RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> Commonwealth of Pennsylvania >> Dauphin County >> Rife >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

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

  • 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 Rife:
    • 40.547929, -76.880744
    • 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 Rife
  • 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 Dauphin County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Dauphin County
    • Since Rife is near Perry County and also Northumberland County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Perry County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Northumberland 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 Rife

Communities Also Named Rife ...

We found one communities that are also named Rife.

Within Pennsylvania, the name Rife is unique.

Beyond Pennsylvania, there is another community also named Rife in Canada.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Alberta
      • This Rife lies 1,827 miles [2,940.3 km]<1> to the northwest of the Rife that is located in Dauphin County.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Rife ...

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 Rife 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 Rife to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Harrisburg, which is the Seat of Dauphin County, lies 18 miles [29 km]<1> to the south. If you could walk a straight line from Rife to Harrisburg, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take just over 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.
  • Harrisburg, which is the State Capital of Pennsylvania, lies 18 miles [29 km] to the south (S). The buggy would take five to six hours and walking would take just over a day.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 114 miles [183.5 km] to the south (S). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take about two hours, a buggy would take 5 days and walking would take 7 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,821 miles [9,368 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,533 miles [10,513.8 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,408 miles [7,094 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Rife) 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 Rife 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 Rife. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.5479, Longitude: -76.8807    
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 307.679 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 303.456 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 303.993 degrees.