If I throw up the names of some US states, can any of you Americans suggest reasons why I should (or shouldn’t) go to any of the particular states I mention?
These are the states I am interested in visiting (in order of preference):
[b]Maine
Massachusetts
West Virginia
Colorado
Oregon
Wyoming
California
Washington
[/b]
Any advice? Any states worth visiting that I may have left out? Any particular states I should avoid (ie voidhead gave a pretty dismal account of Alabama).
If I throw up the names of some US states, can any of you Americans suggest reasons why I should (or shouldn’t) go to any of the particular states I mention?
These are the states I am interested in visiting (in order of preference):
Maine
Cold!
Massachusetts
they talk funny. The letters “o” and “R” do not exist there. They refer to “Boston” as “Bastin” and “Park” is “Pok”! Although, I hear the Clam chowder (other wise known as “Chow-duh”) is really good, as well as all of their sea food.
West Virginia
May want to check out some of the Battlefields from the civil war
Colorado
Lots of green and Dirt! a few Indian reservations are there. Been there!
Oregon
Cold and rainy. Been there a few times. Can’t think of anything worth looking at other than green landscape
Wyoming
Home state of ex VP Dick Cheney. you could probably find the place that gay dude was hanged on a fence crucification style and beat to death for being gay. Yellowstone and the hot pots are cool to look at. Been there.
California
northern California. very pretty woods Sequoia’s Yosemite.
Southern California Beaches L.A. (Hollywood), Magic Mountain. if you like theme parks, The original Disneyland (Although not really original anymore with all of the building that has gone on)
Washington
Washington state or the capital of the country?
Washington state is pretty much like Oregon although they have the space needle in Seattle (never been to the space needle) Been to Washington state.
South Dakota has Mount Rushmore. pretty much a sight to behold pretty drab though for scenery unless you like dirt!
and you should probably check out Nevada for Las vegas and drive down the strip. Pretty cool!
Late,
grmpysmrf
I lived in California for 12 years and Colorado for 1 year.
Loved California.
Colorado was not nearly so nice. People there were far more aggressive I found. Harder to make friends.
I really loved Washington State.
What part of CA did you live in, Amlux?
And Peligro, California is a huge state and there is a distinctly different vibe in Northern CA than Southern CA. I’ve lived on both ends and like them both.
What I would recommend you consider if you did want to see CA is that you try up north first and then drive down the coast to see our end. The drive down PCH (Hwy 1) is a real scenic treat with massive cliffs and some of the greatest beach views. Be careful, though, it’s a bit windy and if you stare too much it can be treacherous (you don’t want to drive off the edge).
Maybe it’s cliche, but if you’re planning to visit multiple states, you’d be remiss to skip New York City. It’s not representative of the rest of the country at all, but it’s an impressive place. I am a big fan of New England in general, so Massachusetts and Maine are good choices as well. You should definitely hit up those states in the fall to take in color. What are you interested in seeing? Historical locations? Natural landmarks? Big cities? Spooky backwater towns of 140 people?
Interesting choices Peligro, I’ll comment on my experiences in each state.
Colorado - Never been to Denver but Colorado is extremely gorgeous with it’s snow-capped mountains, rivers etc. Great place for camping or skiing.
Oregon + Washington State - The Pacific Northwest is absolutely beautiful, more beautiful than dried-up California in my opinion. If you like camping and the outdoors there are too many places to mention, though I would recommend Mt. Ranier, Crater Lake, the Oregon Coast and the Olympic Peninsula. Portland Oregon is a fun quaint little town, though lately it’s been taken over by hipsters. Seattle is a beautiful city with lots of things to do and great food if you know where to look. I lived in Seattle for five years. Warning though that North-westerners can tend to be kind of cold and provincial, especially outside of the major cities.
California - What grumpy said. San Francisco is amazing in every way. L.A. is worth a visit and is very pretty in some places but a real shithole in others. (I guess this can be said about many cities) Big difference between Northern and Southern Cali.
Wyoming - Sparsely populated Western state. Very pretty if the season is right, but watch out for methed out rednecks. This is the state they killed Matthew Sheppard in for being gay. The only reason to come to Wyoming would be if you are interested in the National Parks such as Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons or Devil’s Tower.
And you should probably see NYC.
And might I suggest that while the state of Illinois is overall rather boring, Chicago is a kick-ass city well worth a visit. They have amazing architecture, great food and great entertainment.
I also want to go to Minneapolis one day too - because that’s where Prince is from. Fuck he’s funny - funniest motherfucker ever. Have they named any landmarks there after Prince? Are there any parks or gardens with unpronounceable symbols for names? I wanted to change my name to an unpronounceable symbol but my mum wouldn’t let me. Is there really a place called Paisley Park? Any thoughts on Minneapolis?
Was Walt Disney really an anti semite? Was Henry Ford an anti semite? Can you go to Area 51? Can you buy a chili dog in any city? Is Elvis still really big in America? Do you see movie stars everywhere? Are we there yet?
Wouldn’t mind hopping across the border to Canada. Maybe Vancouver. But I’ve had a bad experience with Canadians. The rudest group of people I have ever met were Canadians. Met them on a European tour. They were early 30’s, three girls, two guys, very cold and unnerving. One of the girls had a blonde rinse through her hair and she was a natural brunette - so she had this long dark brown hair with blonde strands at the back and it looked way cool. So I commented on it to her and she said thankyou. Next day she fucking glares at me every time I went anywhere near her. Like, REALLY glares - cold and evil. The other four were equally weird if not more so.
I know that Americans have a running joke that Canadians are dull, slow thinking pacifists. At least, they’re aways being made fun of on Family Guy. They called them ‘Canucks’. I hear that bears live in Canada. Sometimes they eat people for the hell of it. Fuckin’ crazy bears - eatin’ people and shit.
One of the girls had a blonde rinse through her hair and she was a natural brunette - so she had this long dark brown hair with blonde strands at the back and it looked way cool. So I commented on it to her and she said thankyou. Next day she fucking glares at me every time I went anywhere near her. Like, REALLY glares - cold and evil.
My mum worked as a nanny in Toronto for a rich Canadian family in the early 70s. I asked her if she met many nice Canadians and made friends there. She responded abruptly “No! Not at all. They were just…weird. The scenery was nice but the people did not want to know you. I couldn’t wait to leave.”
She mostly just hung out with the other Australian and English nannies.
I spent some time in the States. I loved New York and Vegas. Seattle was great, but the people out in some of the country areas were…hostile. That was in Twin Peaks type country. Me and my buddies tried to be nice to the staff and to the other diners when we’d stop at a truck stop but we quickly found that the staff and diners at most truck stops did not much care for ‘strangers’ being nice to them. No sir, not one bit. That was a lesson worth learning.
Northern California kicked ass. We met some pretty cool ‘liberal’ hippie types. Some of them were great. Some were wary of us and kept at a distance. Some openly disliked us. It’s funny, in some places in the U.S, when you say you are an "Assie’ from Downunder the response is overwhelming and the people are all over you and ask you a million questions. Especially pretty, young girls. They will be all over you when they hear your accent in a flash. Never really picked up though. They were wary about exchanging numbers etc which I thought was strange. My friends did not pick up either, which is especially unusual for them.
In other places we stopped at, in various states, people just stare at you when you say you are Australian and say ‘Oh’. In other places, particularly the southern states, it’s not a good idea to go around telling folks you are a foreigner. In fact the less you say to them the better. Some places are downright fucking scary. We had one experience at a motel in Nebraska that still haunts me to this day. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I’m lucky to be here alive. It was like something out of a B grade horror flick and we three were the starring cast members.
As great as it was, you need to be careful. It’s much more dangerous than Australia - not that Australia is completely safe, but you get the drift of what i’m saying. There’s some badass, fucking nasty places out on those lonely highways.
I thought about recommending Minneapolis. I’m a Wisconsin guy, but if I were to recommend one Midwest city, it would be Minneapolis. It’s got all the advantages of being a big city, but it’s still clean, beautiful, relatively safe, and very friendly. It’s also close enough to the Canadian border that you could hop over for a visit. (Although I’m learning from my in-laws that the American notion of “not a long drive” is much different than in other countries. 5-6 hours is an easy road trip, and once a year we think nothing of driving 23 hours to Florida in one go.)
Some places are downright fucking scary. We had one experience at a motel in Nebraska that still haunts me to this day. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I’m lucky to be here alive. It was like something out of a B grade horror flick
Maybe they wanted to kill you because you kept asking them if they’d like to see your wang?
come to NYC
it would be hilarious to meet up! you can see the real voidhead in action! maybe we can break the barrier and you can talk to me in first person instead of third as you do on here.
Olsen, please elaborate on your story I really want to hear.
Sadly enough, I’m not well traveled in this country. I’m pretty well world-traveled…though most of it occurred when I was a kid
From my understanding I would recommend Las Vegas for sure in addition to NYC and also that Yellowstone Oregon type crap if you want the nature side
Avoid: Florida, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Alabama, New Jersey, Connecticut
NYC: There’s nothing like it, as far as I’ve seen. Like it’s own world. I’m gonna get back up there this year.
Austin, TX: Great music, bars, people, lakes, college, downtown,…
Charleston, SC: You might not want to go there if you look like voidhead, but anyone else will probably be fine. My brother lived on Folly Beach for 3 years and I visited several times. Mostly hippies and surfers. Downtown is historic and the bars are cool. They have a college there that is like 3 or 4 to 1 girl to guy ratio.
I’ve been pretty much everywhere in the US besides most of New England and Washington state, and the 3 above would be the only cities I’d move to for personal reasons and not something like work.
I also want to go to Minneapolis one day too - because that’s where Prince is from. Fuck he’s funny - funniest motherfucker ever. Have they named any landmarks there after Prince? Are there any parks or gardens with unpronounceable symbols for names? I wanted to change my name to an unpronounceable symbol but my mum wouldn’t let me. Is there really a place called Paisley Park? Any thoughts on Minneapolis?
There’s a Prince museum somewhere, I believe, and maybe a Prince tour you can take or something. One of the Pissants posted about it once.
