RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Virginia >> Caroline County >> Blantons >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Blantons, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Blantons 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 Blantons:
    • 38.052636, -77.561096
    • 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 Blantons
  • 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 Caroline County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Caroline County
    • Since Blantons is near Spotsylvania County and also Hanover County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Spotsylvania County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Hanover 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 Blantons

Communities Also Named Blantons ...

We found one communities that are also named Blantons.

There is one other community in Virginia that is also named Blantons.

Beyond Virginia.

  • Communities Located In Virginia ...
    • Cumberland 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 Virginia community of Blantons [Cumberland County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Blantons ...

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.

  • Cedar Fork
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Cedar Fork is located in Caroline County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedar Fork
  • Chilesburg
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Chilesburg is located in Caroline County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chilesburg
  • Hams Ford
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Hams Ford is located in Spotsylvania County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hams Ford
  • Holliday
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Holliday is located in Hanover County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holliday
  • Houstons Corner
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Houstons Corner is located in Caroline County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Houstons Corner
  • Ladysmith
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Ladysmith is located in Caroline County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ladysmith
  • McDuff
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • McDuff is located in Caroline County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McDuff
  • Mount Pleasant
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Mount Pleasant is located in Spotsylvania County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Pleasant
  • Nancy Wrights Corner
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Nancy Wrights Corner is located in Caroline County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nancy Wrights Corner
  • Old Trap
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Old Trap is located in Spotsylvania County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Old Trap
  • Penneys Crossroad
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Penneys Crossroad is located in Spotsylvania County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Penneys Crossroad
  • Poplar
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Poplar is located in Caroline County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Poplar

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

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

  • Bowling Green, which is the Seat of Caroline County, lies 11 miles [17.7 km]<2> to the east. If you could walk a straight line from Blantons to Bowling Green, with an average speed<3> 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.
  • Richmond, which is the State Capital of Virginia, lies 35 miles [56.3 km] to the south (S). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than an hour, a buggy would take just about two full days and walking would take most of two days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 64 miles [103 km] to the north northeast (NNE). 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 5,956 miles [9,585.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,658 miles [10,715 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,536 miles [7,300 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

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 Blantons 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' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Blantons) 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 Blantons 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 Blantons. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.0526, Longitude: -77.5611       In this case, the coordinates for Blantons have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 308.246 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 303.715 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 305.251 degrees.