"Cover" towns

[azgman]

A "cover" town is much like a "cover" song. For a song, the name is the same as the original, but someone else performs it. In the case of a cover town, it has the same name as a well known town, but it is somewhere else.

Some examples: Miami, AZ ; Las Vegas, NM ; Florida, MA (Ok Florida is a state, but it still counts!)

Show us a picture of your bike next to the sign of a cover town!

 

[darrylri]

You forgot Miami, OH.

I live in a "cover town". There are Santa Cruzes (Holy Cross) all around the former Spanish colonial world.

To me, what's interesting is how the locals in the cover town might mangle the original pronunciation of the name. Things like New May-drid (Madrid), MO or Kay-ro (Cairo), IL.

On one of my first trips to Europe, I stayed in Normandy for 3 days, at a farmhouse B&B. I had breakfast and dinner there, and the owners were interesting to chat with in the evening, not to mention that they brought out their own Calvados to sip. At one point I was talking about my mom's family, who came from Detroit, but Annie and Hubert (oo-bear), who both spoke good English, didn't seem to know where that was. This struck me as curious, because Europeans generally get a much better education in geography than we do, but I continued on anyway. Then it struck me... I told them "Oh, perhaps you know it as Deh-twa." They knew it all right, and Annie, who had heretofore been very nice to me, screwed up her face and said "Dee-troit?! Puh!!" in that dismissive way the French are so good at!

 

[20774]

The Connecticut River Valley BMW Club did something like this 4-5 years ago. They sponsored a grand tour in which you were to take your bike picture next to town names that were World Capitals. There's Paris, TX, and Moscow, Idaho, etc. It got to be pretty popular and they stopped doing it from a liability standpoint. They just didn't want to sanction them anymore... Same concept...

 

[dbrick]

To me, what's interesting is how the locals in the cover town might mangle the original pronunciation of the name. Things like New May-drid (Madrid), MO or Kay-ro (Cairo), IL.

There's a town named Madrid just south of Santa Fe, New Mexico, deep in the heart of territory settled by Mexico before the US took over. The locals pronounce it in two syllables, accent on the first, which sounds the same as the first two letters of the word "Halleluhah."

 

[scqtt]

To me, what's interesting is how the locals in the cover town might mangle the original pronunciation of the name. Things like New May-drid (Madrid), MO or Kay-ro (Cairo), IL.

Very funny & true thats sort of been my neck of the woods for the last 12 years (Cape Girardeau/Memphis area) Seems odd a California guy would know how the locals in a small towns would butcher the names of them when they are so far away.


We have a Dakar road in the Millington TN area and about 100 miles away or so we have Paris TN. When I get a chance later this summer I am going to ride "Paris to Dakar" just for kicks.

 

[darrylri]

Very funny & true thats sort of been my neck of the woods for the last 12 years (Cape Girardeau/Memphis area) Seems odd a California guy would know how the locals in a small towns would butcher the names of them when they are so far away.

Well, you know, I've got a couple motorcycles and like to tour around on them, go to rallies and talk to people there from other places...

We have a Dakar road in the Millington TN area and about 100 miles away or so we have Paris TN. When I get a chance later this summer I am going to ride "Paris to Dakar" just for kicks.

Sounds like a great idea!

Streets & Trips says that there's a Paris in: IL, KY, TN, TX, ID, OH, ME, MO, VA, WI. However, it doesn't have a Dakar (city) anywhere in the US.

 

[Jamming]

I live in Buckeye Arizona, about 40 miles from Phoenix Founded by 2 dudes from Ohio who were homesick.

Funny thing is, the Ohio state Buckeye's have played college football bowl games here in Phoenix for something like 4 years. We get a bunch of people from Ohio in the town taking pics and buying anything with Buckeye on it.

Rog

 

[32232]

Our local BMW dealer sponsored a tour of the 'capitals of Europe' a few years ago. Places like Paris, London, Brussels ........................Ontario. It was a fun theme.

 

[tonkandy]

I think I could leave my house after breakfast and after traveling through Glencoe, Montrose, Biscay, Hamburg, Gotha, Cologne, Heidelberg, Ottawa, Lafayette, New Rome, New Sweden, New Germany, New Ulm, and New Prague (rhymes with vague), I could be home for dinner. In the past I could also probably go through Hanover and Medina but these days I have to make too many potty stops

 

[azgman]

I think I could leave my house after breakfast and after traveling through Glencoe, Montrose, Biscay, Hamburg, Gotha, Cologne, Heidelberg, Ottawa, Lafayette, New Rome, New Sweden, New Germany, New Ulm, and New Prague (rhymes with vague), I could be home for dinner. In the past I could also probably go through Hanover and Medina but these days I have to make too many potty stops

Wow! And I thought I did good today with Cuba, NM, Miami, NM, Boise City, OK and Moscow, KS!

 

[bob_m]

Oregon's full of em

Our local BMW dealer sponsored a tour of the 'capitals of Europe' a few years ago. Places like Paris, London, Brussels ........................Ontario. It was a fun theme.

Rome, OR, Lebenon, OR, Damascus, OR and there is a Hollywood neighborhood in Portland

 

[rangepig]

Rome, OR, Lebenon, OR, Damascus, OR and there is a Hollywood neighborhood in Portland

And Portland itself is a cover town of Portland, Maine. The story goes that "Portland" won the coin toss or it would have been "Boston, Oregon."

 

[beemokat]

There used to be an "I've Been Everywhere" (after the Johnny Cash song) tour in which the riders had the whole summer to get to all the cities mentioned in the lyrics. "Cover" towns counted, that's how I know that there is a Reno in Michigan.
There is also a Florida, Ohio.

 

[SNOONE]

and a couple towns away from me is Florida, New York.

 

[JCABRANES]

A "cover" town is much like a "cover" song. For a song, the name is the same as the original, but someone else performs it. In the case of a cover town, it has the same name as a well known town, but it is somewhere else.

Some examples: Miami, AZ ; Las Vegas, NM ; Florida, MA (Ok Florida is a state, but it still counts!)

Show us a picture of your bike next to the sign of a cover town!

You also forgot Miami, OK. That's ok... its a forgettable place.

 

[tessler]

Berlin, NY

photo by Paul Bachorz

 

[BUBBAZANETTI]

and a couple towns away from me is Florida, New York.

i was in Florida MA yesterday

 

[henzilla]

I thought I had teleported in MO after the Rally....
Mexico and Paris on the same road!

 

[BRADFORDBENN]

Also been to Mexico, IN; Denver, IN; Peru, IN. And lots and lots of Elkhart....

 

[hlothery]

There's a real nice country song about a girl who is "All the Rage in Paris"......without ever leaving Texas.

Not to hyjack, but also interesting would be a thread on towns with names never seen anywhere else, like Dime Box, Tx or Bucksnort, Ga.