[thechat] mine's bigger! (was: I got an interview!)

Tara Cleveland tara at taracleveland.com
Mon Sep 30 13:28:01 CDT 2002


Jonathon Isaac Swiderski wrote:
> According to Mapquest directions, it's about 13.5h to Ironwood, at the tip
> of the upper peninsula, from Detroit, which is 1h+ from the southern
> border.  It's a biiig state.)

Ken Kogler wrote:
> Gets a bit confusuing, as driving the entire
> length of Illinois from Chicago (in the NE corner) to the southern tip
> can be a 7 or 8 hour drive on the freeway... It's quite a lot of
> farmland down there!

I always think it's funny when my relatives from England think that a two
hour drive to the cottage every weekend is excessive. They have a completely
different perspective on distance. Even the US doesn't have the same
distances as we do here. Of course, most Canadians live within a few hundred
kilometres from the US border. Up north, the populations levels are 3 men
and a dog per km2 (as my old geography teacher used to say). Here's a
comparison of size:

Illinois: 57,918 square miles: (approximately 150,007 kilometres)
UK: 93,788 square miles (242,910 square kilometres)
Michigan: 96,810 square miles (approximately 250,737 square kilometres)
Ontario: Area, 412,582 square miles (1,068,582 square kilometres)

The furthest north-south distance is 1,690 kilometers, so going 100km an
hour (the highest speed limit possible - but not likely attainable on the
northern roads) it'd take you about 17 hours to drive it. Of course, that's
as the crow flies, and highways don't usually point in a straight line;-)
I'd probably plan at *least* a few days to attempt it. Or just take a bush
plane!

Regards,
Tara




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