In Wisconsin, I went to college 2 1/2 hours away from home. I thought it was a good distance, not too far from home but not right down the road either. I did think of it as a ways to travel to go home & I'm sure my parents thought it was a ways to go to see me too. The longer Eric & I live farther away from family, however, distance or how far things are "a ways" to travel changes.
Distance is relative.
Saskatchewan is very spread out. I'll ask patients if they have any family close by to help out if needed and they'll say "oh, yeah...my daughter just lives about an hour away, she can help." Growing up in Colfax, I don't think I ever considered Minneapolis to be "just up the road." While we've been preparing to shop for baby supplies, a lot of people have suggested that we go to Edmonton, because there is an Ikea and a large mall that is larger than the Mall of America and it is just a nice city with good restaurants. They are saying we should go & stay a night one weekend. Now, Edmonton is 5 1/2 hours northwest of here!! And they refer to as "it's only about 5 1/2 hours....." I just can't imagine being in Champaign, IL & saying "let's just go to Memphis for the weekend." We actually always wanted to go to Memphis, but felt like we needed a longer weekend, heck we barely made it to Chicago or St. Louis that often & they were both "only" 2 1/2 hours away.
(I wrote the above post a week or so ago. We are now in Edmonton, but we made sure to stay two nights to make it worth the trip. I guess it was an easy 5 1/2 hours because we didn't go through any other large cities, traffic was very minimal and we had good weather).
I'm told Australians have the same mind set. Remember Crocodile Dundee? In reference to Mick's Place: "It's not that big. You could walk all the way around it in about 2 weeks." It's all relative.
ReplyDeleteHappy Easter! Hope you found some nice baby things.
ReplyDeleteThis made me smile. After living 12+ hours away from my parents, I feel right next door to them now...at 5 hours away.
ReplyDeleteThe East Coast of the US is the opposite. Anything that is more that 15 minutes away is too far for most people to drive. Seriously! I feel like, coming from Colfax, 30 - 45 minutes was a normal drive to get to good restaurants, shopping, movies, etc.
ReplyDeleteI have done 4 - 6 hour weekend trips (Philly, Washington DC). But 5.5 hours does seem a bit far for just an overnight.
Good luck with all your baby shopping!
Hate to say it, but the baby shopping did not happen. Some day we will buy something!
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