Yes, you are absolutely correct. North Americans do have an entirely different perspective on distance. As a case in point, one of my best friends drove on Saturday from Little Rock to Toronto, on his way back from his winter home in Arizona. 1,800 kms in 18 hrs. He covered 3,600 km in 2 days. That's a little aggressive even by our standards but you get the point. It's the equivalent of driving from Barcelona to Moscow. 228 km is a distance we do routinely as a day trip. I never asked Stolpi how he felt about the distances we covered when he was here.
Canuck - we drove a relatively short distance (for Canadian as well as European standards) to get to Algonquin Park .. about 300 kms? In my experience - we paddled a lot more!! Especially Ralph Bice Lake, with a strong headwind and big waves, seemed endless … though I still have a strong suspicion that my companion in the back of the canoe was taking it somewhat easy every now and then … . No names mentioned!
Of course, I was responsible for observing the paddling technique and motivating the European rookie in the bow seat.