Americans who live near state borders,how do you notice you've crossed the border?
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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
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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?
I think the unwritten rule is they aren't touched and they are there when people come back through. I didn't ditch mine, so I can't say for sure.
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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 used to live near Cincinnati. You don't go to Kentucky by accident. The largest tributary of the Mississippi was in the way and all thats waiting for you is Kentucky. Also the traffic sucked
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I have to cross a bridge over one of the largest rivers in America.
Cincinnati?
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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 geologic 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.
Drove from ohio to the PNW and yeah you've got some state boundaries that are minor like ohio-indiana (but even then there's a vibe shift between bumfuck ohio and bumfuck indiana). But Illinois is very different. Once you cross the Mississippi it's a whole lot of nothing but corn in Iowa. Minnesota was a beautiful detour and a much needed respite between Iowa and south Dakota.
Ohio is weird, it's Midwestern farms, great lakes, the ohio river valley, and Appalachian foothills. So there's more difference between Columbus and Cleveland than between Cleveland and Michigan. But going south you cross the ohio and the valley opens into a more mountainous terrain rather than the flatness of ohio. Similarly west Virginia is a river then suddenly mountains. Pennsylvania just feels different (tbh the ohio-Pennsylvania border is out of the way unless you live in Cleveland or have frequent reason to drive to the east coast)
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I have to cross a bridge over one of the largest rivers in America.
I‘ve only been once to the US but do you by any chance mean California - Arizona?
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One just for an empty backyard? It would suck if they got taxed twice on the whole property, although it's possible.
Technically 2 lots ...
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/32392931_zpid/ -
Roads. It is pretty common around where I grew up to notice you are in a different states when there is a sudden shift in road conditions. They never communicated about when to do repairs or anything, so it was almost always an obvious line between either a really shit road and a smooth one, or vice versa. Sometimes you could even tell based on the noise or feel of the road, if the other state uses different road construction materials.
Sounds a lot like how all borders of Latvia felt like just five years ago or so. A lot of the maps they use for any planning work have just plain white colour outside the borders, so after the last village there's just the border, and then... nothing.
So, once you were beyond the last village inside Latvia, there was of course no point in properly maintaining the roads. You are sitting in a bus, somewhat slumbering. Suddenly the ride becomes very uneven and you look through the window to see commas over and under half of the consonants in viļļaģe ņames
(plus a lot of
That only lasts for about five minutes, though.And the same when exiting Latvia: bumpy road for five minutes, then the bumpiness ends and the villäges are pülling öff shenänigäns with double dots, or, alternatively, there's suddenly a lot of poop ųndęrnęąth lęttęrs. (Okay, in reality a Lithuanian letter only knows how to poop when in the beginning or end of a word)
It's a clever way to say "welcome to our co-o-o-ountr-r-r-r-r-y"!
Boringly, some years ago that feature was removed, but I expect things to normalize in 10 years time. Estonia and Lithuania will maintain their roads also at the borders, but Latvia only in the relevant parts of the country, not at the outer limit of existence. Until the condition of the road to nowhere gets too ridiculous and they have to – exceptionally and begrudgingly – repair even those unnecessary pieces of road.(And yes, this did also apply to the transcontinental road used by trucks going from Finland to Poland and Germany and further to, well, anywhere.)
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As soon as you set foot in Pennsylvania there's a fireworks store
Obviously pot is more dangerous than Uncle Teddy shooting fireworks off the back of his truck next to all the young children in the family
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I love that the Dutch talk the same way about the Belgian roads
Are the Belgian bricks uneven?
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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?
Welcome to Michigan. Come buy some cannabis. Signs every where
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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?
wrote last edited by [email protected]It feels like traffic instantly doubles after you cross the California border, but that could just be me. The Palm trees are also noticeably different in Cali.
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I‘ve only been once to the US but do you by any chance mean California - Arizona?
The Colorado River is nowhere near as wide as the Mississippi.
