Hawaii? What are you doing all the way over here?

Being stuck in the back seat of a station wagon, and then eventually a minivan, and then eventually a minivan without air conditioning with a younger brother and sister, and mom and dad on 8 hour road trips to upstate NY to visit with family was painful as a child.  I’m super talkative most of the time would end up getting grounded by the end of the trip because I couldn’t seem to figure out how to keep my trap shut.  If I remember correctly, my dad did give me $10 once to be quiet for the whole ride.  Looking back, that was probably the best $10 he ever spent.

Anyways, on these long car rides, we would play the license plate game.  Living in Connecticut and traveling to New York we saw all the regulars:  Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, and once we got a few hours into New York we’d start seeing Ontario & Quebec.  Others would show up sparingly…a Delaware here and there sprinkled in with a few Colorados and Texases.  Two that you rarely saw were Alaska and Hawaii.  If you ever did see either of those, especially Hawaii, THAT was a lucky day…am I right?

Here’s the thing though – every time I have seen a Hawaii license plate, including one that I saw this past Monday, I have thought to myself…wtf is going on here?  I mean really…as far as I know there is no way to drive a car to Connecticut from Hawaii.  You’d figure that if someone was on vacation they’d simply rent a car; if they moved, they’d change their plates to the state they moved in, right?  Maybe they have a Go-Go-Gadget Car that sprouts a helicopter propeller and flies them over the Pacific Ocean…I don’t know.  I’m sure there has to be a great explanation for this, but until then I’ll leave it up to my imagination…