My American voyage: part II

[jrrdw]

Early perdictions say your getten iced in this weekend. You ever get ice storms in New Zeland?

Revized forcast, no ice thats great! 18"s to 24"s of snow in the mid alantic area, from Va. to Pa. It's a nor-easter!!!!

[MrCrowley]

ok went to Providence and Newport among some towns yesterday.
In Boston today, river frozen over. Looking forward to the snow this sunday when I leave and head for NY...where it's already snowing I believe.

Just don't want my flight out of DC cancelled and ill be a happy camper.

America is pretty cool so far, I prefer the east over West coast.

In Best Buy so dont have much time to talk.

Catchu all later.

[jrrdw]

Maryland and DC airports are shut down as of 2 PM Saturday and probly wont be open again untill Sunday afternoon. Turn on the TV MrCrowley, most of the mid-alantic is in a state of emerency. You wanted snow, you got it lol...

[MrCrowley]

Yeah we had the weather channel on this morning, pretty exciting stuff. We haven't had time to check it again yet because we're been so busy.

[jrrdw]

It's 9:46 pm and we now have around 2 feet and it's still coming down hard.

[starman]

Currently in Boston. Very cool city, just don't get a taxi. They're crazy drivers haha.

I can understand NYC and DC from a total tourist perspective....Boston is completely skippable.

I would have to disagree now that i'm here. Lots of tourists sights and whatnot. Mostly about the Civil War but there's heaps of cool stuff here.

Still not used to the American way yet, barely able to finish half the food I get for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Went to a great, small place for Breakfast this morning though, nothing fancy at all and looked quite typical to what you see on TV.

Man, the accent is a bit annoyingh (no offence haha), but we stick out like a sore thumb when ever we say anything.

Hopefully we'll visit Wal*Mart tomorrow, should be great fun.

I'll keep ya'll updated.

It's cool you made it here for the big snow event. It's headed your way, NYC getting it now and DC is buried in it roughly 2' deep.

Boston would be more about the Revolutionary War stuff, George Washington, late 1700s, tea party, paul revere's ride, etc. Boston wasn't that big a player in the Civil War, North vs South, mid 1800s, Abe Lincoln, etc. Anyway, the next cities will still offer more than Boston. Also the massive use of taxis is limited to the large Northern cities and is an in-city thing only. Taxis exist everywhere obviously, just not in the huge dependant usage you see there...you will see this even more in NYC.

Regarding accent...do you mean the Boston accent, the general American accent, or yours? Don't worry about yours...most people find it curiously attractive as long as you aren't too "outbacky" and use too much of your local slang.

You'll be overwhelmed at Walmart. That IS an experience virtually every American takes for granted these days. They are just about everywhere. I personally have 4 Walmarts within 15 minutes or less drive. 8 of them within 30 minutes.

Also, it's expected that you tip your waiters in America 15-20% of your bill. I know Australia poo-poos tipping...I'm not sure about NZ.

Thanks for the update.

[Brian the brain]

Pff..I had so much snow to shovel today...
Never in my life have I seen so much of it.

I did this with what I removed:

[jrrdw]

I shoveled a pile higher then me lol...gonna have to scoop it out with the front end loader, 3 scoops should do it.

Nice igloo! Something to hide behind when the kids are coming...BOOOO!

[potatoflinger]

I shoveled a pile higher then me lol...gonna have to scoop it out with the front end loader, 3 scoops should do it.

Nice igloo! Something to hide behind when the kids are coming...BOOOO!

In harford county where I live we had a drift that was almost as tall as my truck . I guess we had somewhere around 20 inches on Saturday. I like the snow until I have to move it...

Good luck flying out, I'm sure airports are a mess with all the people whose flights were postponed trying to get out, as well as all the people flying for the holidays.

[MrCrowley]

Ok NY was pretty cool, easier to handle than I thought and got around alot too, went over to Coney Island, which was dodgy as haha. We stayed at Times Square, did most of the touristy stuff with the added bonus of a helicopter ride.

Which was even better because we got it with the some company where a NZ pilot and 5 Italians died when their helicopter collided with a small fixed wing plane in NY in August (whose passengers also died). And the people who worked at this helicopter place found out we were Kiwi's also and showed us private pictures they had of the guy and told us stories about him.

Ah yeah sorry starman mixed up Civil and Revolution war, everything has been hectic lately.
And I think it was just the American accent in general because LA was similar (annoyed the hell out of me, probably due to my long flight), but now it's grown on me again and I don't notice it. Though people had a hard time understanding us in NY, thought we said New Jersey instead of New Zealand and '38-46' instead of '30-06' (our room number, though I was the only one who picked up on the relation to the ammo used in an M1-Garand haha).

I had been to Walmart before on our last trip here, was much better than the one we went to this time but I still picked up some JB Weld, as it costs about $20NZD back home ($14USD or so).

We don't tip in NZ either, the tipping is crazy here. We had a $300USD meal on christmas day so we had to tip about $55USD. I don't agree with compulsory tipping (for many reasons) but we have no choice here really. At least I don't have to pay I guess haha.

Currently i'm in D.C and we leave tomorrow night via L.A. Washington D.C is very cool, more tourists should come here. The city is great and all the history, monuments, museums etc etc are awesome too. Even stopped by the White House

Managed to sneak in an order with McMaster, should arrive tomorrow morning (next day shipping) and it's already left the warehouse in NJ. Just some parts for an Advanced Combustion i'll build over the next few weeks back home.

So far America has been really cool, think I prefer the East over the West but both sides have been great from what I remember. Though I am pleased to be going home, sharing a bed with your brother (hotels usually only do 2 double king beds instead of a king and 2 singles), living out of a suitcase and spending so much time with my family has exhausted me.

We have been to quite a few States on this trip now (usually getting the train through them): Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and then the District of Columbia.

I shall resume posting on the forums and whatnot when i'm back home in a few days.

[artillerycreations]

Glad you enjoyed your trip to America. We are spoiled on prices for many things. Gasoline costs less per gallon here than it does per liter in Europe. Theres quite a lot of people who like to DIY in America so stores like Lowes or Home Depot are pretty prominent and have reasonable prices. Its too bad you don't have that access in New Zealand. Designing things can be difficult and even more so when you have to design with high prices or low supply in mind.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

I did this with what I removed

surely you were tempted to test wall penetration

[JDP12]

Great to hear your enjoyin it... Next time come on out to the Midwest.. Wisconsin. That's a whole nother experience

Haha

[ThegunGuy]

Great to hear your enjoyin it... Next time come on out to the Midwest.. Wisconsin. That's a whole nother experience

Haha

I was thinking of the same thing Until I scrolled down and saw someone had already posted it.

You should come to the central part of America around Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, thats where the fun stuff happens. About the tipping around here we only do about 15%, depending on how the service was. You haven't even seen American accents until you see the southern states, Here we tend to think people from the east coast talk funny.

Now that I think of it I have met more people from New Zealand and Australia than I have met New Yorkers and people from Boston.

How are you pronouncing .30 06? I'm just a little curious if your saying "thirty oh six" or the proper "thirty aught-six".

[MrCrowley]

I said it thirty oh six, i'm only going to say thirty aught-six if i'm actually talking about the caliber. In this case, 30-06 was my room number so I pronounced it the normal way, not the caliber way.

In L.A now, met up with a girl from Virginia I knew in D.C which was cool and was a good end to my trip.

edit: Oh and UPS has no understanding of "overnight delivery", so my order that was shipped from McMaster in NJ at 9:30am on Monday, never arrived the next day in D.C. Not McMasters fault as I see it, they got the order out on time.

Oh well, only $17 I guess haha, someone can go pick it up from the Grand Hyatt in D.C if they want some 4" fittings