Quote:
Originally Posted by Toxaris
If the roads are quiet, I can drive to the country borders in about 60-90 minutes... And I am living near the coast on the other side of the country.
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LOL. I recall when my mother and some other family members came out to see me, in AZ.
She came from the TriState area (in the USA, NY, NJ, Connecticut), and that's her primary frame of reference. That and Europe, for her college work. In the US, you can pretty much drive from NJ to Washington, DC, in about 3 hrs, 45 minutes, if you take the I-95S. Natch, she assumed that driving times--or, I guess, the expectation of how far one would go--were similar, here.
So, she and the other harridans (aka inside the fam as the
Geriatric Buccanneers) took their rental car, drove from my home to Sedona, and were all proud of themselves. (About...1.5-2 hours). After that daytrip, they decided that they were going to DRIVE to the Grand Canyon, and that's when I interceded, saying "nope, not gonna happen." Suffice to say, Mother was pissed about being thwarted.
Anyway...I ended up getting a plane, and flying them from Scottsdale to the Canyon, and over it. I forget the flight time, but when we were substantially away from the Metro area, I pointed her view out the windscreens/windows and said "see that? That vast nothing? THAT is what I didn't want you three driving through." Once she saw that literally, you could see NO sign of civilization
as far as the eye could see, in a bloody airplane, mind you, she decided that perhaps, I'd been right about it. (Not to mention--there is no such thing as actually appreciating the Canyon, from the ground. You have to see it from the air to really grasp its size.)
She couldn't believe that you could drive 3.5-5 hours, and STILL not leave the state. (n.b. of course, most people forget how large NY state really is, but that's for another day.)
:-)
Hitch