The following are little quirks I've noticed about the U.S. which I haven't seen at home.
1: People don't walk much over here. Everybody seems to drive and so, a lot of things are geared towards car usage. I'm used to walking or cycling through a town and hardly meeting anybody walking on the streets.
2: Drive through Banks, pharmacies, off-licences & grocery stores. WE're familiar with drive-thru takeaways but I think the drive through banks are gas. Very handy when you're in a car. I went to one with Rich.
3: Yard Sales. I saw loads of these in the east, not so many since I entered Illinois but the settlements are so scattered here. We used to have jumble sales when we were young but its ange since I last saw one.
4: RV's: Recreational vehicles. These are amazing. Normally at home we use the car to tow the caravan. Here, the caravan, which can be the size of a coach tows the S.U.V. These things are enormous. I'd love to see the inside of some of them.
5: Prices. Prices are advertised but the Govt tax isn't included. When you go to pay its added on so you pay more than the advertised price. That annoyed me in the first weeks. It felt like Ryanair on a grand scale.
6: Dead animals. The amount of dead animals on the road is unreal. & the size of some of them!! To smell them is a common daily occurrence. I can now smell the difference between rotten racoon and rotten deer now. One sight was very sad. Last Sunday I rode past a mother racoon and three dead cubs laid out around her. It looked deliberate & I actually got angry when I saw it. I gave up counting all the different kinds of dead animals. So far I've only seen one dead dog!!
7: Grave yards. Most of the grave yards here are by the roadside so I've seen a lot by now. The cemetries here actually feel very dignified. They are very simple engraved headstones that mark the graves. Thats all the decoration. The rest is all very neatly cropped grass which makes the, mostly, non-denominational cemeteries very quiet & dignified. A contrast to the way we view the ging-hoAmerican lifestyle! Its also a contrast to our own graveyards at home which can often have loud, gaudy grave sites, and, if there are a few traveller graves in the place make feel almost like Las Vegas!!
8:The weather. Since I got here the weather has all been about extremes. Heatwaves at first in the East. Tornados and flooding in the mid-West. Now heatwaves and bushfires in the West. Hurricanes in the South. Different world. Did I mention the humidity??
9: Directions. I have begun to wonder if people in America know much about the region in which they live? because the amount of times I've asked directions and the people either don't know what to say or the directions are completely out. 'How far is it to such-and-such?'. "About 25 mins" 'What?? no, how far is it miles??' "oh I don't know" That is the most common form of directions I've been getting. One girl told me it was about 15 mins to a place......It was 50 miles. I tend to have on overall idea on a daily basis but on the road I keep every thing packed away.
Until Missouri I found road signs almost useless. They were so infrequent, didn't display mileage, often they displayed the same mileage as one I'd passed a couple miles back. Jaysus... You'd want to have seen the temper on that stretch of road. Some road signs just didn't know what hit them!! There's quite a lot of road signs now lying down between Massachusetts and West Virginia!!
10: The Politics. Its funny to see the local sentiments towards Iraq etc. I know people are generally against the war here but there's a lot of people for it. There's so many slogans of "support the troops" etc. It all feels gung-ho in that respect. The soldiers are fighting for American freedom and Liberty..... etc. What??? Lads, thats not what Europe & the rest of the world are thinking!! One politician is calling for Iraq to pay for its freedom in petrol..... cheap petrol for America!! Freedom & Liberty how are ya!! Petrol here ranges from about $3.95 to $4.20 per gallon on average. The equivalent at home, per gallon I'm told is $6, higher in the UK and higher again in many parts of Europe. Freedom & Liberty??? There's plenty more but We'll leave it at that.
1: People don't walk much over here. Everybody seems to drive and so, a lot of things are geared towards car usage. I'm used to walking or cycling through a town and hardly meeting anybody walking on the streets.
2: Drive through Banks, pharmacies, off-licences & grocery stores. WE're familiar with drive-thru takeaways but I think the drive through banks are gas. Very handy when you're in a car. I went to one with Rich.
3: Yard Sales. I saw loads of these in the east, not so many since I entered Illinois but the settlements are so scattered here. We used to have jumble sales when we were young but its ange since I last saw one.
4: RV's: Recreational vehicles. These are amazing. Normally at home we use the car to tow the caravan. Here, the caravan, which can be the size of a coach tows the S.U.V. These things are enormous. I'd love to see the inside of some of them.
5: Prices. Prices are advertised but the Govt tax isn't included. When you go to pay its added on so you pay more than the advertised price. That annoyed me in the first weeks. It felt like Ryanair on a grand scale.
6: Dead animals. The amount of dead animals on the road is unreal. & the size of some of them!! To smell them is a common daily occurrence. I can now smell the difference between rotten racoon and rotten deer now. One sight was very sad. Last Sunday I rode past a mother racoon and three dead cubs laid out around her. It looked deliberate & I actually got angry when I saw it. I gave up counting all the different kinds of dead animals. So far I've only seen one dead dog!!
7: Grave yards. Most of the grave yards here are by the roadside so I've seen a lot by now. The cemetries here actually feel very dignified. They are very simple engraved headstones that mark the graves. Thats all the decoration. The rest is all very neatly cropped grass which makes the, mostly, non-denominational cemeteries very quiet & dignified. A contrast to the way we view the ging-hoAmerican lifestyle! Its also a contrast to our own graveyards at home which can often have loud, gaudy grave sites, and, if there are a few traveller graves in the place make feel almost like Las Vegas!!
8:The weather. Since I got here the weather has all been about extremes. Heatwaves at first in the East. Tornados and flooding in the mid-West. Now heatwaves and bushfires in the West. Hurricanes in the South. Different world. Did I mention the humidity??
9: Directions. I have begun to wonder if people in America know much about the region in which they live? because the amount of times I've asked directions and the people either don't know what to say or the directions are completely out. 'How far is it to such-and-such?'. "About 25 mins" 'What?? no, how far is it miles??' "oh I don't know" That is the most common form of directions I've been getting. One girl told me it was about 15 mins to a place......It was 50 miles. I tend to have on overall idea on a daily basis but on the road I keep every thing packed away.
Until Missouri I found road signs almost useless. They were so infrequent, didn't display mileage, often they displayed the same mileage as one I'd passed a couple miles back. Jaysus... You'd want to have seen the temper on that stretch of road. Some road signs just didn't know what hit them!! There's quite a lot of road signs now lying down between Massachusetts and West Virginia!!
10: The Politics. Its funny to see the local sentiments towards Iraq etc. I know people are generally against the war here but there's a lot of people for it. There's so many slogans of "support the troops" etc. It all feels gung-ho in that respect. The soldiers are fighting for American freedom and Liberty..... etc. What??? Lads, thats not what Europe & the rest of the world are thinking!! One politician is calling for Iraq to pay for its freedom in petrol..... cheap petrol for America!! Freedom & Liberty how are ya!! Petrol here ranges from about $3.95 to $4.20 per gallon on average. The equivalent at home, per gallon I'm told is $6, higher in the UK and higher again in many parts of Europe. Freedom & Liberty??? There's plenty more but We'll leave it at that.
hi fran
ReplyDeleteunfortunatly i stil have not figured out this posting thing wow i feel tired just reading all this it really seems like a great adventure but a bit of hard work too the blog is great often very funny i am reading weekly you are doing great your enthusiasm and energy is amazing jamie is gone past the walking now to climbing all round him no fear at all thinking of you xxx marie fran jamie