A "down" day today.
Every so often, one needs one of those days not doing very much at all and today is it. Sleeping in, washing, doing admin on the iPad, being generally lazy...
Hence, (almost) no photos today as we didn't really see or do anything worth taking photos of (lunch at Wendy's will never cut it).
Instead, here are some of our observations and thoughts after being on the road in the US for 5 1/2 weeks or so... Feel free to comment...
US Hospitality:
In a post 9/11 environment, and through stories that we all have heard, we perhaps had an expectation that Americans these days are harsher and it is every man and woman for themselves. Nothing can be further from our experience so far. We have met so many nice people who seem to be genuinely interested in chatting to you and of course to give unsolicited advice of where we should visit and what we should do.
Looking back, there is probably only one instance where we met positively, let's say unimpressive people. That was at Hertz office in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Sorry Hertz, Alamo provided far better service and were far nicer to deal with than yourselves. We will stick with Alamo now that we are also Alamo Insider members.
Security checks:
In addition to this, as we are wearing backpacks with our "valuable" stuff most of the times that we are out, one would think that security concerns these days would dictate that the backpacks be checked before entering sensitive places or at least be kept at the reception.
We have walked directly in from the street into the New Mexico senate, been outside New Mexico's Governor's office and walked through New Mexico Military Institute without anybody saying or asking anything. We are not sure whether this is a conscious new openness towards visitors and part of the public relations machine that Americans do so well, but we were very impressed, and just a little bit puzzled about it.
US drivers:
The good:
- American drivers are very polite towards pedestrians - Even if the pedestrians are in the wrong. A somewhat cynical person may think that the litigious American environment has something to do with it, but cars have stopped and we have been waved through umpteen number of times when we were clearly in the wrong. That would never happen in Sydney. You would get honked at.
- Drink driving rules - These have been tightened significantly since we were here last time, about 12 years ago. First offense in New Mexico is a mandatory 90 days behind bars. No warnings. And it gets tougher from there.
The bad:
- Let's say, the very limited use of indicators. It seems to us less than 50% of the drivers indicate when they turn. Australian drivers are very good at this, Swedish drivers less so, but it is not as bad as here.
- Driving against red light is much more common here than in Australia. The same cynical person may say that the almost total lack of red light cameras have something to do with it.
Police are very visible here and we feel safe. With state police and local sheriffs you see lots of patrolling in cars (often with only 1 cop). You also see them pull over drivers on the side of the road far more frequently. However you don't see Random Breath Testing as you do in Australia, but there are signs everywhere encouraging fellow citizens to dob in a drunk driver. DWI it is called here, Driving While Influenced.
General state of the US economy:
Many Americans appear to be suffering financially. You can tell through the numerous pawn offices, cheques cashed businesses, dollar shops etc that even the smallest towns seem to have in abundance.
Although, against that is the seemingly endless succession of large cars, pick up trucks, RVs etc that can be found everywhere. However "poor" they are, they do not seem to be fuel conscious and they drive comfortably.
Of course, for us Australians coming here with a strong currency to back us up with, this situation is providing many opportunities, more "bang for the buck" so to say...
Food:
Cheap food chains are everywhere. Supermarkets can sometimes be difficult to find and fresh food can be expensive. Dining out for breakfast is common and when we stop for coffee around 10.30am most servers give us a menu for breakfast. We sometimes give in - their hash-brown are real grated potato and so good - but it is different in that toast with a spread is not what they eat. Usually more like brunch.
Dining out is pretty cheap for us because we don't go "top of the line", usually drink iced water or coffee, and regularly share one serving. Meals and drinks are always large.
In general the food quality is better in Australia but generally more expensive (cheap Chinese meals excluded).
Some other observations:
When we went to an USPS (that is US Postal Services) branch in Albuquerque, and Di was packing up a parcel to send back to Australia, Hans investigated the interior and found 2 things worth mentioning here:
- There is a published monetary reward list on the counter, from a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest from a homicide or manslaughter of an USPS employee, to all different types of lesser crimes. All in all, there were more than 10 different categories. Never seen that in Australia or anywhere else for that matter.
- All young US men, between the age of 18 to 25 years old are sort of conscripted. By that we mean that they are required by law to register the fact that they are turning 18 years old at least 6 months before that event. USPS has forms for this purpose and the information must then be stored centrally somewhere and according to the form instructions, these young men may then be called upon for civic or military duty should the President or Congress decide that there is a national security or emergency situation. After turning 25 years old, they are off the hook. If you move address, there was a form there too that you are required by law to fill in and submit at any USPS branch.
Of course, we have only really been to 3 states so far (California, Arizona and New Mexico, omitting Utah and Colorado from our Four Corners adventure) and apart from Los Angeles and driving through Phoenix, we have been to smaller cities, towns and places, so our observations and thoughts may change as we visit some larger places, Houston, New Orleans, Memphis and Nashville, in the next month and a bit.
And tomorrow, we will go to El Paso, a town where some New Mexicans have told us that they would not visit themselves due to safety concerns...
Oh, and one more thing. We had a face treatment today...
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