New York counties, and then some

 <I wrote this while on a flight to Chicago around this time last year, and just noticed it in my drafts much closer to finished than I recalled... 😀>

At the start of 2021, one of my two posts was about my progress for reaching every corner of New York: I had set the goal of doing something in each of the state’s 62 counties. By "something", I meant an NPS site, a state park, a sporting event, a brewery or something else (for me, "something else" included the Corning Museum of Glass, the Baseball Hall of Fame, Howe Caverns, county fairs, etc.). At the time, 55 of them could be considered done. Since I had updated my other post of early 2021 early in 2022—the great state border challenge—it seemed appropriate to update my New York county post too, especially since it's now two years since I've completed that quest.

Yes, I went 62 for 62 in June of 2021, when my quest was completed with a state park and brewery in Chautauqua, the state’s westernmost county. Satisfaction from that quest continues via visits to more of what New York has to offer. I am now up to roughly the following: 

• 64 state parks in 42 counties
• all 22 of NY's NPS sites, which are scattered in nine counties
• a pro sporting event in 19 of them (I've got all but two now: the Sabres and Isles)
• dozens of breweries throughout 27 counties
• skiing at 15 resorts in 12 of them.

When I wrote the New York county post two years ago, I had seven counties to go, one in the Thousand Lakes region, and the other six in the western part of the state. Skiing helped me knock off one, state parks most of the others, and then there was Madison County, with one of the gems of the quest: the Boxing Hall of Fame. An easy on and off the interstate, I don’t recall ever knowing about it. It was great to spend a day in Madison, visiting the Hall, a brewery, Chittenango Falls State Park, walking the rail trail, etc. One of my favorite parts about quests are those gems you don’t expect to stumble upon. Further, after never visiting New York's St. Lawrence county before this quest grabbed my attention, I've now been to four state parks there, and I'm thinking about another visit there later this summer.

Am I done with activities in New York counties? Not by a long shot—there are so many more things I want to see and experience: I've seen just over a quarter of our state parks, about the same for our ski resorts, etc.. As of this posting, though, here is what my New York coverage looks like.

Green are state parks, red are NPS sites, gray checks are those random pin-worthy activities, and then the stadium, ski and beer mug icons hopefully are hopefully self-explanatory.

This is surely, however, my final post here on the topic. Well, on New York counties anyway. As for the other 49 states and their counties? Yeah I suppose I have stuff cooking in that regard. Whereas my NY quest entailed an activity in each of the Empire State’s counties, if I think about this on a national scale, simply passing through it or nipping a corner will work.

Between state lines and counties, there’s a lot of ground to cover out there. The road trip I was readying for when I drafted this in late May 2022 showed me at 93/107 state lines and 1180/3143 (37.5%) of the US counties. I currently stand at 97/107 and 1272/3142 (40.5%), respectively. Here's my map from mob-rule:

Yep, so much to see out there, whether on a state level, or a national one.