Sunday, 26 June 2011

USA 2011 Trip: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Here are a couple of random thoughts from our recent trip to the USA. Nothing political, more just stuff we noticed or thought was cool / not cool. This is part of a series of posts from our 2011 road trip. See the overview post for links to the other posts.

The Good
  • Free wifi in most hotels - why is it in Australia the hotels charge a fortune for wifi, even for the same chain of hotels??
  • Free wifi at Wyoming rest stops - top marks for Wyoming!!
  • Mile markers on the freeway - much better than a letter or two for the next important town (and the guessing game for it)
  • Exit numbers based on the mile markers - you know how far it is to the exit - great!
  • 120 km/h on the interstate freeways yay! (ok 70 mph for those who have not joined the 21st century)
  • Free bus in downtown Denver
  • Moose Drool beer :D
  • Cross Walk countdowns - much better than just the flashing red symbol!
  • Auto paper towel dispensers in the toilets - just wave your hand past and you get more towel (as opposed to using Jedi mind powers!)
The Bad
  • Not including tax in the quote prices for items - How hard can it be? We do it in Australia and a couple of the places we went to did this (Mammoth site in Hot Springs for example)
  • No wifi 32GB iPad 2s in Montana - Boo!
  • Colder on the first part of the trip than Sydney - and it is supposed to be summer here!
  • Lack of any decent coffee in Yellowstone National Park - considering how good the coffee is in the US the bile provided in Yellowstone was just awful
  • Non dairy creamer - yuk, particularly the flavoured ones which were too sickly sweet
  • Scratchy towels at Ramada Inn, Bozeman
  • Americans complaining about petrol (ok gas) prices. The prices we saw were under $4 / gallon which translates under $1 in Australia. We are currently paying $1.30 or more here (which is about $5 / gallon).
The Ugly
  • Fox News - I feel the braincells dying just watching it (why do most hotels show this on their lobby screens??)
Update: added a link to the overview post

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