Midwesterners looking for something interesting to do on the weekend

This is meaningless if it drives back on the same roads. "You can drive for 30 hours on a roundabout in Blackburn, Lancashire without ever leaving the roundabout in Blackburn, Lancashire"
- Yeah I can drive for 30 hours and still be in my hometown, in fact, I can spend my entire life there. Crazy
- I shudder at the thought of 30 hours in Blackburn.
- No chance with all those holes though
  
  Thank you
- False. You'd have to stop and get gas thereby necessitating that you leave the roundabout in Blackburn
  
  If airplanes can refuel mid flight, then so the fuck can I mid roundabout.
- Fake news
  (I would get dizzy and need to stop after maybe an hour)
  
  No you'll be reyt, it's the big roundabout near the M65 with the Maccy's and new KFC. Traffic lights are a nightmare on it so you'll spend half the time sat still
- Well, it's a weird state carved out of two peninsulas and there's only the one bridge.

I can drive around my block for 30 hours and still be on my block! It's crazy!

It takes 23 hours and 2000 km to drive from the southernmost point in sweden to Abisko in the north.
A full loop through Malmö-Kalmar-Stockholm-Luleå-Abisko-Östersund-Göteborg-Malmö takes over 2 days and over 4000 km.
Europe is not small.
- I think OPs point is that this is only in 1 state as opposed to an entire country.
  
  Eh, the distinction between internal state and sovereign state isn't really that relevant here. If history had gone differently, the 13 American colonies would have been independent and sovereign states, just like the 27 member states in the EU.
- Sweden is definitely the exception in EU, that country is crazy “long”, and the geography also makes travel more difficult. You can drive north-south all across Germany in under 10 hours
  
  The equivalent to what this guy did would be more like driving along the border, which would easily take 30h.
  
  Sure, but the Autobahn is much faster than any road in the US, or most of the world
  
  Sure, but so is Michigan. You can drive across Arizona in 5 hours, across 600 km.
- Google says it will take over SIX days to drive from St. Petersburg to Magadan. Easternmost towns cannot be reached by a land vehicle at all.
- Lol. Responds to a post about a state by comparing it to a continent.
  A full loop around Jupiter is 70,000 km.
  Jupiter is not small.
  
  The post says "The European mind cannot comprehend this". The US is barely twice as big as Europe. We have states that are bigger than Michigan.
  
  He’s comparing one state to one country (Sweden) and then adds that Europe is not small, which is fair, because the caption says that the “European” mind can’t comprehend this. Europe as a continent is about as big as the US, the European Union is less than half of the size of the US and the individual countries are of course way smaller than the US. Since the EU has open borders, I’d say that comparing the US to the EU is fair and EU member states can be compared to US states. For example: France is about as large as Texas, Germany about as large as Montana and Italy is comparable to New Mexico. There’s a lot of movement between EU countries and some people cross borders every day to go to work or do groceries. The highway/road just continues without interruption.
  Europe as a continent is meaningless, though, and then you might as well include Asia, as Europe isn’t an actual continent (Eurasia is the worlds largest continent). You could drive all the way to Eastern China if you’d like, but you’d be crossing multiple borders with border control and visa requirements, so that makes it incomparable to driving within the US.

I don't really think this counts, since he doubles back around at a point, I mean, if you're allowed to do that, you can drive for 30 hours almost anywhere, and still be in the same area.
- Loopty loop. If your open to that you should carefully plan your route through local streets to make drawings.
  Also if time is what counts remember to leave on time for rush hour and prefer inner roads with lots of traffic lights.
- It's a loop around the border of the state, not doubling back, but yeah.
  
  You're right, apart from the bridge and the immediate way back at the farthest north point, they didn't retrace any steps. But yeah.
  
  Same road, different lanes I guess.
  Hate the game, not the player. The UP doesn't really fit in MI.

You can do this in WA, but without looping back
- Damn they even got a Denmark down under, poor saps
- On these kinds of roads that go across Australia, are they well maintained? I'm guessing it's not like a highway the whole way. Are there frequent enough towns, petrol stations etc.? How easily can you end up stranded in the middle of nowhere?
  
  Going through some of those parts, chances are some of them are probably unsealed - though I suspect google maps will always generally try to pick the sealed roads.
  As for petrol stations... Yeah keep a few Jerrys with you, just in case, as well as a spare full size tire or two (space savers are a bad idea in the outback) as well as a toolbox, with basic tools, hose clamps, etc. and plenty of drinking water/snacks. Maybe even a few packed lunches.
  The nullaboar (Latin for "no tree") plains along the coast of south/western Australia are well known for having the one long, straight, featureless Eyre highway with a whole lot of space Between petrol stations. The most dangerous thing about those roads is fatigue from looking at the constant unchanging scenery for hours at a time. The second is running out of fuel or breaking down - where you gotta hope you've got the shit to fix stuff, because it's highly unlikely you'll see a friend on the road for at least an hour or two, if not longer.
  It's so long that there are three designated airstrips on the highway designed for emergency landings and air ambulances (royal flying doctor service FTW - seriously, those guys deserve all the praise, true heros)
  
  Yep I heard some parts will be like 1000km without stations and stuff like that so you need to be well prepared with extra gas etc.

Dude, you can drive 30 hours in London and still be in London.
- Traffic that bad, huh?
  
  I believe a tourist once managed that on the M25. Apparently the idea of a looping motorway can be a bit beyond some.
  While London traffic can be frustrating, it's not actually that bad. At least compared to a lot of American cities, let alone somewhere like Mexico city.
  
  Sometimes it's faster to walk. And it's not a joke.
  
  You could easily spend that and more spiralling Greater London

I can drive in my neighbourhood for 40 hours and still be in my neighbourhood. The street forms a loop.
- It's like OP forgot circles exist or something idfk
  
  It's his American Grade education...
  
  If you look real close at the map, and you might miss this, you'll notice that OP's "circle", as you describe it, hasn't overlapped at all. That in a singular state is impressive. I challenge you to do that with a European country

Driving around Germany is probanly a similar distance, it just doesn't take as long.
- Best I got without doing any double takes was Flensburg - Düsseldorf - Freiburg - Friedrichshafen - Deggendorf - Dresden - Rostock - Kiel, for a total of about 28 hrs and approx 2,559 km (~1,500 miles).
  https://maps.app.goo.gl/6XqbfMMPjmMHWQpJ8
  Might be able to eke out those extra 200 miles by including Saarbrücken.
  
  For France I got a 39h/3,926km Tour de France
  https://maps.app.goo.gl/4vozfjnrx7vWuC2S8
  
  Chatgpt estimates a trip around the outer most Autobahn at a 3k to 4k Kilometer. Taking 30-40 hours to drive.
- Germany is smaller than several US states. Germany would fit twice into Texas and four times into Alaska, for instance.

I live in a 274 year old building with original stained glass windows. The US mind cannot comprehend this.
- I live on land 200 million years old. The human mind cannot comprehend that.
  
  Above*. Pretty sure the land from 200 million years ago has been buried quite deep by now
- When I lived in Germany, I lived in a building that was built before Columbus sailed on a canal built by the Romans.
- Yeah, we would have replaced them with at least double pane windows to keep heating and cooling costs down by now. Central AC is standard most places here. Especially because I grew up in what could be considered the northern part of a swamp.
  
  Yeah, 200+ years old houses arent too alien. Especially since mexico has ones that are even older. Hell if I looked around the east coast enough I could probably find some built by my ancestors.

It doesn't blow our mind at all. We couldn't give a fuck. Its a pointless statement.
- What blows mind is that you leave London drive three hours in any direction and everyone has a unique accent.
  
  Not really because if you drive 3 hours away from London you're only about half a mile from London.
  
  According to google it takes you 3 hrs to get to Calais, France, so... Yeah , quite the English accent there xD
  
  You could drive 3 miles to the next village from where I grew up and hear a totally different accent.
- Look, its Michigan. This is almost all they have going for them. Let them have their dream.
- You Europeans lack imagination

This MF gonna lose their mind when they find out about roundabouts!
- I went to Milton Keynes in 2009, and I still haven't stopped driving yet

If you just drive back and forth and in circles you can do this in Luxembourg, too, I ain't impressed
- Luxembourg is a country that's barely larger than a city, the american mind cannot comprehend this.
  
  Why? DC isn't even as large as it's own metro area. Do you have any countries that are smaller than the city they're in? (The Vatican doesn't count because I said so)

It's true. As a European I had no idea where Michigan was.
- It’s right next to Wisconsin, duh.

I can also drive 30 h around in my driveway.

You could drive in a "straight line" across Ukraine for 23 hours...
- Until you run into Russians tanks…
  
  They are pretty good at keeping the trash from the roads, should be no problem.

Sure, but in Europe you can drive for 30 hours passing from a metropolitan area to another. You probably don't know what I mean but the population of london is slightly less than the entire population of michigan. Italy alone has a population that is one fifth of the ENTIRE US.
- So Italy, a mid-sized European country, has a population 1/5 the size of the United States? Why is that .. surprising?
  
  I guess what they mean is the following:
  Italy is about the size of michigan (300vs250km²) but has about 6 times the population (58Mio vs 10Mio). The population density of Italy is 5 times as high.
  Source wolframalpha:
  Size and population
  Population density
- Add in Poland, add in Germany, and you are already at 3/5. France and UK, and you beat US. Total, Europe has 750mln people, with similar area.
  
  That's only if you include Russia (145 million) and Turkey (85 million). You only include those countries in "Europe" when you want to. That's like the US including CA and MX in its population just because they're nearby.

Who the fuck drives Michigan but skips the Leelanau Peninsula and the coastal stretch between it and the Mackinac? See also: Who the fuck drives the entirety of the Lake Huron coastline but skips the majority of Lake Michigan's?
- Right? They're skipping the best parts
- Not to mention the eastern coast of the UP! De Tour is such a sweet little town and if you're going to do a coastal Michigan trip it's a must-see.

I can go around in circles and never leave my home.

Actually, they were trying to drive across their suburban neighbourhood, but the way streets are built it takes 30 hours to go around it 🤡
- I wonder how long a walk through that same neighbourhood would take.

1400 miles is roughly the Autobahn in northrhine Westphalia I Guess you could drive aimlessly around those if that's your thing
- and do it at top speed!

In California, depending on traffic, it can take 2 hours to move 20 feet. Anyone out East ever just feel like you'd reach your destination faster by just getting out and walking?
- Once while driving through LAX, the traffic was bad enough that we were traveling side by side with a broken down car that two dudes were pushing. They even had plenty of opportunities to rest.
- New Jersey just had one of its MAJOR bridges shut down in the middle of the work day which delayed people as much as 10+h for those who had a average ride of 15 minutes. People started biking and walking to work because it was so much quicker.
  
  10+h for those who had a average ride of 15 minutes
  Yikes. 😳
- I grew up in Boston, I could get anywhere within about 15 miles of downtown faster on a bicycle than by car (or anything else, for that matter).
- California needs better cars:
- I remember once pulling a lawn chair out of my trunk on 101 just north of Hollywood. It was a while before anybody moved except for the white lining motorcycles.

You can drive 30 years in Muhosransk and still be in Muhosransk

You can drive your whole life in Singapore and you'll still be in Singapore.

On a bicycle? Easy.

Who in their right mind goes to Mackinaw twice?
- Someone who wants to cross from the lower to the upper peninsula and back without leaving the state?
  Unless there’s a ferry service somewhere that I’m not seeing, there don’t seem to be a whole lot of other alternatives.

Midwesterners obviously haven't visited London's M25.

France is over twice the size of Michigan and driving around it (hugging the borders) would take a lot longer than 30 hours.
- Not a LOT longer: https://feddit.uk/comment/8002086
  
  I personally got 37 hours with a similar test, so it depends a lot if it's highways or whatnot what Google gives as a the duration.
  But yeah I guess not a "lot" longer but if you actually drove that, you'd have to account for breaks, and then adding something like 7 hours of driving is quite a lot. Not a full day, but..

That's cheating and some European countries are much bigger than Michigan. Here's with two points only:
35h in Quebec, not counting the time you'll spend changing your wheels every now and then in the northern part (can't patch a tire sliced by sharp rocks)
51h by road, both locations are in Quebec, one is just inaccessible without going through Labrador if you want to drive the whole way.
- Since when has Quebec been in Europe?
  
  Never said it is, I just pointed out that OP's example is cheating, that some European countries are bigger than Michigan and gave an example of travelling huge distances inside a "subnational State" without cheating by doing detours. Without leaving the province, you really need to travel 35h to get from the two furthest points in Quebec by car, 35h is the quickest you'll do it, it's not taking 35h to travel between two points an hour or two apart.
- some European countries are much bigger than Michigan
  Yeah and Michigan is bigger than many European countries.
  Land area of Michigan: 150,504 km^2
  Land and water area: 250,493 km^2
  Area of Austria: 83,879 km^2
  Portugal: 92,230 km^2
  UK: 244,376 km^2
  Denmark: 43,094 km^2
  Belguim: 30,689 km^2
  Netherlands: 41,865 km^2
  I know this is a shit post, but I don't think most non natives truely grasp the vastness of America. This is A state thats bigger than Denmark, Belguim, and the Netherlands combined without including Michigans water area.
  
  Just pointing out that it's ridiculous to say Europeans couldn't understand it.

Well this post made me curious... did you know you could max out the mapping tool in google maps for destinations?!
- Yep, I was trying to use it to see how long it would take to drive the entire E6. The problem was that Google maps did everything in its power NOT to drive on the E6, including multiple detour to Sweden and Finland.
- Well don't leave us hanging.
  
  it says 43hr 2,774 miles in the image...

!cartographyanarchy@lemm.ee

I know someone who has a shitty car like that

The top of Michigan is a shark.

laughs in Canada 30 hours is all you can do?

After driving in the UP for mile after mile, you'll be ready to leave.
- Careful what you say my dude. Joe Pera will come for you...

Now do California!
- San Diego to Crescent City is about 13 hours or 900 miles, so that’s a good start, but then you’re stuck with no other option than either crossing into Oregon or going back the same way you came.
  Also, going back down on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada is remarkably difficult without crossing into Nevada. I was able to get the following route, however, which at 1,885 miles and 32 hours beats out Michigan ever so slightly: https://maps.app.goo.gl/otW9AFKewssi9ZfXA
  California wins this one, but by a much smaller margin that expected.
  
  I put some more California in your California: 36h, 2106mi
  (I have no idea if any of these new stops would actually make a viable trip, aside from Santa Barbara)