Ever Been To The Good Ol' US of A

[Mal Hombre]

I've been to 'Murica ,Florida-Five times,Yes I know..

[otokonomidori]

Originally Posted by Greenman

Unfortunately the first two days were agony as I had developed what I called ' Vegas finger ' ;

Worse than VEF wrist ?

[steamjon]

Been to Vegas several times, so rather saddened by recent events.

Despite the stereotype image, they are some of the nicest people I have met, sometimes going out of the way to help a lost tourist.

[wimbo77]

I went to visit Alcatraz

[Brecht]

Originally Posted by wimbo77

I went to visit Alcatraz

Since this is a vintage forum, I wonder if we have any former residents?

[bowlinggreen]

Originally Posted by Estreeter

Ever been to the US
I guess the Yank members have

If so, what's the freakiest thing you saw there
That weapons thread and the US laws made me think of how freaky the place is, hence this thread.

I've been once, early 90's, a mate and I had cross country driving trip there.

Think it was in Mississippi, a diner, ordered our food and struck up a conversation with the person making our food, asked where we were from and we told him Australia. Then it started, he said, Australia, good Christian God fearing country .... My mate then said he didn't believe in God .... So this bloke told us he didn't serve non believers I thought he was joking till he chased us out

What the hell were you doing in Mississippi? Even us real Americans know to stay out of that place. I'm pretty sure they still have some secret plantations in the back woods worked by genuine slaves.

You're lucky that Joe Bob didn't call the sheriff to report that two atheists were in his county. You might still be chopping cotton way back in a Mississippi hollow somewhere.

[Sir Honkers]

Originally Posted by steamjon

Despite the stereotype image, they are some of the nicest people I have met, sometimes going out of the way to help a lost tourist.

I concur with that view. I've been to The States lots of times on business and while I wouldn't want to live there if you paid me, I always found Americans to be generally a very friendly and hospitable people.

[Faceman675]

Originally Posted by Estreeter

You missed out big time, the 3 weeks I was there, started in NY, drove south to the Florida pan handle, then west, got to Vegas then LA.

A lot of that time we spent in the South East, real eye opener, boy did I learn to tip waitresses and the consequence of forgetting

When I drove a shuttle van I used to hate Aussies because they would never tip Japanese on the other hand were good tippers despite their culture where tipping is a an insult. The way it was described to me tipping in Japan was considered a sign of pity because you did not make enough money and a sign of superiority I.E. I have more money than you. I think with the Japanese it reflects the hi level of politeness in Japanese society. That they take the time to learn the customs of the country they are traveling to.

I dont mean this as a knock on Aussies, hell I dont think the average American does any better than Aussies when traveling overseas. In fairness most of the Aussies I dealt with were traveling on discounted tour vouchers traveling to Disneyland. Disneyland was an already discounted fair at $11
per person. Lax to Disneyland was a 70+mi. round trip. The tour vouchers were worth $8 per person which was ok if you had a family of 6 or 7 and a fare waiting for you to bring back . The return trip was hit and miss and if you got just the Aussie family and had to drive back to LAX empty it made the lack of tips all the more painful.

[Rogerbh]

What, none of you were shot?

[Faceman675]

Originally Posted by palo5

What happens if you forget? I mean, I know it's anti-social if you do forget, but if you don't tip, there's not much they can do about it, is there?

You are right not much but I wouldn't eat at that restaurant again.