For the benefit of some of ECN's international members who might not be familiar with the U.S. states, here's a simple outline map to let you place roughly where our American friends are located.

Keep in mind that the U.S.A. is B-I-G. The distance from east to west coasts is greater than that from Galway, Ireland to Moscow, Russia!



Click here for large map of U.S. Major cities

And the official postal abbreviations for each state, along with the state capital:

AK Alaska -- Juneau
AL Alabama -- Montgomery
AR Arkansas -- Little Rock
AZ Arizona -- Phoenix
CA California -- Sacramento
CO Colorado -- Denver
CT Connecticut -- Hartford
DE Delaware -- Dover
FL Florida -- Tallahassee
GA Georgia -- Atlanta
HI Hawaii -- Honolulu
IA Iowa -- Des Moines
ID Idaho -- Boise
IL Illinois -- Springfield
IN Indiana -- Indianapolis
KS Kansas -- Topeka
KY Kentucky -- Frankfort
LA Louisiana -- Baton Rouge
MA Massachusetts -- Boston
MD Maryland -- Annapolis
ME Maine -- Augusta
MI Michigan -- Lansing
MN Minnesota -- St. Paul
MO Missouri -- Jefferson City
MS Mississippi -- Jackson
MT Montana -- Helena
NC North Carolina -- Raleigh
ND North Dakota -- Bismarck
NE Nebraska -- Lincoln
NH New Hampshire -- Concord
NJ New Jersey -- Trenton
NM New Mexico -- Santa Fe
NV Nevada -- Carson City
NY New York -- Albany
OH Ohio -- Columbus
OK Oklahoma -- Oklahoma City
OR Oregon -- Salem
PA Pennsylvania -- Harrisburg
RI Rhode Island -- Providence
SC South Carolina -- Columbia
SD South Dakota -- Pierre
TN Tennessee -- Nashville
TX Texas -- Austin
UT Utah -- Salt Lake City
VA Virginia -- Richmond
VT Vermont -- Montpelier
WA Washington -- Olympia
WI Wisconsin -- Madison
WV West Virginia -- Charleston
WY Wyoming -- Cheyenne

DC District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.)

{ Edited to add state capitals. }

[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 01-31-2004).]

{ Edited to add link to cities map }

[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 08-09-2004).]

I'm in the middle of that little purple Island (called Long Island) southeast of New York State in the upper right corner of the map.

It the moment it's all white though, having gotten about 10 inches of snow last night.


Bill

[This message has been edited by Bill Addiss (edited 01-28-2004).]

Hey Bill, I see your island is bigger than mine?

Now let's see how well you use it (sorry for the Space Balls reference).

Anyway, Manhattan is the fly-speck to the left of Bill's purple thing...

P.S. If you ever get a chance to do so, visit the extreme end of Long Island -- Montauk Point.

One of my favorite places, after the Fire Island Pines...the view out the top of the lighthouse is stunning.....

Paul,
Thanks for the map, mate!.
This answers a LOT of questions, for me.

Glad it's of help.

Let's see: I've traveled extensively around Florida, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Nebraska.

Also briefly visited, or just traveled through New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri.

If you count an airport stop-over as "visiting," add New Jersey and Minnesota to the list, but I think that's probably cheating!

P.S. There's quite a bit of interesting stuff to browse at the www.nationalatlas.gov website.


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 01-30-2004).]

Good Golly Paul,
Just having a decent look at the map that you posted and it's amazing just how wrong I was about the position of different States in the US.
We were never taught of this at school, although I had a reasonably good idea of where Texas, California and New York were.
Here's one for you, I always thought that Massachusetts(hope I've spelt that right!)
was next to Kansas!.
Perhaps the wind in The Wizard of Oz, blew it all the way over there?.

I'll go back and add the state capitals to the list above for you. Note that in many cases the capital is not necessarily the biggest or most well known city in the state.

I don't suppose you know the old Perry Como song do you?

What did Delaware boy?
She wore her brand New Jersey....

What did Mississip boy?
She sipped a Minne-sota...

And so on through many of the states.

According to some residents of the state, it's spelled TAX-achusetts!




[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 01-31-2004).]

I didn't know Delaware had a capital, I though that they borrowed Maryland's...

You know, as kids in grammar school we had to memorize the capitals of the states. Talk about mostly useless information...

I'm from New Jersey, the state with the most screwed up auto insurance in the country and maybe the world. Also heard that there exists a place in or near England called "Jersey". And there might be a "Hamphsire" and "York"?

And you can roam at will throughout it too, without dealing with customs and immigration brearucrats. I hate having to deal with nosey brearucrats, as most Americans also hate it too. Also no kings or other royalty as we said screw that back in 1776.

The USA is one of the few countries in the world with a discontinunity in its territory on the same contenient (Alaska and the "CONUS" (term for the 48 states in the main section)).

Correct on all three counts. Hampshire is a county in the south of England, and York is a city in northern England, located in the county which shares its name -- Yorkshire. You'll find many place names in New England and the other Atlantic seaboard states (NY/NJ/DE etc.) which originated in Britain.

Jersey is an island in the English Channel. It's British territory but not part of the U.K., and has its own independent government, tax system, etc. It's actually located closer to France than to England, and although English is the official language there is also a heavy French influence in names and in the local patois.
Most Brits hate interfering bureaucrats as well. I think there's an intense distrust of "Big Brother" government in the Anglo-Saxon bloodline!

Do tell us more..... This sounds interesting!

As we seem to have a general travel and country comparison thread going here, everybody feel free to add any interesting anecdotes.


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 02-02-2004).]

I live in Salt LAke City, Utah.

Something you may find interesting is that that lake in the middle of our state is pretty big, but it was one time incredibley big. It is called the great salt lake, and is the saltiest lake in the world. It is what is left of lake Bonneville, a lake that covered nealry all of Utah and Nevada!!!

IF you've ever heard of the Bonneville salt flats (the place where the land speed records are always set), it is what is left of lake bonneville...basically just salt on the earth for as far as the eye can see.

I would presume that it's the salt flats which led Pontiac to use the name Bonneville for one of its models (along with LeMans, Grand Prix, and other names associated with speed).

I've always associated 'Bonneville' with Triumph as in British motorbike!

Bonneville Flats lie in the middle of our 3½ hour journey to the 'big shops' in SLC. A most 'visually minimal' 40 miles between Wendover and The Knolls. For a Brit, imagine Romney Marsh without the pebbles for decoration! Sir Malcolm Campbell's name is mentioned on the plaque at the rest stop on the flats but the Utah Highway Patrol frowns on one doing more that 75 mph on I-80 across them!

Tell me about...I got a speeding ticket there on my 21st birthday, en route to Wendover.

Where are you, Hutch?

Directly above the center of the Earth!!!



USA gold mine country.

Hutch,
I know it's a little south of you, but I seem to recall seeing somewhere that U.S. 50 across Nevada was voted "Loneliest Highway in America."

By the way, you mentioned Romney Marshes, and I know you;re interested in steam. Did you ever ride the R.H.D.R. narrow gauge railway? I used to go down there when I was about 10 or 11 and loved it!

You may find this link fun and interesting. I wish it extended beyond teh U.S.A., but it is pretty neat. I found my house, my work, and several other things.

http://terraserver.microsoft.com

Ryan, Interesting site of air photos there. The ones for Elko are dated 1994 and I can see where my house will be built 6 years hence! Interesting to see what else has appeared in town since that date.

US-50, America’s loneliest road has indeed been traveled frequently by Hutch between Eureka and Austin – very often alone!

Paul, I did the RH&DR once and do remember well the rather minimal scenery. Being from up north, my 15” guage railway of choice is the Ravenglass and Eskdale on the western side of the Lake District.

[threadjack] but – Keeping things electrical, has anyone been on Volk’s Electric Railway in Brighton, southern England? - the world's, oldest still operational, public, electric railway . [/threadjack]

Paul;

Thumbs up on the posted U.S. Map!!!

Using this Map, I'll try to reference where in California a few Members + myself, are located:

Electure and myself are located in the Southern part 'O California.
Draw an imaginary Horizontal line (X axis), from the center of the "O" on "Pacific Ocean" and running eastward.
At about 3mm (1/8") eastward from the Coast Line, you should see us!

Nick is found by drawing a line from center of the same "O", but offset upwards (North) by about 10º. At around 6mm (¼") eastward from the Coast Line, you should see Nick!

Bjarney is just above the "L" in "California"

The water inlet found above the "C" in "California" is the San Francisco Bay.

State is apx. 740 Miles (1191 Km) as measured from Mexican Border @ extreme lower left "corner", to center of the Oregon Border.

Scott35

I'm directly above the "o" in Illinois, about half the distance from the "o" to the WI line.
Don

Hey, here's an interesting (and kinda strange) thing:

What Time is it in Indiana?


Bill

Bill,
Paul and I were talking about this very subject in the chat area the other night!.
I couldn't believe what he was saying.

Going northward to cover our friends over the 49th, here's an outline map showing the Canadian provinces and territories:




[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 02-24-2004).]

To complete the coverage for our East-of-the-Pond members, here's an outline map of Europe:



If you draw a line from London aiming NNE, just slightly to the right of where it says "North Sea," I'm where that line crosses the coast.

The difference in appearance between the maps of Europe and the US is remarkable: The European countries vary in size a lot and the shape is completely irregular. The east coast of the US looks similar, but further to the west the states are almost square! Wow!

I hope you can excuse this ignorant European showing off his ignorance: I've never seen e.g. a California flag. Do the states have their own flags and symbols? What is typically used to represent the states? To tie this in with the previous paragraph: A European country is often represented by its flag but sometimes by its map. For example, most Swedes would instantly recognise a map of Sweden. The maps of Colorado and Wyoming seem less characteristic.

All US states have their own state flag, as do all Canadian provinces
(and sub geo-political regions in other larger countries probably do).
You can see more info on them at: http://www.netstate.com/state_flags.htm

Cool flags! Not as "simple" as most country flags. I like them.

for an idea of the size comparison, when i remember school right, germany would fit 17 times into the US... but when i look at the maps, i think its more that 17.


this topic brings me into mind that there are online maps for forums, where users can enter their location and get a pin needle set there with their name. so you can get an overview of where who's coming from. perhaps anyone would like to add such a map to the forum?

[This message has been edited by :andy: (edited 03-05-2004).]

Andy,
That's not a bad idea!.
Not sure if it can be done here, though.
What do you reckon, Paul?.

Andy,

The maps are at quite different scales. Also I cannot see what projection they are in and whether they are equal area or not. This can make a huge difference - remember those maps of the world that appear to make Greenland the largest country on Earth!

USA = 9 450 720 km2; Germany = 356 109 km2.
Thats about 26.5 times the size.

[This message has been edited by Hutch (edited 03-05-2004).]

Perhaps I should have emphasized the difference in scales on these maps. The following might help both sides visualize the sheer vastness of North America compared to the relatively compact countries of Europe:

The U.K. would fit into the area occupied by Oregon with a little room to spare (94,283 sq. miles U.K. vs. 96,187 for Ore.).

The whole of the Republic of Ireland is only about 10% bigger than West Virginia.

Switzerland is only just over half the size of Maine.

Even France, largest country in western Europe, would fit into Texas and still leave a space about the size of North Carolina left over.

As for the Canadian provinces, Ontario alone is almost the size of Norway, Sweden, and Finland combined.

Let's not forget the very small countries in Europe.

Luxembourg is a mere 999 square miles, smaller than Rhode Island.

Tiny Andorra, at 180 sq. mi. is a whole country only three times the size of Washington, D.C.

C-H,
State flags are sometimes flown directly under the Stars & Stripes. A few of the flags have come in for criticism from some people in recent years, for example the flags of Mississippi and of Georgia . I traveled around Ga. extensively about 10 years ago, and I have several pictures from around the state with the "old" design incorporating the Confederate Battle Flag in the design.

Andy, Trumpy,
I've seen that map system used as well. I'm not sure if Bill would be able to implement anything like that.


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 03-06-2004).]

thanks pauluk very good reference now I will delay in that purchase of a Globe .

Here's an addition for our southern hemisphere members.

The Australian states and territories:


And major towns:


Major towns in New Zealand:



[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 08-08-2004).]

Wow!,
Good maps of Australia and New Zealand Paul!.
I had mentioned to Doug Wells that I was at a loss to find maps detailed enough to show towns and cities in both countries.
The town that I come from, Ashburton, is roughly just below the 'k' in Mount Cook on the map, the Rakaia river being that thin blue line that heads toward the sea.
BTW, Invercargill down South from here is the southern-most city in the world, I was there back in the early 90's as a Paid FF, I've never felt cold like it in my life, -10C was a warm day.
People were amazed when I hit Ashburton here and I was wearing a T-shirt in 4C weather (and pants, of course!).

I found out the true meaning of cold when I woke up on the Amtrak sleeper train and stepped out in to a crisp winter day in Cleveland. Never felt anything like it before, but if was sure invigorating.

I don't know what the temp was there in Ohio, but by the time I reached central Nebraska I remember the weather report saying it was -5F that night. It's a very dry and clear sort of cold though, and in a lot of ways more tolerable than the English damp and gray winter even though our temperatures don't get down that far.

Does Invercargill stay fairly dry with the Southern Alps catching most of the rain?

As the original U.S. map posted at the top of this thread shows only states but no cities, I went in search of a suitable city map online. I'm not inserting it in the thread directly as it's very wide image and will result in everyone having to scroll a lot, so click on the link below to view it. I'll add a link in the original post above as well.

Map of U.S. Major cities

Scott35 wrote:

Coming back from Oregon not long ago via I-5, I clocked 893 miles from Hilt,Ca (the very first "town" you come to..) to home here in Huntington Beach.. & I'm still about 100 miles from the Mexico border. I never realized there was about 250 miles of bends in betweeen

As for Huntington Beach's location, I'm about ¼ inch southwest of Scott35's Location on the map.. I heard rumors that Electure was further north of us in the hills between Sunset Bl & Mulholland Hwy... Living on the same block as the "Fresh Prince"

-Randy
(edit 4 spelling)

[This message has been edited by Lostazhell (edited 08-10-2004).]

Paul,
Invercargill, is a strange kind of place, weather-wise.
You can have 4 seasons within the one day there.
But Winter is the season to witnessed there, freezing cold winds, straight from the Antarctic, rain drops like bullets, hail-stones like cricket balls and the usual dump of snow every winter.
Depressing it is, weather like this, but the Southlanders are a hardy bunch, lots of them have beards, you need one in that sort of climate!.