RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Tennessee >> Sullivan County >> Sunny Hills >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Sunny Hills, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Sunny Hills 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 Sunny Hills:
    • 36.565937, -82.252636
    • 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 Sunny Hills
  • 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 Sullivan County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Sullivan County
    • Since Sunny Hills is near Carter County and also Washington County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Carter County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Washington 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 Sunny Hills

Communities Also Named Sunny Hills ...

We found two communities that are also named Sunny Hills.

Within Tennessee, the name Sunny Hills is unique.

Beyond Tennessee, we know of two communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • California
      • Orange County
      • This Sunny Hills is located in Orange County and lies 2,009 miles [3,233.2 km]<1> to the west of the Sunny Hills that is located in Sullivan County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Orange County community of Sunny Hills.
    • Florida
      • Washington 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 Florida community of Sunny Hills [Washington County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Sunny Hills ...

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.

  • Cross
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Cross is located in Sullivan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cross
    • Estimated population in 2014: 11,330 people
  • Driftwood
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Driftwood is located in Sullivan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Driftwood
  • Earheart ‑ Historic
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Earheart is located in Sullivan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Earheart
  • Hill Country
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Hill Country is located in Sullivan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hill Country
  • Leonardtown
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Leonardtown is located in Sullivan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leonardtown
  • Maple Hill
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Maple Hill is located in Sullivan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maple Hill
  • Rock Hill Park
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Rock Hill Park is located in Sullivan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rock Hill Park
  • Sugarville
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Sugarville is located in Sullivan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sugarville
  • Sunny Brook
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Sunny Brook is located in Sullivan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sunny Brook
  • Tennessee Hills
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Tennessee Hills is located in Sullivan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tennessee Hills
  • Valley Hills
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Valley Hills is located in Sullivan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Valley Hills
  • Walnut Hill
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Walnut Hill is located in Sullivan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Walnut Hill
  • Windy Hill
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Windy Hill is located in Sullivan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Windy Hill

How Far From Sunny Hills 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 Sunny Hills to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Blountville, which is the Seat of Sullivan County, lies just to the West Southwest.
  • Nashville, which is the State Capital of Tennessee, lies 253 miles [407.2 km]<1> to the west (W). If you could drive a straight line from Sunny Hills to Nashville, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take four to five hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 15 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 10 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 327 miles [526.3 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take five to six hours, a buggy would take 13 days and walking would take 19 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,220 miles [10,010.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,928 miles [11,149.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,804 miles [7,731.3 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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Sunny Hills) 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 Sunny Hills 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 Sunny Hills 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 Sunny Hills. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 36.5659, Longitude: -82.2526       In this case, the coordinates for Sunny Hills have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 311.051 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 306.698 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 307.675 degrees.