Time Out: A couple of Observations

After 2 weeks in the U.S. I seem to be surviving. Hopefully another 2 weeks down the road the legs will be a lot better. The people so far have generally been lovely. Nobody has been aggressive so far & that goes for drivers as well, fingers crossed that continues. American cars are huge. 3 & 4 litre engines the norm.... why?? Jaysus a 1.3 corolla can go fine at home & has had no problem hitting 120mph on the Mullingar bypass (and that was not me but Mum, when she was late for a Leitrim match v Longford!!! I'm not sure if we drew that match..... actually, no, we were hammered). Talk about gas guzzlers.
America does seem to be very militaristic as well. its all 'Lets support the boys in Iraq' etc. Military memorials are very frequent. And the flags....!!! the amount of flags flying from everywhere is unreal, I mean unbeliveble. If patriotism & love of country is measured by flag flying then in Ireland we're not patriotic at all. To be honest its reassuring we don't have to display our Patriotism like that.
The roads are mixed some great some really difficult with hard shoulders that are really cut up. The worst, so far, has got to be Springfield MA, even the footpaths were dangerous. The best roads are in the countryside & the one with smooth wide shoulders are great.
All in all I'm surviving, the sef doubt is getting less but I need to make a big push over the next 10 days to really feel I'm on track.