Anyone reading this (wot! nothing better to do?) may be interested in a few reflections of visiting the United States of America.

1. 1.The country is ENORMOUS. It is easy to think “Well, yes, I know that, now tell us something new.” But there is a difference between knowing the fact and appreciating the fact. We tend to look at a map of the UK on a page and then look at a map of the US and at the back of the mind think “Ah, well, the distance between Los Angeles and Las Vegas is only an inch on the map. That’s the same as the distance between London and Reading on this other map.” But it doesn’t take a whole day to drive from London to Reading. The scale of travelling is so vastly different.
   

2. 2.They drive on the wrong side of the road. Thankfully they all seem to drive on the wrong side of the road at the same time. Anyone driving in the US has to think a lot harder when driving over there and that can make things VERY tiring. You have to remember that slow vehicles keep to the right not the left. You can overtake on any side, so you have to be extra vigilant when overtaking as having overtaken, if you don’t pull in immediately another car behind you may undertake. Sometimes people will stay in the outside lane (i.e. the left) for many miles with nothing to overtake. I did this on I-40 on the way to Flagstaff because the inside lane had been so hammered by large trucks that it was very unpleasant going over many bumps. It is not illegal to undertake on the inside. It is noticeable that various slip roads have big signs saying “WRONG WAY” so it is obvious that it not just British drivers who take wrong turnings.
   

3. 3.Get a car that has decent air conditioning, cruise control and a big enough engine to maintain high speeds for long distances. Cars behave like greenhouses, which you discover the hard way when you get into a car that’s been parked in the sun all day. You don’t get sufficient cooling effect from having all the windows open. If you’re driving 300 miles at 75mph (say, on I-40, where that is the speed limit) cruise control is essential as it’s better to concentrate on the road and the rear view mirror than also working out how fast you are going and twitching your right foot appropriately. You’ll probably find that if you keep to the speed limits you get overtaken by a lot of very big trucks. There are various places where you will have to climb hills (mountains), and so a car with plenty of power to maintain a decent speed is necessary (as well as running the air conditioning). You’ll want a car that has automatic transmission. Besides the Americans mainly use automatics so it’s difficult to get a manual transmission. And if you did get a manual, out of habit, you may find you open the driver’s door when trying to change gear! Get a decent satnav. US car hire companies offer them, but they are expensive. It will be cheaper to buy one here and purchase the US maps. Sometimes the maps are wrong (as over here) as we discovered in Barstow when the satnav said “turn right” into a nonexistent road.
   

4. 4.A relatively small number of Americans have passports, and their view of the rest of the world can be described as parochial. Most of their knowledge of the world comes through TV and movies. Don’t be surprised if they expect you to speak with a faux Cockney accent (like Dick van Dyke in Mary Poppins), or like the Queen. Expect their understanding of geography to be awful (“is that near London?”). They don’t understand the United Kingdom. They think Scotland is part of England. They think England is occupying Northern Ireland by military force. Wales is an English county. Remember that their history is short. While in Europe 200 miles is a long way, in America 200 years is a long time. I just found this http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1976-03-29 which perhaps gives an understanding of how SOME Americans view their own country!
   

5. 5.If you’re going to stay in hotels, join a hotel chain loyalty programme. We joined Choice Hotels Choice Privileges. You earn points for every night you stay in a hotel and when you have enough you can get a free night. They usually have iPhone/iPad apps so you can book on the road. On a number of occasions we weren’t sure how far we’d get and it was sometimes late afternoon before we decided which city we’d stay in. It was great to be able to use the iPhone app to book. The secure website stores the credit card details, so we just had to log in and choose the hotel.
   

6. 6.Did I mention that the country is ENORMOUS? So a few weeks is only going to scratch the surface of what you may like to see. And once you’ve been there you discover just how many more places you’d like to go and see. I really fancy going over again next year and taking a month to drive the Lincoln Highway (San Francisco to New York—or perhaps New York to San Francisco). Then there are places like Yellowstone National Park, Mount Rushmore, the Mississippi Delta, and so much more. Already I’ve probably seen more of the country than many Americans, but there’s still so much to see. I remember in 2006 (see blog for that trip) when a man from Alabama asked me at the back of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC “Will we see President Lincoln round here?” and Marianne said “Why are you asking an Englishman?” But I had been there before in 2002 and was able to offer him a guided tour of his capital city. Probably the only time he’d ever visit and it was my second visit.
   

7. 7.Being so enormous, the country has several time zones, and you can sometimes get caught out if you aim to be somewhere by a certain time only to find that it’s in the next time zone and you arrive an hour late (if driving west to east) or an hour early (if driving from east to west). It is also a lot further south than Britain. The southern states are on the same latitude as north Africa, so it’s no surprise it’s so hot. It also means that summer days are shorter than in Britain and winter days longer. In the summer we expect to be able to sit out in daylight until 10pm. In America it gets dark much earlier. This can come as a surprise if you fly across late June/early July to suddenly find it getting dark early. But if you go late December/early January it is so nice to have so much daylight, especially if you suffer from SAD (seasonal affective disorder, where you feel miserable because of the shortness of the day).
   

8. 8.Most of the people are very pleasant and friendly. It is worth taking time to talk to people. If doing as we did and drive thousands of miles you find out just how different people are in different states. Not just accents but attitudes as well. Some want to shoot guns, others want them banned. But the latter are far fewer than the former. Probably best not to express an opinion should the subject come up. Though if you want a bruising argument, you could memorise the second amendment to the US Constitution and quote it in full, not just the truncated version usually quoted. Argue that since the US now has a standing army, that amendment should no longer apply. When they insist that it should, argue that in that case the US military is unconstitutional. Be prepared to jump in the car and drive very fast as they can get very passionate about the subject. The other issue is healthcare. The US has the best healthcare system in the world—as long as you have money. They hear all sorts of weird things about the NHS, most of which are wrong. Now the NHS is grossly inefficient and suffers from far too much political and bureaucratic control, but it seems to me that governments have a responsibility to protect its people and keep them healthy. But this is another issue that gets people very hot under the collar. And if you argue for state funded healthcare too much, remember the second amendment and the right to keep and bear arms!