Strange? Pfft, not us… you people are weird.

Okay, for those of you who don't know, I live on the upper east coast of the United States. Up here, we have several of our own strange local habits, and I hadn't realized how different it was until a couple of days ago.

I'm thinking of buying a car, and I was on the phone with my grandfather (who lives on the west coast) about what was the most important aspect of my car, whether it was mileage, four wheel drive, 5 spd or automatic, etc. I said mileage isn't too totally important, and I'd much prefer four wheel drive (since winter in my state brings with it SHITLOADS of snow, sleet, and ice. Blech.)

Talking about mileage led to traveling, and he asked me how far I'd need to travel in a day.
 

Me: "About twenty minutes or so."
Him: "What?"
Me: "Well, work is a ten minute drive away, so about twenty minutes, give or take."
Him: "Well, how many miles is it to your work?"
Me: "O_o… I don't know; maybe fifteen?"
Him: "How do you not know?"
Me: "Why would I know?"

So, yeah. Up here, we measure distance in minutes, not miles. I have no idea how many miles away Kittery is, all I know is it'll take me about forty minutes to get there. Ask me how far away my college is, and I'll tell you "about an hour and a half, depending on how fast you go." Miles just never enter the equation. The answer to "how far away is it?" and "how long will it take to get there?" are the same. We just don't really care about mileage, I guess.