Crossing the other way... Casinos!

There often aren't major cultural differences, not the abruptly, but there still can be changes. Sometimes the road will be 2 lanes on one side and 4 on the other. Sometimes you'll see a ton of new billboards on one side and not the other because they just bought a bunch in one state. Architecture? Not so much, I don't think, though it could be in some areas. Generally if someone is actively picking something while they're there,like building a house, it won't change, but if it's someone picking or choosing something from afar like what a road should be like or what to advertise it can change abruptly.

A good example is that in the past (not so much now), I-75 going south into Georgia began to have a ton of weird pro life billboards and Christian billboards once you cross the state line. Since then they have passed the line, but for real, it was a very abrupt change from none to tons of pictures of fetuses and talking points about when "your baby's" heart beat begins. As well as weird pictures of an apocalypse and Jesus that just sort of says "do you have a decision to make?" With no context.

I actually signed that last one's website's guest book to tell them the domain name on their signs was wrong, which was hilarious to me. It seems like the site would come before the billboards, so why wouldn't they notice the billboards had the wrong site? It was something like org instead of com, pretty minor. But sure enough they changed the billboards next time I went to Florida. So clearly someone is maintaining that site and those billboards. I just checked and it's still up, but it looks like they have some redirects now. So, maybe they fixed some stuff or my memory is fuzzy, this was probably about 10 years ago, definitely pre COVID though.

South Carolina is just a floppy extension of Myrtle Beach and mostly consists of the void you might need to cross to get to Georgia.

It's a weird state. I am sure there are some nice parts, but for the most part, I can't stand it.

You have to pay to leave the state so very obvious leaving!

You sure you don't mean Staten Island? It's a literal island of garbage, with garbage people living on it. Like one of the wonders of the world, but the opposite, whateve that would be.

Besides that, whether you're on 295, or 202 or 78, or 80, when you cross the river into PA, the road goes to absolute shit. But for the most part, the cities along the river aren't bad. You got Easton okay, but Phillipsburg sucks. New Hope and Lambertville, lovely. Trenton sucks. And yeah, I don't really go south of 195 except at the shore.

Sounds like Upstate New Jersey, hill country. That's pretty neat, though.

All my years in NYC and I never did go to Staten Island, and god willing I never will. Unless taking my tourist friends/family on the ferry to see the Statue of Liberty and immediately turning around and going back on the next ferry without even leaving the transportation center counts. But the Staten Island ferry is actually free, unlike the Ellis Island ferry, so screw that.

And yeah, PA roads are… special. Worst I’ve seen outside the south for sure. Trenton area was mostly where I was going to and from, so that might be why the NJ/trash association is so strong for me.

More bumps on the road after crossing the state line.

Same when going from the Netherlands to Belgium.

I'll never forget driving home from college with some friends for the holidays one year. I was from PA, he was from Ohio and had never been more east. We were headed to NY with another friend and our route took us briefly through Jersey.

"How will we know we're there?" he asked as the car suddenly lurched and felt like we hit a gravel road despite ostensibly being a paved highway ...

New Jersey?

QT: Free air, Roller grills.

And much more. Not good prices though, they know how to separate customers from their cash pretty well.

Grew up near the US/Canadian border, there is a line of white rocks that tell you it's the border.

You start seeing sap buckets hanging off utility poles.

Ok, this is bonkers. Although the risk of contamination with foreign insects via transit is real (we e.g. imported the Tiger Mosquito from the US via tire shipments from the U.S. into Europe some years ago...), using that as an excuse to search passenger cars is quite a stretch...

Leaving South Carolina to enter North Carolina or Georgia, the roads are so much better and there’s a noticeable decrease in overall loudness in road noise.

There is a body of water under the bridge, toll collection booths right before or right after the bridge crossing. Also GPS confirms it.

Yeah I would hardly call Ned Lamont a governor.

Holy fucking shit the SC roads are B A D

The lines on a map are actually painted on the ground. It's amazing to see the one running along the bottom of Lake Tahoe.