RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Maryland >> Prince George's County >> Friendly >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Friendly, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Friendly 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 Friendly:
    • 38.751781, -76.978586
    • 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 Friendly
  • 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 Prince George's County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Prince George's County
    • Since Friendly is near Fairfax County and also Alexandria City, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Fairfax County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Alexandria City
  • 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 Friendly

Communities Also Named Friendly ...

We found three communities that are also named Friendly.

Within Maryland, the name Friendly is unique.

Beyond Maryland, we know of three communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • North Carolina
      • Guilford County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the North Carolina community of Friendly [Guilford County].
    • Texas
      • Van Zandt County
      • Although located in Van Zandt County, we don't know the location within the county.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Van Zandt County community of Friendly.
    • West Virginia
      • Tyler County
      • This Friendly is located in Tyler County and lies 224 miles [360.5 km]<2> to the west northwest of the Friendly that is located in Prince George's County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Tyler County community of Friendly.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Friendly ...

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.

  • Apple Grove
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Apple Grove is located in Prince George's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Apple Grove
  • Chapel Hill
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Chapel Hill is located in Prince George's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chapel Hill
  • Fort Hunt
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Fort Hunt is located in Fairfax County (VA)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fort Hunt
  • Friendly Farms
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Friendly Farms is located in Prince George's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Friendly Farms
  • Friendly Hills
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Friendly Hills is located in Prince George's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Friendly Hills
  • Harmony Hall
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Harmony Hall is located in Prince George's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harmony Hall
  • Hunts Corner
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Hunts Corner is located in Prince George's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hunts Corner
  • Jenkins Corner
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Jenkins Corner is located in Prince George's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jenkins Corner
  • Kerby Hill
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Kerby Hill is located in Prince George's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kerby Hill
  • Marlin Forest
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Marlin Forest is located in Fairfax County (VA)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marlin Forest
  • Riverside Gardens
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Riverside Gardens is located in Fairfax County (VA)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Riverside Gardens
  • Riverview
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Riverview is located in Prince George's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Riverview
  • Continue List   (4 more) ...
    • Squires Woods
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
      • Squires Woods is located in Prince George's County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Squires Woods
    • Temple Hills
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Temple Hills Park
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Temple Hills Park is located in Prince George's County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Temple Hills Park
    • Thrift
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Thrift is located in Prince George's County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Thrift

How Far From Friendly 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 community such as Friendly to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Upper Marlboro, which is the Seat of Prince George's County, lies 12 miles [19.3 km]<2> to the east northeast. If you could walk a straight line from Friendly to Upper Marlboro, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take five to six hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take nearly four hours.
  • Annapolis, which is the State Capital of Maryland, lies 30 miles [48.3 km] to the east northeast (ENE). The buggy would take just over a day and walking would take most of two days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 10 miles [16.1 km] to the north northwest (NNW). The buggy would take a little over three hours and walking would take four to five hours.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,901 miles [9,496.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,605 miles [10,629.7 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,483 miles [7,214.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer.

Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Rock Creek to see Pete ... Rock Creek is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.

Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.

Also keep in mind that Friendly could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out.
<2>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 from Point A (ie- Friendly) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<3>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>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.
<5>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 Friendly 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 Friendly. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.7518, Longitude: -76.9786       In this case, the coordinates for Friendly have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 307.864 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 303.388 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 304.746 degrees.