RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Illinois >> Woodford County >> Spring Bay >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Spring Bay, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Spring Bay 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 Spring Bay:
    • 40.824500, -89.522309
    • 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 Spring Bay
  • 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 Woodford County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Woodford County
    • Since Spring Bay is near Peoria County and also Tazewell County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Peoria County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Tazewell 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 Spring Bay

Communities Also Named Spring Bay ...

We found two communities that are also named Spring Bay.

Within Illinois, the name Spring Bay is unique.

Beyond Illinois, we know of two communities that are located in Canada.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Ontario
      • This Spring Bay lies 494 miles [795 km]<1> to the northeast of the Spring Bay that is located in Woodford County.
    • Saskatchewan
      • This Spring Bay lies 1,021 miles [1,643.1 km]<1> to the northwest of the Spring Bay that is located in Woodford County.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Spring Bay ...

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.

How Far From Spring Bay to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a village such as Spring Bay to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Spring Bay and extending to:

  • Eureka, which is the Seat of Woodford County, lies 14 miles [22.5 km]<1> to the east southeast. If you could walk a straight line from Spring Bay to Eureka, with an average speed<3> 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 four to five hours.
  • Springfield, which is the State Capital of Illinois, lies 72 miles [115.9 km] to the south (S). 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 4 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 674 miles [1,084.7 km] to the east (E). Driving would take just about two full days, a buggy would take 27 days and walking would take 39 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,303 miles [10,143.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,042 miles [11,333 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,926 miles [7,927.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Spring Bay) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>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.
<4>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 Spring Bay 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 Spring Bay. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.8245, Longitude: -89.5223    
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 315.686 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 312.612 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 309.787 degrees.