Ten miles backwards
Whenever I drive north on I-35 from Missouri to Iowa, it feels like there’s a point at which my estimated arrival time home increases [1]. The latest time I drove home from Kansas City, I decided to pay closer attention.
When there was a sign that said Des Moines: 123 miles
, I reset my
trip meter. When the next sign said Des Moines: 100 miles
, my trip
meter said 23 miles
. I don’t remember what the next sign said [2],
but the total was still 123 miles.
Then we crossed the border from Missouri to Iowa. The first sign
in Iowa said Des Moines: 80 miles
. I looked down at the trip meter.
It said that I had traveled 53 miles since resetting the meter.
Um … why did the distance suddenly increase by ten miles?
Hypthoses:
- I wasn’t paying close enough attention. Doubtful. I really wanted to see when my estimates changed and why.
- Missouri and Iowa think of
Des Moines
as being in different places, or choose different places in the city. Doubtful. Mile markers traditionally use the central post office. - The sign makers in Missouri got confused. Unlikely.
- A warp in the weft of the universe. Highly unlikely.
So, what next? Two requests to my readers.
If you drive north on I-35 from Missouri to Des Moines, please repeat my experiment to see if you have the same experience of losing ten miles.
If you have recommendations on who, if anyone, I might resport this discrepancy to, please let me know. (My assumption is MOdot, but I’m not really sure what I say.)
[1] That’s my mental estimate, not the Google maps estimate. I’m generally not running Google maps while driving home.
[2] I recall 85 miles, but I didn’t write it down.
Version 1.0 of 2017-11-05.