Recently I saw an aunt and uncle who I haven’t seen in ages. They live in Washington. They drove down to California. When I said, “Oh wow, how long is that?” he said, “It’s about 900 miles.” And I was like, I don’t really know what that means, even though it is a totally appropriate and probably more accurate answer to my question.
I’ve heard it’s “a California thing” to give distance in terms of time (it takes about 3 hours) and not miles (it’s like 130 miles). Honestly, I don’t even know how many miles away things are, but I can tell you how long it’ll take to get there. Well, I know my work is about 30 miles from my house, but that’s only because I gauge how many more trips I have before I’ll have to get gas.
It was a lovely family visit, by the way.
Anyway. I’m curious.
The Cameraphone Diaries 
6 replies on “It’s a California thing.”
For short distances, time is appropriate. (e.g.: Everything in Connecticut is 45 minutes from everything else in Connecticut [+/- 15 min]). For road trippin’, mileage is the only thing that matters, since that is a fact. The time is up to the driver.
I have to make a minor correction to Dennis’ comment. The time of a long trip is NOT up to the driver….it is up to the driver’s fiance and how many extra-large diet cokes she has had to drink along the way 🙂 (We just drove 6 hours today and I had 2 diet cokes, so we made 4 stops!)
You will notice that the trucking industry is a) male-dominated and b) not nearly glamorous to blame any glass ceiling effect.
I didn’t even realize that people measured distance in anything but miles – it’s a Washington thing 🙂
Actually, apparently most of the world measures distance in “kilometers”, whatever those are.
Huh. Good call.