Time and distance

I don't know if people from other countries do this, but have you noticed in America, we give to time to destination rather than distance ? Sometimes we'll give you both, depending on a couple of factors.

If you ask me how far is Evansville Indiana from here, I'll tell you " 'bout an hour ". Never mind that it's only 35 miles, it's still gonna be an hour. Why ? Because you have to go through Henderson Ky. All the way through. You'll come in on the South end and come out the North, with all the traffic and stop lights in between and God help you if they're working on the Evansville bridge, 'cause traffic will be backed up for a couple of miles and it.....moves.....sloooooow. so add at least another 30 minutes to that hour. My Wife likes to shop in Evansville because they have some small stores she likes and she plans shopping trips on whether or not they're working on it. Working on the bridge ? Nope. I'll go another day.

The local lake ? I've had folks who were traveling stop and ask directions and from my house it's only about 4 miles, so that's what I tell'em. "Just go straight down this road another 3.5 -4 miles, turn right and there you be. "

If you ask for directions in Eastern Ky, you get " Go down there where that old oak tree got hit by lightin' in '97 ? Broke the top out of and it was layin' cross the road. Took us half the day to clear it but we got some good firewood out of it, then turn left and go till you see where JoeBob had his fillin' station, they tore it down but you can still see the concrete pad if the grass ain't growed up around it, and go about another half mile past that and turn right and it'll be a fair piece but you'll see a mailbox sittin' on a stump. That's where you're headed.

Thankfully I do know where that tree is and where JoeBob had his fillin' station.


Eastern Ky disclaimer : If you hear banjos, roll the windows up and drive faster.

a reply to: DAVID64

around here, everything is "just down the road". I live on the old "main way to the beach", so it's easy to get to just about anything, and as always, it's all "just down the road". we do offer a time estimate, as well as things to avoid at certain times. Country folk just do things different I guess.

Similar here, a lot of places are over yonder (with appropriate hand waving or pointing in the general direction). I gave directions yesterday and it went like "Go down the "old" road as opposed to the "new" road and turn where that store used to be on the corner that they tore down, go, I don't know, about 2 miles or so and when you come to the top of the big hill there will be a wrought iron fence on the right. Turn right there, you've reached the destination".

We are one of the largest counties and people (not from here) get turned around and lost fairly easily. I have told people in the past, if you get lost just call me and describe where you are. I can get you to me or where you need to go.

Country folks DO do things differently!

a reply to: DAVID64

As Einstein would say --or did say in fact, "time is relative." On topic, time is more important than miles because it can vary, as you indicated depending, which is to say, relative.

For me I go Ho-Hum as I wait for the ETs to bring themselves more personal to us than just during their infrequent abductions work, Seriously, think about it. Many abductees report that their watches or clock in vehicles stopped during abductions and some never run again. What magical machines do they have that can do that? Does it stop biological aging or merely mechanical and electronics? Is that how they travel across stars, by stopping time? We tend to throw that possibility out of hand, but, then, countless abduction visits have reported that one, unthinkable fact. But if you want to dismiss that concept as you wait to cross the Ohio river, then that is OK too, but it is something to wonder about.

I like country time, 5 minutes usually takes half a day.

One of my childhood buddies had a great uncle that was a farmer in Nebraska. I remember someone asking him how far it was to Fremont, and he said "It's just a hop, skip, and a bygolly from here."
My favorite of his "giving directions" responses was when someone asked him for directions to Nebraska City. He said "There's no way to get there from here. You'll have to start somewhere else."

a reply to: network dude

LOL, a family member lives in Florida, and has commented when visiting about how everything up here is "just down the road" when they visited.
No matter how far it seemed.
But I guess when you are driving in a city, then come up for a visit where there are only houses and farm fields, it must seem like a much farther drive.

We also do the "time" thing. I'm 10 minutes from town. I'm about 1 1/2 to 2 hours from the big lakes east or west.
But giving directions?
I never remember rd names. it's always, "where the car quest is, on the corner, or a couple miles until the horses on the right.

we use time all the time to figure distance. It is more normal than miles driven. Speed limits, curvy roads, gravel roads, construction on the roads all summer here, distance is irrelevant. Even snow and ice are important, in winter we evaluate things by weather conditions for what is more relevant of a location. Miles per gallon is also related to road conditions, we figure how much gas and time to evaluate efficiency of a trip. Sometimes taking the longer route is faster and less gas is used for the trip because of road conditions.

It is a twenty minute ride from here to the grocery store in marquette average using the same route. That is right into the parking lot parked. In winter the car has a five minnute extra warmup which is time to brush the snow off and scrape the windows sometimes, other times it could be half an hour to do that

This past spring and until recently, I had to drive from the foothills of NC to a town north of Atlanta every couple of weeks. I have to drive down I-85. 😩 The distance never varies, but the time sure does! It depends on time of day, day of the week, whether there’s construction going on, and whether there’s an accident. Believe me, I’m very happy to get back to my sleepy little town.