Geographically Challenged!

[Duke87]

Europeans also often underestimate the size of the United States.

Indeed. I know someone who was asked by a British friend "wait, you flew from DC to Seattle? Why didn't you just drive?". The same person recounts the same friend, in Los Angeles, inquiring into the possibility of making a day trip to the Grand Canyon, thinking it was an hour or two away (it's over 400 miles).

My father knows someone who often deals with people from his company flying in from Europe on business... he likes to, rather than flying people in and out of the same city, encourage them to rent a car and say, drive from Kansas City to Denver before catching a plane home - to give them a better appreciation for the size of the country. They are usually awestruck by the experience.

[Brandon]

^^ Next time he's here, challenge him to drive to the Grand Canyon from LA.  He'll get quite the education.

[huskeroadgeek]

Another story I remember: one time when I was in high school, early on a Sunday evening, my best friend picked me up to go out for a drive to Omaha, which we did frequently.On the way up to Omaha he starts telling me about a girl that he had been admiring for a long time that had just moved to Excelsior, MN(W. of Minneapolis). I didn't think he was telling me this story for any particular reason until he stayed on I-80 past the last exit in Nebraska and started heading over the Missouri River into Iowa. When I asked him why we were driving into Iowa, he told me he had the girl's address and thought maybe we could go up to Minnesota and find where she lived and then turn around and come back and be back home by late evening. When I looked at him incredulously and asked if he was serious he says "sure, why not-Minnesota borders Iowa doesn't it?" When I told him it would take about 6 more hours just to get there, he was surprised. Fortunately since he knew about my love of maps, he believed me, so we stopped at the next exit and turned around.

[pianocello]

I had some friends who moved up to Storm Lake, IA from Davenport a few years ago. I was surprised when they said it took them 6 hours to get there. I guess I had never realized the size of the state because at the time I had never been west of Iowa City.