RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Alabama >> Monroe County >> Foster Landing >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).

When in Foster Landing, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Foster Landing and the surrounding area.

  • Weather ...
  • Astronomy & Satellites ...
    • Whether using binoculars, a small telescope or the naked-eye, the Heavens-Above website can help you to find your way around the night-time sky. In addition to detailed sky charts, their website will help you find planets, asteriods, comets, satellites and their tracks across the sky.
    • To give accurate results, Heavens-Above requires the latitude and longitude of your location. As a starting point, when we link to Heavens-Above, we pass this GPS location for Foster Landing:
    • 31.718766, -87.506659
    • Once you're on the Heavens-Above website, you can improve its accuracy by giving a more precise longitude and latitude as your actual position.
    • Open the Heavens-Above website centered on Foster Landing
  • Bird Watching ...
    • We enjoy finding new spots for bird watching and we use the eBird website for local sighting reports and to help identify hotspots.
    • The eBird website is organized on a county-by-county basis. We have selected Monroe County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Monroe County
    • Since Foster Landing is near Clarke County and also Wilcox County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Clarke County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Wilcox County
  • Waymarking ...
    • Looking for somewhere out of the ordinary? Find a unique place and want to share it with others? Then it's time to visit Waymarking.com:
    • Open the Waymark.com report for Foster Landing

Curious and Interesting Names Near Foster Landing ...

As we travel, we always see a community with a name that gives pause. While there are names which are interesting or familiar, some catch our attention or strike our fancy. We always wonder about such a name. If time permits and the community is not too far, we'll usually try to make a side-trip.

  • Chance
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Chance is located in Clarke County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chance
  • Finchburg ‑ Historic
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Finchburg is located in Monroe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Finchburg
  • Franklin
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Franklin is located in Monroe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Franklin
  • Keith
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Keith is located in Monroe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Keith
  • Kings Log Landing
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Kings Log Landing is located in Monroe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kings Log Landing
  • Lower Peach Tree
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Lower Peach Tree is located in Wilcox County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lower Peach Tree
  • Marshall Upper Landing
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Packards Bend
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Packards Bend is located in Monroe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Packards Bend
  • Scratch Ankle
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Scratch Ankle is located in Monroe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Scratch Ankle

How Far From Foster Landing to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers, Almanacs & Directories that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Foster Landing to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<1> beginning in Foster Landing and extending to:

  • Monroeville, which is the Seat of Monroe County, lies 17 miles [27.4 km]<1> to the southeast. If you could walk a straight line from Foster Landing to Monroeville, with an average speed<2> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of a day to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take five to six hours.
  • Montgomery, which is the State Capital of Alabama, lies 84 miles [135.2 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than two hours, a buggy would take most of three days and walking would take 5 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 769 miles [1,237.6 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving would take just about two full days, a buggy would take 30 days and walking would take 44 days.
  • The shortest distance<3> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,667 miles [10,729.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<4>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,371 miles [11,862.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,249 miles [8,447.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Foster Landing) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>While we have tried to pick reasonable speeds, the rate of travel is very theoretical - obstacles like fences, hills, lakes, river crossings and rest stops have been ignored. When we say 'Days' of travel, we're assuming 8 hours of travel per day.
<3>The shortest line can be visualized by stretching a string on a Globe from Point A to Point B - this is known as a Great Circle Route. Where you might expect the shortest route from Foster Landing to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Foster Landing. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 31.7188, Longitude: -87.5067       In this case, the coordinates for Foster Landing have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<4>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 313.967 degrees.
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 309.377 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 310.935 degrees.