Michigan, be honest, how is the district model?

[Mark McLeod]

There's this one REALLY long traffic light...

Being a data junkie, here are all the relevant driving times and distances assuming flights aren't taken and discounting inclement weather and traffic (Google Maps).
That's just driving time. It takes longer of course to load up the bus, depart and arrive. Sort of like saying our flight to Atlanta only took 3 hours, but it was 9 hours between school ending and getting into our hotel rooms herding cats.
Remember a trip is twice as bad when you start recognizing that it's a round trip, then we realize that the poor Houghton team spent at best 34 hours or almost one-and-a-half 24-hour days just riding the bus for it's two district events in 2011. Uphill both ways...

Houghton, MI to:
hours ----- miles ------ event
7.5 ------- 394 ------ Traverse City
8.7 ------- 494 ------ Kettering
9.2 ------- 525 ------ Waterford
9.3 ------- 510 ------ West MI
9.4 ------- 538 ------ Troy
9.4 ------- 544 ------ Ann Arbor
9.6 ------- 552 ------ Livonia
9.6 ------- 558 ------ Detroit
9.7 ------- 517 ------ Niles

4.1 ------- 216 ------ Lake Superior Regional, Duluth, MN (shorter distance by boat I suppose)
6.0 ------- 331 ------ Wisconsin Regional, Milwaukee, WI
6.4 ------- 341 ------ 10K & North Star Regionals, Minneapolis, MN
7.75 ------ 422 ------ Midwest Regional



For comparison to the Mid-Atlantic region the time/distance from say Gettysburg, PA to Trenton, NJ is
hours ----- miles
2.8 ------- 160


The Sidney team still wins the travel pain award with a 10 hour flight to the Hawaii Regional (closest).
Just for fun I asked Google maps to plot a drive from Sidney, Australia to the Regional in Hawaii.
It actually produced an answer... with a 6,000km kayak leg in it.