We have an odd custom for referring to travel direction here in the southern Appalachian area I live. I'm about 30 min. north of a nearby town, and 1000 feet lower in elevation since I'm in the river valley and it's further up the ridge. If I was going to the town, I would say I'm going UP there. And likewise, if a friend in town complains it's snowing, I can reply that we just have rain down here.
I think it's mostly a holdover from horse/wagon days, when having to climb a nearby mountain was a better indicator of where the next town was than just a compass point. And believe me, every mountain and hill here has a name, and often when people complain of the weather or traffic it's by mountain name rather than towns - seems they're still the default landmarks despite our ease traversing them. Also, it's usually quite a bit colder on the ridges compared to the valleys, and it just feels right to refer to a colder place as ‘up from here’.
Coming from the North originally I found this seeming inversion of direction ridiculous and refused to join in. I'm north of town dammit! Everyone knows north/south! Why say you'll drive up to a town, when you're actually heading south? I argued the point at first, but after I accepted the shift, it seems to fit so much better than something like a compass point. And now I refer to locations by up/down elevations rather than map directions by default. And so does everyone else. Until you have a visitor from the north, and you accidentally add an hour onto their expected drive time because they thought when I said we'd drive up to town, they thought that town was north of here.
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