{"id":9006,"date":"2017-06-07T23:34:04","date_gmt":"2017-06-07T13:34:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/?p=9006"},"modified":"2017-06-07T23:34:04","modified_gmt":"2017-06-07T13:34:04","slug":"observations-and-generalisations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/?p=9006","title":{"rendered":"Observations and generalisations"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"One<\/a>

One observation and generalisation we made – which would be hard to dispute – is that the national parks are great!<\/p><\/div>\n

When does an observation become a generalisation?\u00a0 If you\u2019ve been in one taxi in Paris can you say that all Parisian taxi drivers are rude?\u00a0 If you\u2019ve spoken to one Texan about his big RV can you say that all Texans are proud of their big RV\u2019s?\u00a0 If it rains every day you\u2019re in New Hampshire can you say it always rains there?\u00a0 Of course you can!\u00a0 Travel is all about seeing new things, going to new places and meeting new people.\u00a0 We make observations along the way, that\u2019s part of the fun, whether others agree or not.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a few of our observations (and generalisations) in no particular order after 76 days travelling through America.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Campgrounds<\/a>

Campgrounds in state parks were great – good facilities and well maintained<\/p><\/div>\n

State parks <\/u>– Possibly the best part of travelling around the United States like we do is the quality and quantity of state parks.\u00a0 They are unbelievable!\u00a0 These parks, which usually are placed in a scenic area, provide a wide range of recreational options including hiking, camping, boating, cycling and fishing.\u00a0 They are fabulous for families and often feature playgrounds and kids\u2019 stuff.\u00a0 Most of them having camping facilities and they are almost all in beautiful natural settings amongst the trees or on a creek or beach.\u00a0 And there are so many \u2013 to give you an idea, North Carolina has 55 and even Vermont has 38.\u00a0 America\u2019s state parks rock!<\/p>\n

People are big <\/u>\u2013 Australia has a lot of big people, by one report Australia has the second highest proportion of overweight and obese people in the world \u2013 behind America.\u00a0 Everywhere you go it seems people are just so big and it can\u2019t be good for them.\u00a0 Which leads me to two other observations\u2026<\/p>\n

Waffle House<\/u> (and other fast food chains) \u2013 I wish I had invested in Waffle House as a lad because these fast food restaurants are everywhere!\u00a0 Of course we see all the other well-known chains as well, and some we hadn\u2019t heard of before, but fast food is clearly a part of life in America and everyone partakes (some people much more than others).\u00a0 One of Julie\u2019s and mine sacred rules on this trip is No Fast Foods and so far we haven\u2019t broken this mantra (and won\u2019t!).<\/p>\n

\"We<\/a>

We made a rule before we started about NO FAST FOOD and instead we’ve had beautiful picnic spots for lunch each day<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Be<\/a>

Be warned! Even Canada has these Dollar stores<\/p><\/div>\n

Dollar General, Family Dollar, Dollar Tree and Super Dollar<\/u> \u2013 No self-respecting town can exist without at least one of these discount stores and frequently they can be seen at opposite ends of the same block.\u00a0 We\u2019ve visited one or two of these stores out of desperation in small towns (panic \u2013 we\u2019re out of milk!) and they are a sad scene.\u00a0 One person we spoke to said they have \u2018ruined\u2019 the small towns of America because they have forced out the small owner\/operator mixed business store that sold better quality food, vegies, etc.\u00a0 People are buying cheap \u2013 frequently unhealthy \u2013 food at these stores which can\u2019t be good.\u00a0 Pox on the Dollar stores.<\/p>\n

Three wheeled and five wheeled motorcycles<\/u> \u2013 There are a lot of motorcycles in the US, which is fine (although helmets are not mandatory and most go without, which is a worry), but a surprisingly high proportion of them are three wheelers.\u00a0 We don\u2019t really get that in Australia.\u00a0 And often you see motorcycles pulling a little trailer with their gear.\u00a0 So on many occasions you actually get five-wheeled motorcycles \u2013 three on the bike and two on the trailer.\u00a0 Cool.<\/p>\n

Big RV\u2019s in Texas and Florida<\/u> \u2013 We all know that size matters.\u00a0 But the RV\u2019s we saw in Texas, usually owned by Texans, and Florida, usually owned by Snow Birds who spend their winters in Florida, are obscenely big.\u00a0 We accept they aren\u2019t camping, they go to an RV site and plug in for months at a time with all their home comforts.\u00a0 Some of them pull their toy trailer which carries things like cars, motorbikes, boats, canoes, bicycles and even fences for their pets.\u00a0 If I ever even hint at wanting one of these monster setups Julie has permission to shoot me.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A flash red RV with a matching red jeep and matching red outdoor chairs. In America size does matter.<\/p><\/div>\n

Pets<\/u> \u2013 We had pets as a family, rabbits, birds, turtles and most importantly Jello, our beloved family dog.\u00a0 But Americans are obsessed with their pets, almost always it\u2019s their dogs, and travel with them as if they are their children (which in some ways they are).\u00a0 Pets are everywhere, in restaurants, in the toilets, on the walking trails (sometimes on the trail and sometimes in a backpack), campgrounds, super markets, the lot.\u00a0 The great American campground activity is walking the dog(s) in the evening and morning.\u00a0 Nothing else matters.<\/p>\n

Vermont (and New Hampshire)<\/u> \u2013 We loved Vermont\u2026and New Hampshire was right behind them.\u00a0 Unfortunately we were on a bit of a mission while we were there and the weather was crap but we want to go back someday and do them in style.\u00a0 We loved the mountains, all the magnificent lakes, the fast flowing rivers, the covered bridges, the people and the general slower life style.\u00a0 If you haven\u2019t been, get there.<\/p>\n

\"Vermont<\/a>

Vermont and New Hampshire was all about the green untouched mountains, small communities and a quieter way of life<\/p><\/div>\n

The Adirondacks <\/u>\u2013 same as above but in New York.\u00a0 We don\u2019t fish and we don\u2019t do snowmobiles (but we could learn!), otherwise this is recreation heaven.\u00a0 Year round, whatever you want in the great outdoors, it\u2019s all here.\u00a0 They also have a very cool wooden chair of the same name that you see everywhere.\u00a0 Chairs are important (see below).<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Adirondacks even have a chair named after them and they can be seen everywhere (including on porches)<\/p><\/div>\n

Front porches<\/u> \u2013 You can tell a lot about a man by his front porch.\u00a0 Front porches are a major feature in homes all across the south and even a bit in the north.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure this has to do with the climate and general historical lifestyle but most homes have big front porches and almost all homes have rocking chairs on them.\u00a0 We loved the rocking chairs, sometimes just for show but we reckon most of them were in regular use (usually by very old people).\u00a0 We also saw many two person swinging love seats which hang by two ropes and other comfy chairs.\u00a0 If a porch had a swinging love seat AND a couple of rocking chairs we wanted to move in.<\/p>\n

\"Even<\/a>

Even a modest home has a porch with the mandatory\u00a0rocking chairs<\/p><\/div>\n

BIG yards <\/u>\u2013 OMG, people in rural settings have huge yards, usually in the front of the house, sometimes bigger than Yankee Stadium, no fences between the neighbours, gently sloping down to the road or a creek or a grove of old trees.\u00a0\u00a0 But when you have a BIG yard there\u2019s one thing you need\u2026<\/p>\n

Ride-on mowers<\/u> \u2013 Another great career would have been to own a distributorship for ride-on mowers because everyone<\/em> has one.\u00a0 On any day of the week, around every corner, someone would be on their ride-on mower mowing the BIG yard.\u00a0 We\u2019re talking hundreds, probably thousands, of these things in perpetual use.\u00a0 We\u2019ve seen houses with two ride-on mowers and on many occasions we\u2019ve seen them parked at the end of the driveway with For Sale signs.\u00a0 Ride-on mowers make the man.<\/p>\n

\"Ride-on<\/a>

Ride-on mowers are part of every home, they come in many different styles and sometimes even have their own trailer<\/p><\/div>\n

Big Bend National Park <\/u>\u2013 People occasionally ask us what is the best part of our trip so far.\u00a0 This is a tough question because it depends on the criteria, frame of mind and a hundred other factors.\u00a0 But one place we really loved was Big Bend National Park in southern Texas.\u00a0 We expected it to be all about the Rio Grande as it snakes its way along as the border between the US and Mexico.\u00a0 Well, it did that but the national park also featured spectacular mountains and beautiful vast deserts.\u00a0 The combination of river, mountains and desert make this a truly great place to visit.<\/p>\n

\"Camped<\/a>

Camped on the banks of the Rio Grande with the desert hills of Mexico in the background – great stuff<\/p><\/div>\n

\"A<\/a>

A typical set of rules on a small beach in a state park<\/p><\/div>\n

Too many fences and too many rules <\/u>\u2013 one of my favourite things about Australia is that when you go off travelling in the remote bush there are very few fences and as long as you use discretion and some common sense you can camp wherever you want.\u00a0 In the US that is almost impossible because there are fences everywhere and if there aren\u2019t there is usually a small sign that in big letters says POSTED.\u00a0 In small print it will say no trespassing, bugger off, get lost.\u00a0 And there are so many rules! There are rules posted when you enter a shopping mall, rules and useless information for a walking trail (\u2018This trail averages 3 feet wide and is uneven in places\u2019), endless rules before you enter an attraction, rules on multiple pages that you have to sign before entering a camp (\u2018If you see a bear, do not aggravate it\u2019).\u00a0 America is the land of rules.<\/p>\n

Pastel coloured houses \u2013 <\/u>we first started seeing them down on the gulf coast around Galveston Texas, large multi-story beach homes painted in beautiful pastel colours, just fabulous.\u00a0 This feature of homes, particularly holiday beach homes, spreads all along the gulf coastline and all through Florida.\u00a0 We also saw it up the Atlantic coast in Georgia and the Carolinas.\u00a0 Some colour choices were all wrong, and yes \u2013 you can have too much bright pink on a three story beach home, but in most cases they were tastefully done and looked great.<\/p>\n

\"Nothing<\/a>

Nothing like a subtle little holiday home on the beach<\/p><\/div>\n

High School nicknames<\/u> \u2013 After a month or so we started compiling a list of all the high school nicknames as we drove past them.\u00a0 Almost all schools will have large signs out front announcing the name of the school and then saying \u2018Home of the Cowboys\u2019 or whatever that may be.\u00a0 The names usually reflect the area or the state, such as in Florida we got a lot of Dolphins and Hurricanes and in the mountains we got the Mountaineers or one good one was the Mountain Panthers.\u00a0 A couple of our favourites are the Brahmas, Lumberjacks and Red Storm.\u00a0 Not sure about the Eskimos or the Fighting Vikings (is there such a thing as a non-fighting Viking?).<\/p>\n

Booze is cheap!<\/u> \u2013 This one is really for Australians who pay a fortune for their alcohol.\u00a0 Americans don\u2019t know how good they\u2019ve got it on this one.\u00a0 For instance, 18 x 12 ounce cans of my favourite Coors beer can be bought for only $11.99 (sometimes a bit more).\u00a0 That is less than half what we pay for a common domestic beer in Australia.\u00a0 Outrage!\u00a0 And Julie pays only $14.99 for 1.75 litres of Gordon\u2019s Gin.\u00a0 In Australia that same amount would cost about US$60 (around A$80). \u00a0Suffice to say Julie is really enjoying her time in America.<\/p>\n

\"Even<\/a>

Even Dusty and Simpson don’t mind having a beer or two since it’s so cheap in America<\/p><\/div>\n

America is a land of endless dimensions and more faces and features than could possibly be contemplated, which is part of the fun of travelling here. \u00a0We also loved all the different church steeples, how every community – no matter how small – has a post office, the ice cream (!), the fabulously friendly people, the constant curiosity of Tramp and the wonderful national parks (“America’s best idea”), amongst many.<\/p>\n

\"It<\/a>

It doesn’t matter how small the town is they always have a post office – sometimes its the only operation in town<\/p><\/div>\n

If you want to add to this list of observations and generalisation from your own experiences please feel free to send me a comment.\u00a0 If you disagree, fine, be that way, I\u2019m happy to hear all about it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When does an observation become a generalisation?\u00a0 If you\u2019ve been in one taxi in Paris can you say that all Parisian taxi drivers are rude?\u00a0 If you\u2019ve spoken to one Texan about his big RV can you say that all Texans are proud of their big RV\u2019s?\u00a0 If it rains every day you\u2019re in New Hampshire can you say it always rains there?\u00a0 Of course you can!\u00a0 Travel is all …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-united-states"],"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC_0544.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9006"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9098,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9006\/revisions\/9098"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}