{"id":11861,"date":"2012-10-25T18:35:53","date_gmt":"2012-10-25T23:35:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=11861"},"modified":"2021-10-25T17:54:34","modified_gmt":"2021-10-25T22:54:34","slug":"canada-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/canada-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada to Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Google Maps changes its algorithms periodically. Times and distances were correct when published in 2012; they have changed in the meantime]<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Twelve Mile Circle continues to generate all sorts of interesting search engine queries, an endless stream of potential article topics. I remember back in the early days of the blog I had to come up with everything myself. That’s rarely an issue anymore. Case in point, someone wanted to know the shortest way to drive from Canada to Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don’t know why someone would necessarily want or need this knowledge. One would have to cross through the United States any which way it’s sliced. This led me to conclude that perhaps my unknown visitor had an issue with the United States. He didn’t like it for some reason. Maybe he was a wanted criminal or an aging Vietnam War draft-dodger? Are the U.S. military authorities still looking for those guys? Never mind. Let’s just say they are for the sake of this exercise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Boquillas<\/a>
I crossed the Mexican border at Boquillas del Carmen once. Definitely NOT the quickest route<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Maybe he’s a smuggler concealing something of particular value to people in Mexico but not to people in the United States? The query didn’t provide specifics so I’ll make them up. Let’s help our draft-dodging smuggler of Chinese counterfeit soccer balls make it through the United States as quickly as possible. He’ll have to obey speed limits to avoid police attention and he’ll have to use default routes generated by Google Maps as a proxy because he’s unfamiliar with the dangerous U.S. territory he will cover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Calculations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At first I wanted to set up a matrix. I intended to calculate both the distance and time between every U.S. border crossing with Canada and Mexico. I abandoned that when I counted 117 Canadian and 47 Mexican possibilities (117 X 47 = 5,499 combinations, both for time and distance). As much as I enjoy and respect the 12MC audience, it’s not productive for me to calculate 10,998 different numbers simply to determine the absolutely minimal times and distances. I took some educated guesses instead. It’s possible that others may improve upon these marginally, and perhaps even meaningfully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Douglas to Tijuana<\/h3>\n\n\n\n