We just drove from the Boston Suburbs to the Atlanta suburbs, a distance of over 1000 miles. The same trip in Europe would have taken us from Barcelona, Spain to Poland. In other words, a trip that took us half way down the eastern seaboard of the US* would have taken us essentially across all of western Europe.
Europeans - or, as Mark Alger points out, East Coat city-dwelling intellectuals - simply don't get this. As Rachel might put it, They. Don't. Get. It.
The longest road trip I ever took was around 6,000 miles. One summer, we drove from Maine to Los Angeles, and back. There's a lot to see, and a lot of people you meet, and you'll learn a lot from that. We traveled all over in Europe, too, but I didn't learn half as much from those trips as I learned that summer in 1972. Because for all your having "boots on the ground", you get few opportunities to really interact with the natives. The tourist situation gets in the way, in a sense that it doesn't when you're in your own country.
Don't get me wrong - we loved living in Europe, and went everywhere. But our pictures are almost all like this:
Us with the kids in Holland. Us with the kids at the Eiffel Tower. Us with the kids in Brussels. It seems from our photos that Europe is running dangerously low on Europeans.
That's why I'm pretty unimpressed with most Intellectual's view of their "worldliness" because they've vacationed in Tuscany. And even less impressed by their proudly ignorant view of "Fly Over" country.
A European colleague once brought his family to the USA for summer holiday. Rather than Florida, they flew to Chicago, rented an RV, and drove to Yellowstone. He saw a lot of the country, both physically and metaphysically. You can do the opposite, as an American going to Europe, but most don't.
The closing part of this post's title, of course, is well known to many:
* Houlton, ME to Key West, FL is the complete eastern seaboard. It's almost 2000 miles long.
I always think of the distances involved whenever I hear someone wax on about the benefits of passenger rail. I also believe that anyone who advocates ride sharing or slower speed limits be forced to drive across the breadth of Texas with three strangers in the summertime at 55 miles per hour without air conditioning.
ReplyDeleteParis to Berlin is almost the same distance as El Paso to Dallas.
ReplyDeleteYou're also right about Northeasterners - I grew up near San Francisco. We had some friends of my parents visit from Boston. They asked if we visited Disneyland every weekend. That's over 350 miles, somewhere between 6 and 8 hours to drive. But it's in the same state, so it must be close, right?
Had some friends fly in from England. Their two-week itinerary: Tennessee to California; LA to Wine Country; San Francisco to New York City; back to Tennessee. All by driving. As soon as I explained the actual distances involved, let's just say they changed their plans....
ReplyDeleteI think that anyone who has referred to Middle America as 'flyover country' should have to come out and drive through and actually see and meet the people that they denigrate and belittle.
I attended an aviation conference back in October, and a young doctorate from Paris said that they're finding people taking the high speed rail from Paris to Amsterdam instead of flying because with the security delays, flying takes longer than the train ride.
ReplyDeleteLooks like about Atlanta to Winston-Salem, NC. That's not even a long drive. I think you'd spend more time in the airports than even in a car driving at interstate speeds.
Well just to quibble the map is of Western Europe, Europe stretches from the Atlantic to the Urals.
ReplyDeleteGood friend had some relatives fly in from Italy. Landed in Chicago on a Thursday, and had their whole trip planned! They were going to go New York City, Niagara Falls, Washington, DC, Disney World in Orlando, New Orleans, and pop over to Vegas...and be back in Chicago for their flight back to Italy on Monday.
ReplyDeleteThey were astounded to learn this wasn't really going to be the optimum travel plan, and confessed they really didn't do much research.
Everywhere is walking distance, if you have the time...
ReplyDeleteWasn't it Keegan who said that Europeans measure trips in terms of distance and Americans measure trips in terms of time?
ReplyDelete"The closing part of this post's title, of course, is well known to many: Americans think that 100 years is a long time."
ReplyDeleteIn terms of accomplishments, yeah, we did ok the last century. Kitty Hawk dunes to the Sea of Tranquillity. Oh, and Yerp, your're welcome. I say again, you're welcome.
Over.
My Wench and I covered over 7,500 miles one summer. Twenty-two states in 22 days. Knew I'd marry her after that trip.
ReplyDeleteWe regularly cover 2,000+ to visit relatives.