Tuesday, July 20, 2010

The Summer Road Trip Quiz

A little non-canonical, no-points-at-stake quiz for you UnitedStatsians with a taste for domestic travel.

Which state are these highways in?














Submit your answers in the comments!

14 comments:

Cartophiliac said...

Missouri
State of Generic
Michigan
Kansas
North Dakota?
Washington
Utah
South Dakota
Ohio
Colorado
Arkansas
New Hampshire (if you didn't already have it up there, I might have guessed South Dakota... tricky..)

This would have been a good Wednesday quiz (especially, because I would have got lots of points!)

Christine M. said...

Missouri
Some state i've never driven in
Michigan
Kansas
North Dakota
Virginia (my first guess. WA was #2)
Utah
South Dakota
Ohio (wOOt!)
Colorado
Arkansas
New Hampshire

Elaine said...

1. Georgia, Land of my birth
2. Maryland (no clue)
3. Maine (")
4. Hawaii(")
5. North Dakota!
6. Virginia
7. Utah
8. South Dakota (no clue)
9. OHIO! The heart of it all
10. Jeez Louise. It goes a long way. I'm guessing California
11. Missouri?
12. The Old Man of the Mountain...is that in Vermont? or New Hampshire? Shape is wrong for NH, so I'll guess VT.

At least I can't make my score any lower...

e said...

shoot, now that I look at other answers, I think I even missed the ones I thought I was sure of. Egad.

Aviatrix said...

Cute! Non USAians can guess ...

1. Irregular on the east, could be coastal but I'm going to guess the Mississippi and say Kentucky -- which for all I know is on the other side of the Mississippi, but that's my guess.

2. Okay, what state is so self-important or self-effacing that it doesn't need a distinctive shape on its highway signs? I'm going with Wyoming because I think Highway 2 ought to go to Yellowstone National Park. I just do, ok?

3. Ooh, a black diamond state. With an M. That narrows it down. Missouri.

4. Sunflower State. Hmmm. I think it's somewhere small. Or is it a sun? Sunshine State would be Florida, but they use the shape of their state. Maybe Oklahoma.

5. North Dakota. Did they think they had to put initials on it so people could figure out where they were?

6. Washington. The ponytail gives it away. Presidents can't get away with ponytails these days.

7. Utah. The beehive state. I think it's meant to imply that they are a busy as bees, not that they die in the winter or that they have hundreds of males who will never get laid.

8. Now that's east coast for sure. I'm going with Georgia cause there's like a river and a naval base I have to detour around down in that bottom right corner.

9. Hmm, a rounded bottom state. Tricky. It has a dead straight side there, so not on the coast. Maybe follows a lake or a river there at the top. Oh unless it's Maine. Yeah, I'm going with Maine, and that's Canada there at the top.

10. That ought to be easy, with all those clues, but I haven't got a clue. I'm going with Connecticut, because I don't know anything about it.

11. One of the square states is running it over in the bottom corner there, with a river on the right. Could it be Wisconsin. Yes I'm going with Wisconsin. I'll say that it's NE of Colorado.

12. New Hampshire! After stopping to look at a few rocks that looked vaguely like things, we pulled off into the "Old Man Memorial Viewing Area" and couldn't find any rocks. We came up with lots of great stories about a nameless old man who was being remembered, and finally happened to mention it to someone, who explained that their state symbol had collapsed. Only known memorial to a coincidental arrangement of rocks.

Jennifer said...

What a creative quiz idea! Professional quality!

Morgan said...

1. Missouri
2. California
3. Montana
4. Georgia
5. North Dakota
6. Washington
7. Idaho
8. New Mexico
9. Ohio
10. Illinois
43. Arkansas
156. South Dakota

Ben said...

Bonus quiz! More opportunities to look foolish!

1. Wisconsin
2. (yawn) Virginia
3. Montana
4. Arizona
5. North Dakota
6. Washington
7. Ohio
8. Colorado
9. Vermont
10. California
11. Iowa
12. South Dakota

UnwiseOwl said...

It's a matter of pride that I partake in as many M5000 quizzes as possible, despite my complete ignorance of all things US.
1. I think it's Georgia, but if so it appears to have plans of invading Florida at some point. Declaring it on your road signs seems like a pretty dumb way to keep your plans secret, and I think Georgians are smarter than that, so I suspect they're actually planning an attack on South Carolina and this is just a ruse. Another option is that it's another state altogether but I'll be blowed if I know which one.
2.
3. Michigan, Maine, Missouri, Mississippi...Have I missed any? Probably...I think Michigan, based on the type-face, which feels no-nonsense and industrial.
4. Is that the sun? A sunflower? Wattle blossom? I'm thinking one of those big ol' western states, Oklahoma?
5. Haha, it's trying to trick us into thinking that it's North Dakota, but really it's Tennessee, home of the New Deal. They like Indians over there, right? Bah, I tried, but I can't bring myself to deliberately be wrong. It's North Dakota.
6. Is it sad that I can recognise the profile of your presidents, when I doubt I could recognise my own? Washington.
7. The dog poop state? They're trying to trick you into thinking that's a beehive, a font of industry, but we know the truth. How about Illinois. (Yeah, I have no idea).
8. South Dakota. I have nothing funny to say.
9. Ohio? I'm getting all my state shapes from memory of a board game I played once called 'Ten Days in the USA', it was a while ago, so I really got nothing.
10. Big C for Colorado.
11. Arkansas. You guys spell stuff funny.
12. Hrmm, this isn't map, it's a big stone head, but not Mt. Rushmore? I dunno...who has big rocks? Maine?
We have a national highway system over here. On the asumption that people will notice when they cross the borders or something.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater said...

I guess I'm not very worldly, or nationly as the case may be, because I don't know jack shit about these highways or biways, if there really is such a thing as a byway.

Elizabeth said...

1. Appendix.
2. Escutcheon.
3. Fraternity.
4. Nova.
5. Massacre.
6. Myth.
7. Skep.
8. Parchment.
9. Iceberg.
10. Wrench.
43. Teakettle.
156. Colossus.

Michael5000 said...

I think Morgan and Elizabeth win this one, for properly following the number scheme.

1. Missouri, reinforcing its political identity with a cartographic gesture.

2. The elegant quasi-colonial signboard of the Empire State.

3. UnWise Owl calls it: no-nonsense, industrial Michigan.

4. The Sunflower State, Kansas. There is a stretch of I-35 in Kansas that, when the sunflowers are blooming along the shoulders and in the median, is a breathtaking few minutes of driving. You don't get many of those in Kansas.

5. North Dakota

6. Washington -- the only highway signage that I know of that incorporates a bust, unless you include North Dakota.

7. Utah. It's an entirely, completely secular symbol, signifying the happy, harmonious industrial of, um, Utah people.

8. South Dakota laying some mappy symbolism on ya.

9. Ohio totally stealing South Dakota's idea.

10. Colorado laying some flaggy symbolism on ya.

43. Arkansas, whose highway signs segue seamlessly into Missouri's as you cross the northern border.

156. New Hampshire, whose highway signs mimic a former cliff.

Michael5000 said...

Also, I'll have some of whatever Elizabeth is drinking, please.

Elizabeth said...

Oh, I thought this was about one's state of MIND. Sorry about that.