is converted into a one-way street for the duration of when Christmas Tree Lane is open and has at least two walk-only nights a year.  Christmas Tree Lane started in 1920 when one tree was lit after a child passed away and only has been interrupted by WWII in 1941 in addition to the 1973 oil crisis.   On the night of the 2nd Christmas Tree Lane was open to pedestrian traffic. North Van Ness would have been in an extremely remote northern...

About 3 years ago, I did an web page on my old site comparing PDA mapping software. Boy, have things changed in the short time since I wrote that page. The standalone PDA is pretty much extinct, as is the concept of mapping software for that particular platform(at least for now). The closest you get these days is laptop/GPS software. Delorme and Microsoft are the two players in that, and Delorme may be prettier, but Microsoft is by far the better software in accuracy and ease of use, and if the reviews are anything to go by, they actually listen to their users. Microsoft still has an option to export Streets and Trips maps to mobiles-though this may be limited to the Mobile Windows platform. I have a Windows machine, and S&T 2010 looks pretty good on the shelf, it may be worth the cash to have a look at. There are oodles of Car GPS's, but most aren't really handy for toting around. So if you want maps that you can actually tote around in a reasonably convenient format, you...