“....then all the way across the country to Bell Gardens, Ca.”
If I send a Christmas card to friends who receive their mail on the other side of the river from me (if I don’t personnaly tell the postmaster), the card first travels 3-1/2 hours out of state to El Paso before coming back to be delivered to the friend just a few miles away on the other side of the river.
My oldest son lives an hour and a half east of me. If I send him a card, it goes 2 1/2 hours west of me, to Rochester, then heads back east to him.