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Perspectives

I have gone round the earth 20 times in as many years of being in the United States.  That is 1 trip round the planet a year on average.

Okay I have driven that distance using an automobile to be precise.  How you ask?  Well simple.  I have owned several vehicles during the two decades of being here and I noted the odometers when I sold them.  Add them up and I get a number.  Add to that all the vehicles I rented for short duration to make many trips criss crossing the continent and then some (drove 150 miles in New Zealand once).

Grand total is just north of 500,000 miles driven.  That is 20 times the earth's circumference for those of you keeping score or vaguely aware of what a circumference is.

So the perspective is that given a propensity to drive a lot you can easily cover the distance equal to going round our planet in a years time.   That comes to around 70 miles a day of driving every day assuming you take Thanksgiving and Xmas off.  Or Ganesh Chaturthi and Gandhi Jayanthi off.  Or whatever dries your paint.

Which is exactly the average commute of most Americans these days (round trip).  At today's average gasoline price of $2.50 per gallon and average mileage for a car of 25 miles to the gallon it requires a budget of $2,500 to circumnavigate the planet or to earn your keep depending on your perspective.

This does not include maintenance costs to keep said vehicle operational as you bounce around.  Does it make your head spin?  Even if you think it does not, it is.  Spinning.  At around 1,000 miles per hour.  I will let you figure that one out.

Oh and you can do it by sitting in one place - zero cost.  No wonder the munis had this figured out.
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