RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Maryland >> Washington County >> Holiday Acres >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Holiday Acres, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Holiday Acres 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 Holiday Acres:
    • 39.644541, -77.602491
    • 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 Holiday Acres
  • 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 Washington County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Washington County
    • Since Holiday Acres is near Frederick County and also Franklin County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Frederick County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Franklin 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 Holiday Acres

Communities Also Named Holiday Acres ...

We found nine communities that are also named Holiday Acres.

There is one other community in Maryland that is also named Holiday Acres.

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

  • Communities Located In Maryland ...
    • Carroll County
      • This Holiday Acres is located in Carroll County and lies 35 miles [56.3 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Holiday Acres that is located in Washington County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Carroll County community of Holiday Acres.
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Delaware
      • Sussex County
      • This Holiday Acres is located in Sussex County and lies 145 miles [233.4 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Holiday Acres that is located in Washington County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Sussex County community of Holiday Acres.
    • Florida
      • Miami-Dade County
      • This Holiday Acres is located in Miami-Dade County and lies 965 miles [1,553 km]<1> to the south of the Holiday Acres that is located in Washington County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Miami-Dade County community of Holiday Acres.
    • Louisiana
      • East Baton Rouge Parish
      • This Holiday Acres is located in East Baton Rouge Parish and lies 988 miles [1,590 km]<1> to the southwest of the Holiday Acres that is located in Washington County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the East Baton Rouge Parish community of Holiday Acres.
      • Saint Tammany Parish
      • This Holiday Acres is located in Saint Tammany Parish and lies 941 miles [1,514.4 km] to the southwest of the Holiday Acres that is located in Washington County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Saint Tammany Parish community of Holiday Acres.
    • New Mexico
      • Lincoln County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<2> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the New Mexico community of Holiday Acres [Lincoln County].
    • Ohio
      • Hamilton County
      • This Holiday Acres is located in Hamilton County and lies 362 miles [582.6 km]<1> to the west of the Holiday Acres that is located in Washington County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Hamilton County community of Holiday Acres.
    • South Carolina
      • Charleston County
      • This Holiday Acres is located in Charleston County and lies 494 miles [795 km]<1> to the south southwest of the Holiday Acres that is located in Washington County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Charleston County community of Holiday Acres.
    • Virginia
      • Amherst County
      • This Holiday Acres is located in Amherst County and lies 170 miles [273.6 km]<1> to the south southwest of the Holiday Acres that is located in Washington County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Amherst County community of Holiday Acres.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Holiday Acres ...

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.

  • Cavetown
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Cavetown is located in Washington County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cavetown
  • Chewsville
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Chewsville is located in Washington County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chewsville
  • Crest Valley
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Crest Valley is located in Washington County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crest Valley
  • Greenvale Village
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Greenvale Village is located in Washington County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Greenvale Village
  • Havenwood Hills
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Havenwood Hills is located in Washington County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Havenwood Hills
  • Holiday Farms
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Holiday Farms is located in Washington County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holiday Farms
  • Jugtown
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Jugtown is located in Washington County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jugtown
  • Pondsville
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Pondsville is located in Washington County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pondsville
  • Sycamore Heights
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Sycamore Heights is located in Washington County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sycamore Heights

How Far From Holiday Acres 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 Holiday Acres to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Hagerstown, which is the Seat of Washington County, lies just to the West.
  • Annapolis, which is the State Capital of Maryland, lies 75 miles [120.7 km]<1> to the southeast (SE). If you could drive a straight line from Holiday Acres to Annapolis, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 5 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take most of three days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 59 miles [95 km] to the south southeast (SSE). Driving would take less than an hour, a buggy would take about three full days and walking would take most of three days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,889 miles [9,477.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,599 miles [10,620.1 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,475 miles [7,201.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a '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- Holiday Acres) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>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 Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird 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 Holiday Acres 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.
<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 Holiday Acres 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 Holiday Acres. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 39.6445, Longitude: -77.6025       In this case, the coordinates for Holiday Acres have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 308.178 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 303.882 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 304.667 degrees.