Lol have you made out a last will and testament?

Are you cheating by using one of these?

When I was at school, which was a while ago.

My teacher told em a true story, which made a change at my school. They were at their old home and in bed one night. They heard this noise and thought it was one of those above. How silly who would drive around in that. One of their neighbours had borrowed one from his employer to show his mum that got somewhere in life. There was a little bit of damage to the driveways.

Am a darn pretty good driver, have been driving over 35 years and not one accident neither speeding ticket, and I do speed. Now when I mentioned the speed, is without gridlock. I just drove that on Thursday using a Jetta.
Would love to drive one of those, but they go darn slow. But I would be all mesmerized by all tha gadgets.

Could imagine one going down 5th Ave???? :D

We are CRUISE hollicks! The itenary from the USA + stop over and the shopping -:D:D:D

I can attest to that. Love her driving style. ^^

Thanks HB, now maybe I can drive everyone to your pool
party, even thought 181 forgot little moi. And origin thinks it is because of the pool. :)

Ooops. So many women, so little time ... and energy :(


Sorry, I thought you would be too busy to attend. ;)

I've done a fair bit of the US on business and pleasure and will continue to visit. To my mind there are pros and cons, but the pros do outweigh the cons.

Cons

Close to being a monoculture - shops, hotels, restaurants are more or less the same everywhere
Although some cultural hotspots, not an awful lot in most places
Some of the major cities are to be avoided at all costs from a tourist perspective

Pros
Staggering diversity of landscape and scenery - from the forests of Maine via the Rockies to the deserts of the South West
With thought, you can access come of the above scenery in places that are almost empty of tourists.
Excellent National Park network - some do get crowded, but walk a mile from a trailhead and you're alone
Diversity and splendour of wildlife. As a birder, I am staggered at what you can see and how easy it is to see most of it.
A few world class cities - NY, SF, Chicago, with a supporting cast of other smaller but excellent places such as Seattle, Boston, DC.

In summary, I've visited 40+ times on business and leisure and have barely touched the surface of what there is to be seen.

We have national chains in all the above categories but anyone who concludes that means the country is "more or less the same everywhere" isn't trying that hard. Yes, there are Old Navy clothing shops and Barnes and Noble bookstores, Hilton Garden Inns and Cheescake Factories, P.F. Chang's, etc., everywhere. But never to the exclusion of unique local / regional alternatives.

Dish Pan Hands
 

I'll give you another, really bizarre, reason which probably places me in one of those obscure corners of being a "sad member of society" ... :D

Have you ever tried to buy a decent washing-up brush in UK? One with a bit of ooomph to it? For less that £3? That last more than 4 weeks? On every trip, we bring back a handful of these for every member of the family, who have all been enthusiastic about the product.

$1 [plus local sales tax] at your local Dollar Tree ... although the air fare does make them slightly more expensive than that. ;)

http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/m...k/P1020283.jpg

Oh dear, T8191. What does your bear make of that? :D

The Bears [there are many such hard-working individuals] simply raise an ursine eyebrow. However, they don't make a big issue out of it, as they could otherwise be denied further trips in CW on BA ... The Bears' Favourite Airline.

I guess I'm glad I didn't notice this thread earlier. I probably saved my self a lot of posts. ;)

But I have to say thegoderic sums it up well. To me the mono-culture aspect is the real reason I avoid the US for holidays. Culture and meeting different people from different backgrounds is the main non-business reason I travel. And most all the wonderful landscape and scenery that the US has can be found elsewhere.

It should be noted that the not that long ago, even in the 1960's, the US was not mono-culture. There was vast diversity back then. But thanks to the structure of US television and now the Internet, that is no longer true.

I can see your point ... to an extent. ;)

Landscape and Scenery ... yes, one big hill looks much like everyone else's big hill. "Oh, look, a vista of trees - and is that a river down there in the valley?" I guess it's whatever what you want from your Landscape and Scenery: TBH, I don't get a damp patch from that :D

Culture etc. ... I'll give you that one. My bad, of course - I've never explored Native American reservations. At our time of life we really don't need the "shock and awe" of deeply foreign travel. YMMV, and I respect that - if only I were younger :(