RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Stony Ford, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Stony Ford 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 Stony Ford:
    • 41.459522, -74.304756
    • 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 Stony Ford
  • 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 Orange County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Orange County
    • Since Stony Ford is near Sullivan County and also Ulster County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Sullivan County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Ulster 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 Stony Ford

Curious and Interesting Names Near Stony Ford ...

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 Stony Ford to ...

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

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<2> beginning in Stony Ford and extending to:

  • Goshen, which is the Seat of Orange County, lies just to the South Southwest.
  • Albany, which is the State Capital of New York, lies 87 miles [140 km]<2> to the north northeast (NNE). If you could drive a straight line from Stony Ford to Albany, 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 228 miles [366.9 km] to the southwest (SW). Driving would take nearly four hours, a buggy would take 9 days and walking would take 13 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,676 miles [9,134.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,386 miles [10,277.3 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,262 miles [6,859 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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 drawn from Point A (ie- Stony Ford) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Stony Ford 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 Stony Ford. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 41.4595, Longitude: -74.3048    
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 306.04 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 301.749 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 302.458 degrees.