Every Municipality (in Harris County, Texas)

Carey here (not Dan).

As usual, I like to like to use Dan for inspiration and I borrowed his every city in a county idea to my own county, Harris County, Texas.

They say everything is bigger in Texas, and our counties are no exception. Harris County is 1,778 square miles and third largest in the country by population. This is compared to 413 square miles of Hamilton County, Ohio. Needless to say, it's going to be a much longer trip. However, there will be fewer municipalities to hit, since the city of Houston alone takes up 33.8% of the entire area of the county.

Texas is a little different in Ohio in that they don't have "villages" or "townships." All we have are cities and unincorporated county areas. These unincorporated areas are basically the same things as townships. They don't always have a set border, but they are considered census-designated places.

From speaking with Dan, I think these are the ground rules we came up with, which is pretty much what he's already discussed in the previous post:

• Municipalities are usually defined by state statute. Anything considered an unincorporated area (i.e. township) by the county doesn't count towards the goal, as they do not always have defined boundaries.
  
• If a city is split into two or more disconnected parts, you only have to visit one of the parts to count the city.
• You are allowed to leave the county, but any city you pick up outside of the county doesn't count towards the goal. You must be inside that city inside the target county.
• If any part of a city is in the County, it must be hit.

So, with these ground rules in mind, here is the list of municipalities in Harris County that require visiting:

• Baytown
• Bellaire
• Bunker Hill Village
• Deer Park
• El Lago
• Friendswood
• Galena Park
• Hedwig Village
• Hilshire Village
• Houston
• Humble
• Hunters Creek Village
• Jacinto City
• Jersey Village
• Katy
• La Porte
• League City
• Missouri City
• Morgan's Point
• Nassau Bay
• Pasadena
• Pearland
• Piney Point Village
• Seabrook
• Shoreacres
• South Houston
• Southside Place
• Spring Valley
• Stafford
• Taylor Lake Village
• Tomball
• Waller
• Webster
• West University Place

The shortest path I could find was 205 miles and estimated 5.75 hours. See my map here

And I have a date set! It looks like I'll be attempting this route on the afternoon of Sunday, July 22, 2007 with a few people I know who wanted to share in the world record. I'll report on the trip afterwards.