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Plus, us Yankees sneak down there every winter and stretch it out a few more miles...

As a native Texan, I scoff at tiny states like Tennessee. In Texas we drive 557 miles for lunch.

I once drove cross country fro Baltimore to LA. It took a long time to get through Tennessee, but I really liked the state. There had just been a bad ice storm a few days earlier, so it was very pretty.

Made stops in Knoxville, Nashville, and Memphis, liked them all.

Having lived in the northeast most of my life, I still keep expecting major cities to all be about 2 or 3 hours apart from.each other.

Let's put things in perspective a bit.

Tennessee covers 42,146 square miles, making it the 36th largest of the 50 states.
The largest US state, Alaska covers 665,384 sq mi.
Texas, the second largest, covers 268,596 sq. mi.

The largest Australian state is, Western Australia at 976790 sq.mi. roughly half again the size of Alaska
Queensland, where, I live, is,668206 sq mi. a bit larger than Alaska.

Our largest cattle station (Ranch, to you Yanks) isn't exactly small either. Anna Creek Station has an area of 9,142 sq mi., which is slightly larger than Israel and over 1/5th the size of Tennessee. It is over seven times the size of the United States' biggest ranch, King Ranch in Texas, which is 1,289 sq mi.

That is plenty of room for a LOT of bull s#!+ or maybe even a big enough corn field for every member of the TNFJ to be able to play at max volume and not disturb their neighbour.

Discussions about Tennessee geography are not complete without mentioning the southeastern mountains and the driving of routes therein. When working in Atlanta I supervised staff at branch offices in Nashville and Memphis. I detested the commute over Monteagle on I-24. A white-knuckle affair both ways.

And then there's Deal's Gap, US129 into the Knoxville area. I never had to traverse it for work, but during one haul with our Isuzu box truck we worked too hard attempting to route around Monteagle and mistakenly found ourselves at the base of this pass. Fortunately we realized our error before starting up the grade.

Our solution now on Atlanta trips is to avoid Tennessee completely, save clipping the SW corner through Memphis to get to I-55. Via I-20 and US78 through Birmingham might cost a couple of more hours, but I swear I must add a year or two to my life with the corresponding stress reduction.

I do Monteagle on I-24 going and coming whenever I go back up home. This last time, I did not make it over before dark, (that is not unusual) but it took to raining as I started down. It was not the most fun part of the trip.

Since it was daylight when I went north, I saw a lot of dead armadillos along I-24 in the first part of Tennessee (before Nashville.) I did not notice any more through the rest of Tennessee or Kentucky. On the way back south, though, I saw one at about mile marker 125 on I-57 in southern Illinois. They are on the move,, even though they suffer many casualties.

"...and I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done...."

Very interesting post, Joe. It caused me to check out the distance in California from the Mexican border to the Oregon border. 997 miles; about 15 hours driving time non-stop. Whatever the State, long-distance driving is a PITA.

The most grueling drive I have ever done was non-stop from Fort Stockton TX to my home in Berkeley CA. I found the drive on I-10 in west Texas to be very lonely, no cars except about every 15-20 minutes. Nothing but 106 degree heat, sand, sage brush, hawks, and lizards. With all respect for the hardy people who love and endure that rugged Texas setting, I must say it was great to get back home to 56 degree weather and salt-water fog blowing in off the ocean and Bay.

Ace

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