Up in the BWCA in N. MN they still mark portage lengths in rods. It’s a nice anachronism. I like it.
If you’ve ever carried a canoe and a pack 450 rods you know viscerally how long a rod is.
In my world, rods are the ideal unit of measure. There are 320 of those little fellas in a mile and 160 square ones in an acre. No Frenchman has ever devised a more adequate system of measurement for laying out fields.