Americans who live near state borders,how do you notice you've crossed the border?
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Besides the obvious "welcome to [state name]" sign. Is there a significant change in architecture, infrastructure, agriculture, store brands, maybe even culture?
Something that surprised me in my travels (which are primarily West of the Mississippi) is how often the states actually line up with a significant geographic shift. Arizona is endless orange desert. New Mexico immediately becomes rainbow painted cliffs. Utah is somehow entirely vertical. California is a contradiction of green desert. Nevada is like a chemical mine puked on a bunch of bumpy ridges. Northern New Mexico falls off a cliff and the bottom is Texas.
If you watch closely, usually something fairly dramatic happens in the landscape within a few miles of the border.
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Between States with more or less lax laws on liquor, firearms, explosives, tobacco, etc, there's usually various merchants immediately on the side of the border with more lax laws.
Don't forget weed! Happens with Wisconsin and basically every state that borders it.
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It usually depends on how big the road is that you're driving on. Most state borders are in very extremely rural areas, so sometimes there's not even a sign. On interstate highways it's always quite obvious, but little country roads might not have any signage at all.
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There's usually no obvious change in architecture, no; often the only architecture is farm buildings, and those are more or less consistent architecturally. And broadly speaking architecture is regional, rather than state-specific; the difference in architecture from northern Indiana to southern Indiana is far more pronounced than the difference in architecture from southern Indiana to northern Kentucky, for instance.
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As noted elsewhere, sometimes the infrastructure can be different (usually seen in road quality), but most states tend to number their county roads in different ways, so when you cross the border you'll often find that the number of the roads you're crossing tend to suddenly shift from "300W" to "2300E." The signage may also change very slightly, though if you're truly out in the middle of nowhere, there might not be any signage to change.
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Agriculture, like architecture, is usually much more defined by region than by state. All of the states around mine farm corn, wheat, and soybeans, just like mine does. Most also farm cows, though Kentucky notably has a lot more horses than any of its neighbors, so that can be a tell. But you don't get into a ton of ranching until you get further west, and then you see large changes across multiple states at a time.
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Store brands often do change, but again, since most crossings are in rural areas, there often aren't any stores around to notice the change right away. You'll roll out of a state with a lot of Meijer stores and into a state where Publix is the regional grocery store, but until you get into a town, there's no way to know.
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Culture is probably the thing you'll notice least. People who live in rural areas tend to think of themselves as American before any other identifier, so you'll find a lot of jingoism anywhere on both sides of any border. American flags, Christian crosses, gigantic emotional support pickup trucks, bizarrely aggressive patriotic bumper stickers, Trump signs and flags, etc. Depending on where you are those sorts of things are accompanied by very clear signs of deep poverty (mobile homes, trash-strewn lawns, run-down houses), but they can just as often be on or around very well-kept houses on huge acreage.
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And if you mean "culture" in the sense of theater, music, etc., you're unlikely to find any at all near a state border.
I guess the other thing is that Google Maps will tell you "Welcome to (state)" when you're navigating. There are some times that that's the only way you'll know.
Yeah the roads are definitely the biggest giveaway, I noticed that between Ohio and Indiana, minor rural roads go from standard 55mph two-lane roads with a double-yellow line to narrower 45mph alley-type roads that are still wide enough for 2 cars to pass, but barely. And of course everything else is still farmland so not much different. I wouldn't be surprised if even the stores didn't change - a Walmart is a Walmart regardless of what state it's in.
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Crossing into Wisconsin from Minnesota, I will start seeing lots of fireworks stores.
When crossing into Minnesota from Wisconsin, do you see lots of dispensaries?
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Besides the obvious "welcome to [state name]" sign. Is there a significant change in architecture, infrastructure, agriculture, store brands, maybe even culture?
I can tell when I'm driving from NY into CT when suddenly there's traffic for no reason and everybody is driving like an asshat.
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Holy fucking shit the SC roads are B A D
It’s like Mad Max out here
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Besides the obvious "welcome to [state name]" sign. Is there a significant change in architecture, infrastructure, agriculture, store brands, maybe even culture?
As soon as you get out of Pennsylvania you see a marijuana store. Regardless of which state you're going into.
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Besides the obvious "welcome to [state name]" sign. Is there a significant change in architecture, infrastructure, agriculture, store brands, maybe even culture?
Not super stark, but travelling north from Alabama to the Tennesee/Alabama/Georgia triple point you get a lot of rocky outcrops and the terrain will tell you that you're in the Cumberland Foothills.
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The roads go to absolute shit crossing from Ohio into Indiana. And it's not like we have exactly great roads here...
Agreed, but indiana roads are so much louder too. Its kinda baffling.
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I don't know if it is still the case, but the border between Washington and Idaho went from motorcycle helmet law to no helmet law and when people drove from Seattle to Sturgis there would be a ditch full of motorcycle helmets just across the border into Idaho on I-90.
Was that like some sort of take-a-helmet, leave-a-helmet situation? Were there bikers in the ditch who were heading westward looking for a brain bucket?
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Haha, I'd be combing through the state codes for shenanigans to get up to.
I wonder what their property taxes were like.
Two separate tax bills.
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As soon as you get out of Pennsylvania you see a marijuana store. Regardless of which state you're going into.
As soon as you set foot in Pennsylvania there's a fireworks store
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Besides the obvious "welcome to [state name]" sign. Is there a significant change in architecture, infrastructure, agriculture, store brands, maybe even culture?
I have to cross a bridge over one of the largest rivers in America.
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Two separate tax bills.
One just for an empty backyard? It would suck if they got taxed twice on the whole property, although it's possible.
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Besides the obvious "welcome to [state name]" sign. Is there a significant change in architecture, infrastructure, agriculture, store brands, maybe even culture?
I grew up in Illinois, about an hour northwest of Chicago. As soon as you cross into Wisconsin or Indiana there are fireworks stores EVERYWHERE! And as of a few years ago, Illinois has returned the favor with dispories on its side of the border.
Also as soon as you cross into Indiana, you're bombarded with billboards for "gentlemen's" clubs and ones saying "Hell is Real" and the like.
Crossing into Wisconsin, it never took long to leave the flatness of Illinois behind to have it replaced by the state's rolling hills. You'd also stop seeing businesses with "Chicagoland" in the name once you were north of the border. You do see that in parts of northwest Indiana though
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Besides the obvious "welcome to [state name]" sign. Is there a significant change in architecture, infrastructure, agriculture, store brands, maybe even culture?
I cross a river and my first emotion is usually eww.
PA -> NJ
