# How far we've gone...



## Just a Guy (Mar 27, 2012)

As I was driving today, I noticed my odometer was coming up on the 100k mark. This isn't my first car, nor even the only one I'm currently driving so it represents only a small fraction of my overall driving.

Then I thought about the fact that it's only about 40k to circumnavigate the globe and I wonder how much travel I've really done in my life, compared to say a couple generations before me, who may never have travelled more than a couple hundred miles from the farm...

When you think about other forms of travel, like planes, boats, trains...this really is a time of "movers and shakers".


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

I think because of the ease of travel now, the world again has become a much smaller place. 

I have been reading with my kids a series based on some facts on the pioneers and what they had to go through. It's been just over a century and I am amazed at all the changes. 

A couple of chapters talked about the father having to go find work because his crops were destroyed, he walked over 200miles to find work. I am amazed at readon what they find 'short' distant son such harsh climates. The kids walked 3-4 miles to school. My kids are just under 2 km is considered outside the walk zone where I am. 

I sometimes am in awe at all our society has to offer and yet, doesn't take advantage of it.


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

Just a Guy said:


> ... Then I thought about the fact that it's only about 40k to circumnavigate the globe and I wonder how much travel I've really done in my life, compared to say a couple generations before me, who may never have travelled more than a couple hundred miles from the farm...
> 
> When you think about other forms of travel, like planes, boats, trains...this really is a time of "movers and shakers".


Interesting question ... the median/average may be up but without a more complete family history, I'm not sure how it would all work out. 

Two generations ago for my family includes migrations from Russia/Poland and an adventurer who went from England to South Africa to Canada. Two generations ago for my brother-in-law seems to mean staying put in the Windsor area.


With the most detailed history having been stolen and those with interest not yet having time to rebuild the history ... it might take a while.


Cheers


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## Just a Guy (Mar 27, 2012)

I didn't mean to imply that, despite covering a lot of distance, that we've actually gone anywhere...we could be on one big hamster wheel.

Most people I know have travelled quite a bit however.


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

I feel I have gone to lots of places (but not everywhere I would like yet). But yet I always end up at the same plac. I wonder what that means


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

Plugging Along said:


> I feel I have gone to lots of places (but not everywhere I would like yet).* But yet I always end up at the same plac. I wonder what that means*


... let me guess, no better place than *home-sweet-home*? each:


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## Just a Guy (Mar 27, 2012)

Probably buried his cash in the backyard...


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

Does it really all equate to travel though? You could commute 2 hrs/day on a straight 4 lane highway and hardly see a thing and hit 100k kms in about a year. In that case I would consider the mileage more of a waste of time than travel.

Even well traveled Canadians may have actually seen very little of Canada beyond the linear Trans Canada highway (look how big the country is!) I notice the same applies to the whole world - the masses are very concentrated and they hop from point to point.

I would argue those pioneers saw more. Actually, my grandfather who hardly traveled 200 miles the farm probably saw more than many who hop from building to building looking at a gps today. He saw _everything_ in those 200 square miles!


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