Travelling in the States

Whenever I travel I can't help but notice the little things that are different compared to back home in Australia.  I'm just finishing up a few weeks in the United States, and maybe it's because the US and Australia aren't really too different, so the little things seem more noticeable.  So anyway, I couldn't help but compile a mental list of the differences, both good and bad.  

So here you go, in no particular order, my take on what is better or worse in the US of A:

1.  Good: Taco Bell.  Now I know a lot of American's will disagree with me on this one, but coming from Australia where the Mexican food is just aweful I think it's great that I can find a bean and cheese burito just about anywhere.
2. Bad: Tipping.  Tipping is just a pain in the butt.  There's the whole social awkwardness side - how much is the right amount, when do you tip, do you tip for counter service etc etc.  You always have to have cash handy, and then there is the maths required, not really my strong point.  Worst of all, I reckon when I actually got great service from someone, they were doing a job where I wasn't able to give them a tip!  Eg. the check out chick who gave good advise on things to do; the bus driver who made a point of stopping the bus just for us and letting us know it was the right stop, the guy who double bagged our groceries and gave us a discount, or the park ranger who recommended hikes.
3. Good: 
   
   Dogs get in or on a lot of places.  In the US, it's not unusual to see someone with their dog on public transport, on a plane, in a hotel, a restaurant, or a national park.  Dogs are really common in cities' downtown areas too.   In Seattle we had a dog park right around the corner.  In Australia, you can barely take your dog anywhere, and you never see a dog in the CBD unless it is a service dog.  Dogs are great, and having dogs around is just better.
4. Good:  Free chips and salsa.  Every Mexican restuarant in the States provides complimentary corn chips and salsa while you wait for your meal to be brought to the table, and they will even fill up the bowl with more chips if you run out.  In Australia half the time you can even get tomato sauce for your pie without paying extra.
5. Bad:  Sales tax not included in the total.  You never really know how much something is going to cost until they run it through the till.  It's just a pain in the butt.  FFS just include the sales tax in the ticket price people!!!  It's not that hard!!!!!!
6. Good:  Booze is everywhere, and cheap.  Some may not think that this is a good thing, but I love being able to pick up a six pack of beer at the same time as my petrol, groceries, laundry, drugs, guns (ok I'm not sure about this one).  Every little place is licensed too, so you can easily order a beer to go with your burrito.  And it's cheap, an actually pretty damn good!  Sure they still have cats piss for sale like Budweiser and Coors, but now there are heaps of great micro breweries around.  It's not just beer either.  Last night I had dinner at a place where all of the extensive alcohol was from within 360 miles of the venue.  That's whiskey, gin, vodka, rum - all made local.  Come on now that's just tops.  Support local and get pissed doing it.
7. Good: Mexican Food.  You may have noticed that quite a few on this list are about Mexican food, but it deserves it's own point.  Mexican food is in every town in every little nook and cranny, and every one of those is better than the junk we get in Australia.  In fact as a rule, the worse the place looks in the US, the better the food tastes.  Did I mention you always get free chips and salsa?
8. Good:  REI.  REI is a retail chain that started in Seattle and is now all over the place, that sells good quality and reasonably priced outdoor recreation gear.  Every time I go into one of their stores I find stuff I didn't even know existed that I now need.  They make me want to go out and have awesome wilderness adventures.  The staff are really good too and know their stuff, and the company is actually really cool - just check out Wikipedia.  The Seattle flagship store I went to a few days ago had a park ranger giving out maps and hiking information.  They even had a mountain bike test track around the building FFS!  Nothing in Australia comes anywhere near close.  REI REI REI REI REI.  Rad.
9. Bad:  Four way stops. 
   
   This one is a real gripe of mine, four way stops are just so dumb!  If you don't know what I mean, it's where all roads that come to an intersection have a stop sign, instead of one road having the right of way.  It's moronic.  You have to stop even if no one is around, and then if more than one car get to the intersection at the same time you do this stupid dance trying to be polite, still get where you are going and not have an accident.  Plus it creates heaps of stop-start traffic and wastes fuel.
10. Good:  Right on red.  Fortunately, whatever points the yanks lose because of four way stops, they more than redeem them with this ltttle beauty.  Basically, unless there is specifically a sign saying you can't do it, you can legally turn right when you have a red light, as long as there is a gap in traffic.  It's so awesome.  You don't have to wait at a red light for no good reason, and it kinda feels like you are cheating a little bit so you get a stupid thrill every time you do it.  Or is that just me?
11. Bad:  Coffee. 
    
    This one is a biggie, and I will cut to the chase.  The coffee in the States is just plain shit.  I even went out of my way to visit supposedly reputable cafe's with coffee-wank up to your eyeballs.  They all had the hallmarks of a good brew:  cool music; good vibe; trendy customers; uber hip barista with sleeve tattoos, piercings, skinny jeans and stupid big rimmed glasses etc etc.  But even these places served a disappointing beverage when compared to what you can get from your local fish and chip shop in Straya.  Plus the espresso based drinks are freaking expensive, it's no wonder most American's still drink giant cups of filtered coffee.  To summarise - all the gear, no idea.  
12. Good:  National and State Parks.  The Parks in the States are simply amazing.  There are heaps of them, tons of trails, and they are kept in awesome condition.  There is also very often a visitor information centre either staffed by rangers or volunteers who give great information and advice.  Even basic facilities like the public toilets are really good, they have lighting, toilet paper and soap dispensers!  
13. Bad:  Yoghurt.  It's all low fat and crap.  Nuf said.
14. Good:  The Interstate system.  When Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR to his mates) became the 32nd President, the States were in a bit of a mess.  Deep in the Great Depression, a quarter of the workforce were unemployed.  Roosevelt sounds like he was one of the few interesting political figures, and one of the things he did was put the unemployed to work on large scale infrastructure projects.  This included the expansive interstate network, which is pretty impressive today.  Consequently you can get where you need to fast (if you can avoid all the traffic of course), or you can take the quiet scenic backroads and get to your destination a bit slower.  As a side note, FDR was also responsible for much of the establishment of the National Parks due to the same economic initiatives.
15. Bad:  The Imperial System of measurement. 
    
    The United States is pretty much the only place to refuse to change over to the Metric System, and instead measures in units like inches, yards, chains, perch, quarts and pounds.  I had to get something printed a few days ago, and asked for it on A4 paper.  The guy behind the counter just looked at me with a dumb look on his face, so I had to basically point to what I wanted.  Americans, you know the Imperial System is stupid, just suck it up and make the change already.
16. Good:  Big Stuff.  Everything is bigger in the States - cars, food portions, roads, mountains, trees, people....  Ok the last one maybe isn't such a good thing, but a lot of the big thinks are pretty cool.
17. Bad:  Cafe Service.  This point relates to 11 and 2 above.  So I've already mentioned that the coffee is crap and expensive, but when you do order a coffee you have to collect it from the counter yourself, and then return your dirty cups and cutlery yourself too!  And this is one of the establishments where the staff expects tips!  Here's a tip, get off your hipster-arse, walk around the counter and clean my table and maybe there's a couple of extra bucks in it for you.
18. Bad:  You can wear a bandana on your head and not get weird looks. 
    
    For some reason this is quite a popular look in the States.  To help solve this problem, I have devised a simple test for any American readers.  Answer this question: Are you a member of the Crips or the Bloods?  If your answer is 'No', do not wear a bandana.
19. Bad:  Water level in the toilet bowl.  It's just too high.  It's weird.
20. Bad:  Pay at the pump.  I did a lot of driving while on holiday, and this one gets annoying quickly.  In the States, the petrol (gas) pumps are always off, you have to pay first.  Now it's true that they do all offer to pay with a credit card, which means you don't need to walk in the service station at all.  However, for some reason they don't have PIN's on their cards, so instead to validate the credit card is really yours you have to enter your ZIP (postcode) instead.  For people like me who have a card from overseas, this does not work and you have to pay with cash.  To do this, you have to walk into the service station and queue up, then prepay an amount.  Now this is really just a guess if you want to fill up your tank, which of course you do.  The attendant then pre-loads your pump with that amount and turns it on.  You walk back out to your car and use the pump.  You finish pumping.  Then you have to freaking walk back in to the service station again to queue up to collect your change.  So annoying.  So stupid.  So so stupid. 

 So there you have it, my twenty little things I noticed that are good or bad in the ol' US of A.  I'm sure there are heaps of others, any suggestions?  Or any you don't agree with?