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Alaska--how common bald eagles are. Almost like robins in the East. How you could only get to the capital, Juneau, by boat or plane. Juneau is so small that I was starting to recognize some of the residents after spending three days there. Also how many of the homes there had a half-finished appearance. I was told that's because building a home is expensive in Alaska, so many people just do it themselves. Also, just the vastness of the state and the sparseness of the population.
Hawaii--that most of the homes don't have heating or air conditioning. Many of the homes look like cheaply built beach shacks, but cost half a million and up. That you could see rainbows several times in one week.
Oklahoma panhandle--we drove to the edge of the Oklahoma panhandle and for at least an hour, we did not see another car on the road. I didn't think there was anywhere in the U.S. where you could do that.
Another thing that suprised me about Pennsylvania small towns is how many of the houses are built right next to the road --- there is only a small front lawn or sometimes none at all.
Sometimes there are reasons for this --- like in the northern part of Hawley the houses are squeezed in between the narrow road and a steep hillside. But I also seen plenty of towns where there is plenty of room for the houses to be pushed back but they aren't.
You see this in other states of course, but I noticed it seemed more common in Pennsylvania. I am actually curious because I cannot figure out why people would build their houses like that.
Check and see if the area has a history of coal mining or steel making. Some companies provided housing for their employees to rent from them.
I'm from the east coast and when i went to the southwest (AZ) I was totally shocked to see that people didnt really have grass in their yards or trees and flowers like over here. I was expecting to see that but when you actually see it in front of you, you then realize how far you actually are from home.
Check and see if the area has a history of coal mining or steel making. Some companies provided housing for their employees to rent from them.
True, many of those towns are towns the coal companies built. Fayette and Greene counties in PA have an abundance of them.
But is kind of weird to be out in the middle of nowhere and then all of the sudden, a cluster of houses rather rundown and tightly packed together, dotting the hillsides. Alot of these places seem kind of eerie to me though.
Scotts Run, WV is a typical former coal community right outside of Morgantown. In it's glory days, close to 10,000 people lived there. Now about 2,000 live out that way.
Texas: until I visited a few years ago,I guess I assumed it was dry and desert-like--similar to Nevada or parts of Arizona. I was pleasantly surprised to find a lot of greenery (Houston area--not the city itself),but the humidity was a little hard to take.
Illinois: How flat Illinois is (I grew up in WV) but how pretty the farmlands are.
Arizona:Grand Canyon--- Photographs really don't do it justice! Quite breath taking!
I'm shocked at how many Southerns, like to stick their dirty feet out of the passenger windows, when they're riding in a truck. Seriously, that is dangerous and disgusting.
New York City--how grimy it was and how much graffiti was on everything; how an area that looks not that nice could be an expensive area. I'm kind of amazed how much people seem to like living there despite its flaws. Not to totally knock the city, though, I do love visiting!
I was shocked when I moved from Pennsylvania to Florida. Florida seemed so flat and barren. The state appeared really dry as far as climate with no real trees...just Palm trees, I call them Q-Tips, and palms are really a "glorified" species of grass. I expected a sub tropical paradise but it is(at least Sarasota) a semi arid "desert" like area. After all it is near the same latitude(approximately) as the Sahara desert...don't let those radar maps fool you and 5 inches of rain here is instantly absorbed by the sand bar that essentially is Florida....(sarcasm).
I'm shocked at how many Southerns, like to stick their dirty feet out of the passenger windows, when they're riding in a truck. Seriously, that is dangerous and disgusting.
In this small area in Schuylkill County, PA the front door of people's houses are literally less than two feet from a two lane road with a high speed limit and no sidewalks.
When I was a little younger I remember being in No Man's Land Ohio for a few days in the summer and I was surprised with the low amount of trees and the tan grass semi-buried in dirt that I originally thought was sand and we was in the desert (It must have been a drought). There was also a whole lot of large flying brown roach/waterbugs looking bugs that kept randomly appearing everywhere occasionally in swarms.*
In Orlando, FL I was taken by surprise how nice some of the people were. Most New Yorkers are actually nice but the Floridians actually went out of the way to say good morning/good afternoon and try to get to know you and those are the type of people I wouldn't mind living among. I also thought Orlando was filled with Palm Trees but I mostly saw the same trees New York City has in addition to a lot of Palm Trees and some Pine Trees. I can now see why Tampa is the lightning capital of North America, what I saw was unreal, cloud to ground lightning was occuring like every two seconds for about two hours while we were under an awning in Busch Gardens. The storm wasn't stopping so we ran out of Busch Gardens and the water was so high it was pouring into my high-tops.
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