Traveling around the USA: route, budget, general impressions. Across America by bus Routes across America
07.04.17 43 855 0
Instructions for survival on public transport
I decided to travel around the USA economically: without business class flights and renting Mustangs.
Polina Kalmykova
student traveler
In three weeks, I traveled 3,000 kilometers by bus and flew the same amount by plane, visited the Canadian border and the Atlantic coast, saw where Nabokov lived and where Fargo was filmed.
I took the route Minneapolis/St. Paul - Chicago - Detroit - Ithaca - Boston - New York. I returned from New York to Minneapolis by plane. Here's a map of my trip:
I’ll tell you what you need to know about American transport if you want to repeat my adventure.
Buses: cheap, slow and uncomfortable
Traveling by bus between large cities is at least 4 hours, on average 8-9 hours. These are numb legs and not always pleasant neighbors. But traveling by bus always feels like an adventure.
It’s also cheaper than any other method: a long-distance ticket can be bought for just a dollar.
During the three weeks of my trip, I spent 45 hours on buses, saved twice on accommodation and entered New York like in a movie: with a glass of coffee in my hands, I looked melancholy out the window at the skyscrapers. Then, of course, I stood in traffic jams for two hours, surrounded by yellow taxis.
There are two large bus companies in the USA: Megabus and Greyhound.
"Megabus"
Ticket from 1 $ (65 RUR)
"Greyhound"
Ticket from 12 $ (777 RUR)
"Megabus"
They go everywhere
"Greyhound"
Only popular routes between major cities
"Megabus"
Wi-Fi on the bus - lottery
"Greyhound"
Wi-Fi and power outlets available
"Megabus"
You cannot carry a bicycle or skis
"Greyhound"
You can carry large luggage, but at a cost
Bus stations. Each company has its own stations. In big cities there are several of them, different buses go from different stations. It is important to find out in advance where exactly you are departing from, so that later you do not have to take a taxi to the other end of the city.
There may be limited space in the bus station itself, so it is better to arrive no earlier than half an hour before boarding. This is enough time to check in your luggage, if you have any, and take your seat.
Bus stations are usually dirty, noisy and stinky - just like railway stations in the Russian provinces. Sometimes there is no toilet. If you need to wait for a bus for more than half an hour, it is better to sit in a nearby cafe. It’s inexpensive: I once waited from midnight to one in the morning for a bus at a nearby Pizza Hut. I charged my laptop, wrote a post on LiveJournal, and drank a cup of filter coffee. They didn’t take any money: the staff pours the same coffee for themselves, so it was easier for them to treat me to it than to push it through the cash register before closing.
Baggage. It is better to take only a backpack with you. In America, bags and suitcases cannot simply be placed in the trunk of a bus; they must first be registered at the bus station at the counter. In the USA, according to the rules, they are not allowed into the cabin with suitcases, even small ones. Other items are allowed at the discretion of the bus station employees.
How much luggage to take
You can take one piece of luggage free of charge. If you have two suitcases, buy another ticket at Megabus or pay an extra $15 (957 RUR) at Greyhound.
The sum of the length, width and height of luggage should not exceed 157 cm. If an umbrella sticks out, then it will be counted from its end.
Megabus will not take a bicycle, skis, snowboard or guitar. You can carry everything in a Greyhound, but for oversized luggage you will need to pay an additional 10-40 $ (647 -2588 RUR).
Ticket. Be sure to print your tickets. They won’t let you on the bus without a piece of paper, even if you know the reservation number or show the reservation from your phone screen (they definitely won’t let you into the Greyhound, but they can into the Megabus, but I advise you to play it safe).
Once I was traveling with transfers, and only printed out the first page of the ticket. It turned out that during a transfer, all passengers are unloaded from the bus with their luggage, and then they ask again for a ticket on another bus. I had already given my first ticket to the driver, but I didn’t have any others. Luckily, the bus station staff shared a printer and saved me. Otherwise, I would have been alone at night on the outskirts of Cleveland.
If they didn’t help you at the station, go to the nearest 24-hour Walgreens store, to the operational printing department.
Places. Seating on the bus is based on the “first come first” principle. To be sure to board with a friend, join the boarding line 15 minutes before departure.
Try to choose good seats on an overnight flight. At this time, the most frugal people in the world travel: poor tourists and Mormons. If you're unlucky, you'll have to spend the entire night next to a grumpy or smelly neighbor. On night flights, I advise you to board the bus last - so you can choose who to sit next to.
But morning and afternoon flights are half empty, you can split into two seats. It is better to board such flights first: everyone will try to take separate seats and are unlikely to sit down.
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Facilities. There are no toilets on buses. The bus makes stops at McDonald's, gas stations and bus stations every 3-4 hours. I advise you not to drink a lot.
Everyone usually takes food into the salon and eats without hesitation.
Prices. A ticket from New York to Washington (the distance from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod is 364 km) will cost from $18 (1148 R) to $25 (1595 R) and at Greyhound, and in Megabus. You cannot return tickets, but you can change the departure date and time.
Bus tickets
For tomorrow
"Greyhound"
18-25 $ (1165 -1618.06 R)
"Megabus"
18-25 $ (1165 -1618.06 R)
1.5 months before the trip
"Greyhound"
11 $ (777 R)
"Megabus"
From 1 $ (65 R)
Where can I buy
"Greyhound"
On the website or by phone
"Megabus"
On the website or at the bus station ticket office
Ticket exchange
"Greyhound"
20 $ (1295 R)
"Megabus"
5-9.5 $ (324 - 615 R). If there are less than 3 hours left before the trip, the ticket will not be exchanged
Buses are suitable for unpretentious travelers without luggage. Buses seemed to me the best way to travel. I traveled 2000 kilometers with them - this is further than from Moscow to Chelyabinsk.
I spent $194 (RUR 12,374) on tickets. If I had bought tickets not on the day of the trip, but a couple of weeks in advance, I would have saved $94 (5996 RUR). The savings would be enough to buy a Christmas sweater in New York and a river excursion to Chicago.
Trains: expensive, long and comfortable
A train in the USA is the same 8-9 hours of travel as a bus, but in wide, soft seats. On the train you will encounter the famous American service. If you forgot your ticket, you can print it out at the station without any problems. If you are bringing two suitcases of new things home, they will load you without any questions or additional charges. There were no surprises: we paid, sat down, took out a newspaper, and off we went.
Americans rarely travel by train: they consider it entertainment for the rich, a way to show off. My friend David traveled by train only once in 8th grade, when he went to Alaska with his parents. Another American friend - never at all: the plane is faster, and the bus is cheaper.
American Russian Railways is called Amtrak. A ticket for a seated carriage costs approximately $50 (3189 RUR). Wi-Fi is not available on all trains, but there are light bulbs: take a book with you and enjoy the atmosphere.
Landing. Arrive 45 minutes before. During this time, you will have time to check in your luggage and slowly find the platform. It is dangerous to arrive 15 minutes in advance: you need to hand over and register your things, find a train, and show your tickets twice. If you don't make it in time, you'll be stuck at the station and lose money.
Baggage. Before you check your luggage in, you must have it labeled with your name and address. There are tags at train stations.
You can carry two large suitcases per passenger free of charge.
Facilities. There is no food on the train. You can eat at your own expense: in the dining car or cafe car. It is not cheap, but not much more expensive than in Russian Railways.
Some trains have Wi-Fi. If you plan to use it, check to see if your train is listed on the Amtrak website.
Prices. The cheapest ticket on the New York - Washington route costs $49 (3126 RUR). It is non-refundable and in a seated carriage. Such tickets sell out quickly: three weeks before the trip they are no longer available. A ticket for tomorrow costs from 89 $ (5677 RUR) to 291 $ (18 562 RUR).
Trains are suitable for people with aerophobia and a lot of money and things. They didn’t suit me: I didn’t have enough money. When I was planning my trip, I wanted to take a ride on all types of transport, but I had to choose: go by train and look for free accommodation or spend the night in hostels. I decided to save on travel rather than on accommodation.
Airplanes: fast, expensive and inconvenient
There are many domestic low-cost airlines in the USA. Their advantage is speed. It’s great to fly with low-cost airlines for the weekend from New York to Miami: throw a swimsuit in your backpack and three and a half hours later you’re there. But if you fly with luggage, then pay in full.
A baggage seat on an airplane costs $25 (1,595 RUR). If the suitcase weighs more than 23 kg, you will have to pay another $100 (6379 RUR). Weigh it in advance so you don’t suddenly find yourself without money.
Registration. You can check in 24 hours in advance on the airline’s website, and two hours in advance at the airport. Registration ends in 45 minutes. If you are flying with luggage, arrive early: it must be weighed and paid for. This is a long time: someone in the queue is sure to have an advantage and he argues about it with the company.
Be careful: the counter can only accept cash. Withdraw a couple of hundred in advance so you don't have to run around the airport looking for an ATM.
Facilities. Low-cost airlines do not provide food, but they offer drinks and sell sandwiches - three times more expensive than in a store. Wi-Fi costs $16 (1021 RUR) plus tax (depending on the state). I read a book on the plane, and at the airport I connected to the free Wi-Fi at Starbucks.
Prices. A ticket for tomorrow from New York to Washington costs from $83 (5294 RUR). If you buy one and a half to two months in advance - from $44 (2807 RUR).
It is convenient to search for tickets on aggregator sites: studentuniverse.com, aviasales.ru, anywayanyday.com. On Studentuniverse, Russian debit cards work every other time, even dollar ones. If you are not a student, feel free to use Aviasales and AnywayAnyday: the prices are the same as StudentUnivers, give or take a couple of dollars.
Discounts for students
StudentUnivers has discounts for students, but you need to confirm that you are a student. To do this, when registering on the site, you need to upload any two documents from the list:
- certificate from the dean's office,
- student ID photo;
- schedule for the current semester;
- confirmation of grades for the last semester;
- bill for the semester (the numbers can be glossed over).
If you do not download, you can still use the site, but there will be no discounts.
Airplanes are suitable for those who travel long distances with a backpack. It takes 4.5 hours to travel by bus from New York to Washington. By plane (including travel and registration) it will cost the same, but more expensive. But it’s convenient to fly to Chicago: for $50 (3189 RUR) you fly for 2.5 hours, and on the bus all 18 would be shaking.
I used an airplane once, when I had to quickly cover 2000 km with my things. It turned out to be more profitable and faster than by bus: 68 $ (4337 RUR) instead of 194 and three hours instead of two days.
Ideal: plane plus bus
I spent $162 out of $900 on intercity public transportation in America, traveled to five cities, and returned to college.
But I spent my money incorrectly: I didn’t book tickets in advance and didn’t consider where it would be more profitable to carry my luggage. If I had thought through the trip carefully, I would have been able to live in not the cheapest hostels and take a ride on an American train: two months before the trip, a ticket is cheaper than a plane ticket along with things.
Reminder for travelers
- It’s better to buy tickets at least one and a half to two months in advance.
- Take minimal luggage. Backpacks are carried everywhere for free.
- Travel between neighboring cities by bus, fly between states with low-cost airlines.
- Study the transportation rules in advance so you can register in time and avoid overpaying for oversized items.
- Think about food: it's cheaper to take with you than to buy on the go. They let you in with coffee everywhere.
America. It’s worth going here at least once for the spirit of freedom, urban atypicality and, of course, the grandeur of the unique nature!
My trip to the States lasted 6 months, I just brought my body to this continent and decided to see what would come of it. I had a great desire to visit a lot of national parks, but I didn’t have the slightest idea how to do it with my ridiculous budget. There was only a mess in my head about prohibitions, rules, other people's freedom and the far-fetched high cost of everything around.
I still come across people who carefully preserve the belief that airplanes are an extreme luxury, and a flight to the USA costs a thousand bucks. Are you guys serious?! Yes, in Russia I increasingly see train tickets that are more expensive than airplanes. The development of technology and airline competition are ready to give you tickets almost for nothing, take for example the growing number of low-cost airlines.
The cheapest flights to America from everyone’s favorite Europe. The average price is $130 (there are offers from $50), to find these tickets you need, firstly, to plan your trip in advance so that you can buy tickets in advance, and secondly, scan sites for tickets for some time until Interesting options will appear (note the Vandrouki website, there are a lot of good offers and check the options).
*Sometimes there are tickets from Moscow for 15,000 rubles there/back, incl. Aeroflot (added from comments). Check availability of tickets too).
Sometimes there are good prices from Moscow, but most often it’s still with a transfer in Europe, and to avoid various misunderstandings with the transit zone (and I hear similar stories more and more often), it’s better to get a Schengen visa just in case. This process is elementary.
I described how to get a visa to Europe for ordinary, mortal, non-working, auto-toppers:
- (Finnish, Schengen expenses are $65 plus from 30 rubles per day),
- and (Spanish, easy to receive, but you need a certificate from the bank about the availability of funds).
A round-trip flight to the USA from Europe costs around $400. We flew from Madrid to Las Vegas for $180 with a transfer in Oslo.
Housing. Where to sleep cheaply in the USA
It is very, very logical that there will be no prices for hotels and hostels, we exclude this. Although I will say, just in case, that we once got a room in LA for a hundred bucks and cockroaches were running all over our toast! So you will simply go broke on normal numbers.
We take a tent with us and remember about your profile on the hospitality website. While we are in the city, we find someone to stay with, and in national parks we sleep in a tent.
You can buy a fitness membership for $10 (a large network that is available in many cities) and go there for a shower, I think it’s convenient. Sometimes there is no registration (according to couchsurfing, there are no people ready to receive us, or they have sudden things to do), then we sleep in a tent in the city.
In the USA, a lot of homeless people live on the streets, and not all of them are drug addicts, alcoholics or psychos, many are quite normal and look very good, but sleep on the street in a tent. Yes, a backpack with foam and a tent is the kit of a typical American homeless person. In Las Vegas, we got a very good feel for the salt of their lives, and in Los Angeles, even social support workers for the homeless gave us cards for food and travel when they found us in a tent in the morning.
Free showers can be found at gas stations for trucks, truckers are given free shower coupons as a bonus for refueling a truck, you just need to tell them about your trip and ask.
Getting Around the States
Bicycles!
The first brilliant idea that came into our bright heads was to buy bicycles and slowly, with the breeze and the spirit of freedom, try to understand what is happening in this country.
At our service there is a Walmart store, we bought bicycles and everything necessary to repair them here. Within three months, the store is ready to return money for goods without the need to explain the reason for the return. Very convenient free rental, I recommend it.
Prices for bikes are 70-200 dollars. As soon as we stopped liking one of the bikes, we calmly gave it up and bought another, better one.
Minus this idea in the scorching desert sun. If your trip is from March to September and you plan to cross the American West, be sure to check the weather. When I got overheated in the sun, all I could do was lie under a bush, make mooing noises and sleep, which slowed down the journey slightly.
Pros There's a lot of this idea. The main ones are, of course, mobility, independence and secrecy. It is very easy to bypass payment points at the entrances to National Parks; you can also easily spend the night anywhere, hiding behind a bush or rock, without paying for camping.
Another plus is the undeniable image of travelers, here the attitude towards you is different, many ask about the need for help, give food, water, but this is only when we travel outside the city. Within the city limits, we are no different from the homeless, at least in Las Vegas, where we were based at first, homeless tramps often look better than us, and their backpacks with bicycles are of expensive brands..
In cities, as a rule, there are special paths for cyclists; if there are none, you still feel confident, the drivers are quite adequate (the exact opposite of Vietnam, for example). Outside the city we drove on the autobahns, I don’t know if it was legal, but the police didn’t stop us.
When we were rewinding our trunks in complete darkness, in the American wilderness, people drove up to us and asked if we needed help. When our camera exploded, we always found someone who would give us his spare one, that is, they found us themselves. Once, those we met did not have a spare camera and they took us to a store in the nearest city in their pickup truck.
At night we set up a tent somewhere near the highway, or in a secluded place in the park. If you are traveling in the summer season, you need to be careful for the presence of snakes, scorpions and tarantulas; go into the grass only with a stick and it is better before dark. We personally met with a rattlesnake, which we almost stepped on, it rattled loudly, my indifference about living creatures dissipated in an instant, be careful in general. We also saw tarantulas in their natural habitat more than once.
By bicycle we visited 2 national parks (Lake Mead with the Hoover Dam and Valley of Fire) and 1 state park (Red Rock), time - 30 days, distance - about 700 kilometers (for a very long time we got used to the heat, lay in the shade , we waited for the sunburn to go away, the temperature remained stable at 40 Celsius, and at night it often did not drop below 25.
Our bike trip ended as spontaneously as it began, I came across a post on the Internet about looking for people to travel together around the USA in a rented car, and I thought that this was my dream. Having counted the remaining money, I realized that it was enough for this venture, if I ate just a little bit, basically, right next to each other, but there was no stopping me. We returned the bikes to the store and took the next bus from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, where the Russian team was arriving in the near future.
Traveling with a rented car
For one month, our home was a Dodge Caravan, which we rented for $70 a day, it was unforgettable. We had one six-month-old child, various stories with the police, a lot of snow and beauty.
If you are planning a trip lasting a month, then it will be cheaper to buy a car than to rent. Especially if you are a master felt-tip pen and like to dig into these pieces of iron.
Price from 1000 bucks (60 thousand rubles), You can see the options here, for example: sfbay.craigslist.org
The ideal state for buying a car is California, where no one cares about your rights or citizenship.
It’s better to rent through different aggregators like Kayak.ru. The whole point of renting a car is in its insurance, since you are a foreigner it will cost you a fortune. Perfect option -
rent a car for a large group like us.
There is an option for another adventure: on the website autodriveaway.com - the owner of the car needs to drive the car from one city to another, sometimes across the whole country, and he is looking for a way to save on the services of drivers. This is the perfect way to see the country cheaply and in style! The number of days is, of course, limited, and you can’t deviate too much from the route, but you can always visit some interesting things along the way. You only pay for gas, but very often this is paid off with a generous tip upon arrival at your destination.
Gasoline is not very expensive, in some places it is even very cheap ($2-4 per gallon (3.78 liters), which is like 32 rubles per liter. It is better to pay for gasoline in cash; there is always a commission for the card and the price differs from that indicated on the board.
30 days were spent on the road.
Distance traveled: 7250 miles (11920 kilometers, further than from Moscow to Vladivostok). 9 northwestern states covered.
Money spent:
$983 for gas
$246 for food, that is, 100 rubles per day per person!
$150 park admission (price per pass and state park entrances)
27 nights spent in a tent, 3 nights in friends' apartments.
Of all the nights spent in the tent, four did not violate the law and rules.
We dealt with the police 4 times.
We drove into a car in a parking lot once.
Visited 9 National Parks:
Joshua Three National Park
Yosemite
Rushmore National monument
Devils Tower
Yellowstone
Mount Rainier
North Cascades
Olympic
Crater Lake
6 State Parks:
Calaveras
Custer
Palouse Falls
Cape Perpetua
Oregon Dunes
Silver Falls
4 cities:
San Francisco
Salt Lake City
Seattle
Portland
And we drove most of the east coast of America along the first route along the Pacific Ocean!
As for the police and rights, in the states there is a slightly different control system, here you will never meet anything like traffic police officers, no one will wait for you behind the bushes to check whether you have a license, whether you are drunk or on something.
If you don’t violate, they don’t stop you, and vice versa, if you violate, then the highway patrol identifies you, turns on the flashing lights and pulls up behind you; if you see bright lights chasing you, this means that you need to pull to the side of the road and wait in the car, putting hands on the steering wheel. I know several people who drive perfectly, without violating, but without a license, and for several years there have been no problems with the police.
Features of budget travel by car- these are evening adventures in finding places to stay for the night. If by bicycle you can turn off the road anywhere and set up a tent camp in nowhere, feeling calm and wonderful there, then by car you need to find a suitable parking place. Here, according to the principle “Everything that is not prohibited is permitted,” we scanned the rest parking lots area for signs prohibiting overnight parking. If this is not available, then we stayed, mother Lesya slept in the tent with her child, and the remaining team members left to look for places for two tents. As a rule, there are no hidden places in such parking lots, so we simply parked at the edge of the forest, and this is no longer legal, so we woke up at dawn and pretended that nothing had happened.
Also on the map of the States there are quite a lot of green areas marked “National forest”; in the territory of these forests it is legal to park a car, set up a tent camp and light fires, the main thing is to do this away from the road.
We found an official campsite in national parks, parked the car there, pitched the tent after sunset when the rangers had already left, and packed it up at dawn, thus saving a fortune.
Airplanes within the USA
They fly in all directions across America, the minimum ticket price is $50, although there are some mystical low-cost airlines, but not everywhere and not always. And why deprive yourself of the pleasure of seeing the American countryside from the window of a bus or car. Although, when we realized that we didn’t have time to hitchhike to New York, and the 6 months allotted to us on the visa would soon end, we took a plane from Chicago to New York.
Buses in the USA
The most inexpensive option for traveling around the states, not counting hitchhiking, is buses. Two major services, megabus.com and www.greyhound.com, have organized an auction of unprecedented generosity and are selling tickets from $1 if purchased in advance. The routes do not cover all of America, but you can go many places and with amenities (free Internet, sockets, toilet). So, we traveled from Las Vegas to Los Angeles and from San Francisco to Los Angeles for $5. But the most wonderful adventure was a bus from Texas to Chicago, a 22-hour ride for $15.
Americans themselves prefer to fly by plane, so on our bus from Texas there were only black kids reading rap and doing inappropriate things, but it’s fun).
We hitchhiked approximately 6,000 kilometers across six states. During these 54 days the following money was spent:
- for food $270 (143 rubles per day per person),
- $34 for public transport in cities,
- $10 for laundry
- $18 for gas cylinders,
- $47 for clothes
- $58 for permits in the parks (mostly they didn’t pay, but sometimes they had to),
- $40 for all sorts of little things.
Hitchhiking is generally legal, but some states still make it illegal, although the police themselves do not know about it. But to feel confident, you can find information about the legality and complexity of hitchhiking in a specific state here: hitchwiki.org/en/United_States_of_America
In order to stop the first car, we went to the outskirts of the city, walked to the entrance to the freeway and waved our hand, making it clear that we needed a ride.
They stopped more willingly than not, drove us far, fed us, worried about us, and told us about the beauty nearby.
I really like American hitchhiking for its diversity of cultures, because here everyone from Africans to Colombians consider themselves local, an amazing mix of nationalities that grew up in American culture. Trucks rarely stopped, mostly wide vehicles with huge wheels; people here really like space in everything.
Police she came to our souls only once, when we had not left before dark, and were gloomy silhouettes in the darkness of the night, and this is already suspicious. They explained to us that standing at the entrances to the highway is neither safe nor legal, even if this is the best place for our business. We were sent to a deserted gas station and wished good luck.
In daylight, under the same circumstances, police cars simply drive by because they see that we seem to be adequate.
Appearance. In America it is very important to look neat; your appearance is 90% of your success. This is probably why lonely hip-looking guys with big beards don’t have much luck here. But if you put a girl next to you, there’s more trust.
Sometimes the most narrow-minded police officers can tell you that hitchhiking is impossible and illegal; in this case, I would take a bus to another exit from the city and stop the car there.
The most unfavorable places for hitchhiking - near large cities, or, even worse, in urban areas. The deserted expanses of “nowhere” are the most favorable places for hitchhiking, where you look quite clearly like people who want to go somewhere. Although once we got stuck quite badly in northern Utah, where there are not so many cars, and on our drive there was only one every fifteen minutes. We stood there for two hours - that's rare.
We hitchhiked through 6 states, winding between national parks. In those parks where free buses were not found, we also hitchhiked, we learned that each park has its own laws on this matter, and even if hitchhiking is legal in the state, it may be prohibited in the park. So, in the Carlsbad Caverns park, several rangers stopped us and told us that we were doing something illegal, they told us to walk and not try to stop the car anymore, but after walking 15 kilometers, we still caught the car before leaving.
Hypermarket parking lots. If you are stuck in the city, and the police are mercilessly driving you away from the entrance to the highway, or it is very far away, then the most logical thing is to find a large hypermarket, such as Walmart, and stop the cars at the exit of the parking lot, asking them to take you to the entrance to the highway, they tried , relaxed and not difficult for them.
Refills. As for gas stations within the city, it seemed to me that this was not the best idea. Truckers do not understand where they are going, and when asked whether they are going north, they automatically name the opposite side of the world with fear in their eyes.
But with this type of travel, I cannot guarantee that you will have the same experience, just know that hitchhiking exists, and I personally had an incredible experience from two months of such an adventure!
Food
We spent no more than $5 on food per two people per day (150 rubles each); this figure varied slightly for different types of travel. For a large group with a rented car, where you can store huge packages of rice, pasta, beans - we spent 100 rubles a day per person, although we ate our hearts out!
The secret to saving and variety is a gas cylinder, a burner and large packages. When traveling by car, there was always oatmeal with bananas for breakfast, salad and pasta for lunch, variety and sweets for dinner. Of course, we looked a little strange, spread out on the sidewalk or parking lot with all our plates. Once she saw us with all the staff in the library parking lot, the librarian called the sheriff, saying that we were cooking amphetamine here early in the morning! But in general, apart from the awareness of its absurdity, there were no problems.
Fast food. In general, America is a country of fast food; in any parking lot there is a McDonald’s, a Fatburger, and a Kingburger; there is plenty of this goodness. Yes, you can actually find burgers for a dollar and free unlimited soda (just find a glass in the area and refill ad infinitum). Be sure to install the McDonald's US app, it gave me free ice cream and food every day without having to buy anything, Americans love coupons.
The shops. It’s good to save money with stores where all goods are for the dollar “99 cents Only”, “Dollar Tree”, here they have absolutely everything we ate every day. The Walmart or SafeWay chain always has a counter with sales of sweets, and their prices are generally reasonable.
The longer you stay in America, the more budget-friendly you start to live. This country is beautiful for its price contrasts. You can buy two kilos of bananas for $1, and in the store opposite for $7, and so on everywhere. To buy groceries for your home, you need to go to at least 4 stores and then it will be as budget-friendly as possible. But this is only if you stay somewhere for a long time.
If you just need to shop and not worry, then let it be Walmart. Also here the prices are indicated without tax, that is, you will go to the checkout and see different prices from those on the price tags, this is always a surprise. Except that there is no tax on first-use products (bread, milk, eggs...), and the tax amount is different in each state.
The key to your savings is a burner and a pot, you will also “love” this romance of cooking pasta for dinner... Gas cylinders are sold in the same Walmart for $8 large, $4 small and $2 “dichlorvos”. If you have a multi-fuel system, then this is the cheapest option, but it often clogs even with high-grade gasoline.
Free food. In big cities they often distribute food to the homeless and needy; you can ask local homeless people where these places are. In the city of Fresno, we somehow accidentally came across a park where all the tramps had a loaf of bread and a pie. Moving towards the concentration of people, we came across a car filled with cupcakes, cheese baguettes, pies and loaves. They are not expired at all, they are simply given to anyone who wants them.
It's no secret that in the modern world, where supply exceeds demand, a lot of good products are thrown into the trash every day. Well, for example, every morning in this store they bake a certain amount of baked goods, and everything that is not sold goes to the trash by nine o’clock in the evening, beautifully packaged, because there will be fresh buns in the morning. Well, you know what I mean….
Here is one of the sites dumpstermap.org
Entrance, Annual Pass. If you plan to travel to a national park, then when entering the first one, be sure to buy an Annual Pass for all parks. It costs $80, is valid for a year and pays for itself very quickly. One pass is needed per car; if you suddenly enter the park without a car, you still only need one pass. When entering you need to show your passport, they check your photo with you and signatures. If your trip ends before December, then the pass can be sold; the signatures are easily erased. You can also buy someone’s pass through the Amazon website, or from your own hands.
Overnight stays. In national parks, you are required to spend the night in specially designated paid campgrounds. This is a place with cleared ground for tents, a metal fire pit, a clean toilet and possibly a shower.
Lifehack. As a rule, a box containing envelopes is attached to the information stand. You must take one, fill out the information, put the specified amount in it and put it in another box, after tearing off the label with a number like on an envelope, by which you can be checked. We arrived around eight in the evening, when the rangers were already leaving, took this envelope, collected the specified amount in it, but never put it in another box. If the check didn’t come, and it didn’t, we took the money back and threw away the envelope at the checkout. And if she had come, we would have explained in clumsy English that we were stupid tourists.
My favorite state is Utah, it has an amazing red-yellow color, it is cut by canyons and is rich in beautiful natural arches, in this state nature moves with the wind, weathers, crumbles, transforms...
In the USA, I knew and felt all kinds of deserts, prickly, rocky, with snakes, dunes, white lizards, with and without giant cacti, and even the one where the sky merges with the horizon and everything is lost. idea of reality.
In the USA, I saw how close to each other there are volcanoes, craters, lakes, the same deserts, dense forests, ocean shores, mountain wildlife, highly developed civilization, geysers, wild deer, cultures different from each other, snowdrifts and hot springs. .
This was my 5th trip to the USA. This time I wanted something unusual, diverse, the city, the beach, nature, parties, tranquility and impressions, in general, everything at once. There were 23 days available, the task was to celebrate my birthday and see my father in Florida. When I was very young, I lived here for 5 years. In adulthood, he visited Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and Miami. I didn’t know how much I would like the national parks of the USA, and whether I would love the Pacific Ocean, but I was sure that my soul demanded a dynamic journey across America, through serpentines and oceans.
USA route for 3 weeks the result was the following:
Moscow – New York – Moscow (Aeroflot): RUR 21,300 x 2
New York - Orlando, Los Angeles - New York (United): RUR 9,500 x 2
Fort Lauderdale – Las Vegas (Spirit): RUR 4,000 x 2
New York greeted us with rainy and damp weather. To be honest, at first I didn’t like New York at all. Everyone is in a hurry, it’s cold, damp, traffic jams, it’s not clear how to walk, how to move around. My God, how my opinion changed a few days later.
This is the place where you can buy two Samsonite suitcases for $139, where you buy a Guess leather jacket for $120, and when you go to the checkout you find that it’s still on sale and you end up picking it up for $79, where you buy one pair of shoes, and two more come as a gift, where for $317 you get...
My father probably forgot how old I was and took me to Disneyland to celebrate my birthday☺. Well, unlike the last trip, this time there was a Food and Wine Festival at Epcot Center and I was hoping for something new. Well, more on that a little later, but for now I’ll write a little about what all these amusement parks are.
In the morning we went to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. Last time we constantly went to the ocean and often stayed with a friend in a house on Cocoa Beach. In principle, everything there, even without an overnight stay, is intended to…
This morning, a friend showed us the LIV club, the same Mansion and Space. She singled out the latter with great caution, warning that he was located in a very dangerous area. Well...she was damn right.
A Police Car is parked behind us. Two big guys with glasses come out of a huge jeep, one is wearing a cap, the other is holding a toothpick in his mouth and they come up to us with the questions “what’s going on, guys”?
In fact, I chose the hotel for one night at random: I saw a nice terrace, a jacuzzi and a good rating. As it turned out later, the hotel is one of the best and the only one that has its own terrace with such a breathtaking view.
Everyone is buckled up, headphones are put on, instructions are given again and let’s go! Let's take off! We gradually gain altitude, I try to take the first pictures, but everything is in vain - the windows are too dirty. The idea comes to stick your lens into the gaps between the windows, and, oh, miracle, it fits perfectly and the pictures turn out just right. While the flight is passing over a dense forest, a certain cliff can be seen ahead.
And yet, how wonderful it is on a beautiful, albeit slightly cold, morning to sit on the edge of the ledge of the observation deck, looking somewhere down or into the distance. At this moment you need to put aside all your photographic equipment, tripods and other little things, you just need to listen and freeze, then you not only hear silence, but begin to realize unity with nature.
After a few minutes of wandering around Antelope, you begin to realize that you are very far from home, as if on another planet, and you are trying to make out various figures and understand HOW water and wind could have created this?!
At first, there were no signs of any unusual colors from the sun, but after drinking a couple of glasses of wine, we began to observe how the clouds turned purple, the colors began to thicken, and the silhouettes of monuments against the background of the sunset began to give the picture even more grandeur and mystery. After 10-15 minutes, the sun began to seem to burn the clouds, monuments and sky, and it seemed that a little more and the parking lot at our hotel would be engulfed in flames. Amazing colors!
At 06.20 the alarm sounded, which means that within 40 minutes the Sun should rise from the horizon. My girlfriend, apparently, had already declared a boycott of national parks and was quietly basking under the covers that morning. I quickly got some coffee and went to the balcony at dusk to set up my tripod and camera. Next door, by the way, the noise from the closing and opening of the shutter was already loudly heard. Sitting on the balcony, you look at these huge sculptures, another creation of nature, and you get the impression that you are in the cinema hall of The View Hotel, and now you are watching another film called “Dawn”.
In the USA there are natural attractions known throughout the world, from the “must see” series; as a rule, these are huge parks that require several days to study in detail. However, there are also small places located along the way, and it seemed that you didn’t expect anything special from them, but they take you and reward you with an intricacy of vivid emotions and engrave them in your memory for life. Such a place is Horsheshoe Bend (the bend of the Colorado River or simply a horseshoe).
The next stopping place did not take long to arrive; literally, after driving 5-10 miles from the horseshoe, we turned onto a secondary road to see another beauty of nature - Lake Powell.
A couple of hours later, an arrow to Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park was spotted. Back in Moscow, I sketched out alternate places that could be visited along each section of the route, so, having resigned myself to the fact that we would get to Bryce Canyon in the night, with tires whistling, I turned towards the park. Usually the coral dunes are visited on the way to Zion and Kanab, but our experience shows that you can easily stop here on the way to Bryce.
As we parked at the Best Western PLUS Bryce Canyon Grand Hotel, we noticed the air temperature on the screen display: 10 degrees Fahrenheit! For a second, when we left Monument Valley it was +75!!! That is, it was + 24 Celsius during the day, and 12 in the evening!!! Holy shit, and I’m in a T-shirt and moccasins! We opened the roof to get a suitcase with warm clothes and made a march from the parking lot to the reception.
One thing was clear: tomorrow after visiting Bryce we were going to Vegas, and what would happen then...
My morning started at 07.00. I got ready, went outside, was shocked by how cold it was, quickly jumped into the car and drove to Bryce Canyon, picking up hot coffee and chocolate along the way. For some reason there was no one at the checkpoint, so I just drove by and unintentionally saved 30 bucks. Well, I'm there. After leaving the car in the parking lot, I went to wander to the Sunrise point observation deck.
Around 17.00 I pulled into the valet parking of the Bellagio Hotel, where we had booked a deluxe room with a fountain view for 2 nights. I imagined that I would throw the keys to the jack-boy and feel like the hero of another movie, walking with my lady along the hall of one of the most popular hotels, past noisy casinos and pretentious restaurants. But the whole picture began to fall apart even before I gave the keys to the valet.
Having checked out from Bellagio Las Vegas 5* and received a car, I take off and head, of course, to The Cosmopolitan Las Vegas 5*, where we stayed on the first night. Unfortunately, Cosmo was completely filled to capacity. I tried to connect to Wi-Fi to look at other hotels, but it was all in vain - only guests can connect to the network, and our previous password had already been revoked. Well, we get out on the road and look for some McDonald's or a snack bar, but there is no parking anywhere, so I'm starting to get a little mad.
Well, we're in Vegas! It's time to go play at the casino! Along with the fact that men in suits and ladies in evening dresses walk around the first floor of our Encore Las Vegas hotel, the stakes here, gentlemen, are not small! For example, at Black Jack the minimum is $25! It only took 10 minutes to miss 2 hundred dollars. But this only provoked us!
Before choosing an evening show, I spent a lot of time reading reviews and reviews about the best shows in Las Vegas. Initially, we wanted to go to the show “O” by Cirque Du Soleil, which takes place at the Bellagio Hotel, but just before departure we were strongly recommended to pay attention to the show of professional acrobats from the group Le Reve - The Dream, who were performing on the stage of the Wynn Theater of the hotel Wynn Las Vegas. We listened to the recommendation and did not regret it.
When the pretentious hotels of the Strip make your eyes a little blurry and you want to change the picture, it’s time to go to Downtown Las Vegas, also known as the old city center - Fremont Street.
This day was dedicated to walking around the hotels and the Strip. Therefore, when the relaxation by the pool was completed, we just went for a walk wherever our eyes looked. Each hotel has its own feature and feature, and many also host free shows.
When the free shows are over, you should head to the tallest hotel in Las Vegas - the Stratosphere Tower. On its roof there are 4 attractions that are 100% capable of tickling your nerves.
When we talk about a buffet, most Russians involuntarily come up with a picture of a Turkish all-inclusive hotel, which in its restaurant offers to taste a whole variety of meat, fish, salads, desserts and much more. The same associative series arose for me until recently. But after visiting Vegas, my performance will never be the same.
And now our short but dizzying journey across the States is over. We are in Mexico City. After the sedate America, which knows a lot about everything and everyone, Mexico looks somehow especially unbridled and willful. We've been sleeping for the second day and, apparently, we'll sleep for another three days: the American trip has taken all our strength, and there's no room in our heads for new impressions yet. The soul remains somewhere there, between the 102nd floor of the Empire State Building and the southern edge of the Grand Canyon, and I don’t want to rush it from there yet. I begin my story about the USA by summing up the first results of the trip.
Why USA?
I had my eye on America as a continent for a long time, but the United States, located on most of its territory, was never one of the places I dreamed about at night. Well, I was not attracted to a country that cannot boast of either a centuries-old culture or traditions that change the way we look at the world. The main purpose of the planned flight across the ocean was Mexico and Central America, and we decided to visit the States at the same time. Guided by this unserious intention, we applied for a visa and relied on fate - the outcome of the consideration of our application to the embassy now determined where our American journey would begin - from the USA or Mexico. Our visas were approved (I wrote about how to get a US visa) and, without thinking twice, we bought tickets to New York. Thus, one might say, by chance, the country of the USA happened in my life.
Our route
Our American trip lasted 13 days: from October 3 to October 15, 2013. The current travel route is somewhat different from what was originally planned. The day before our flight to New York, the US government decided to organize a so-called “shutdown”, stopping the work of all government agencies, which include numerous cultural attractions and national parks. Thus, our route, right along the journey, was periodically adjusted in accordance with the political and economic situation in the country. As a result, we still didn’t visit a couple of places that were important to us, but it gave us the opportunity to devote more time to the rest. We traveled in a rented car.
So, the final route of our trip:
Briefly about impressions
I’ll be honest: America captivated us so much that, being under the pressure of those impressions, for the second day now I have been absolutely immune to everything Mexican. Considering that the USA is like a random passer-by in my life, and Mexico is a long-standing conscious dream, such a reaction on my part is doubly unexpected. So far I don’t understand anything and can’t give clear formulations: what exactly I liked in America and what exactly I don’t like in Mexico, but I get annoyed when I’m in the latter for any reason: the Mexicans seem to me to be ugly, bug-eyed dwarfs who don’t even speak English the words “milk”, signs of unsanitary conditions and smells here are such that no Thailand could ever dream of, and in the future I won’t risk using the capital’s metro without a preliminary dose of antidepressants.
However, I digressed from the topic indicated in the title of the post, so let’s return to America. In a nutshell and without pictures yet (I’m thinking with fear about the gigabytes of photos that still have to be crushed) about impressions from the American route we took.
A city that gives you goosebumps. I still don't understand what its magic is, but it definitely exists.
Los Angeles- a kind of cocktail of American, European and tropical. Buying a small house in the Hollywood hills, covered with a thick layer of moss, and staying in it - this seems to be my new dream now.
Las Vegas- a city drowning in human vices. Kitsch, debauchery and expensive bad taste. For me, Vegas is one of the worst places on earth, but it’s worth visiting if only to feel the full power of universal evil and not succumb to it. Well, or give in
Utah and Arizona- that America, for the sake of which, in fact, this country happened in my life. Thousands of square kilometers of incredible landscapes dotted with impeccable highways, morning snow and midday heat, low stars, flocks of deer and spotted horses grazing in the fields, smiling farmers in wide-brimmed hats and sheriffs in movie cars. All this made me fall in love and turned the traditional idea of America upside down.
And in America, the first dream of those ten that are planned to come true during our journey, which, by the way, continues!
This is where I’ll probably end today’s post, otherwise there won’t be any thoughts left for future ones. Stay in touch, subscribe to blog updates and see you again!
July 20th, 2015 , 09:40 am
Almost from the first day of my arrival in the USA, I dreamed of a big trip around this country. For eighteen years I traveled the length and breadth of the West and lived for four years in Hawaii, but the rest of America remained foreign to me. Until last spring, the goal was set: to begin preparing for a trip to visit the remaining forty-four states and visit all the cities, places, parks and reserves of interest in the country. Starting from May 15th of this year, my long-time dream is gradually becoming a reality.
Below is a story about the fourth week of our trip. I write about road travel in the USA in ruslankuznetsov . The fourth week began in a decent hotel in Phoenix, to which we were generously invited by our old German friend Alex.
I loved staying in hotels before, and now, having lived in a car, even more so.
2. It’s only June, but the heat is already reaching 43 degrees. Restaurants, shops and hotels are doing their best to save their customers by spraying them with cool mist.
3. But we, tired of freezing in California, even like the heat. The main thing is not to forget to drink water. In places with a hot, desert climate, the rule is this: if you are thirsty, then you are already late - your body is already suffering. You need to drink before you feel thirsty.
4. I liked Phoenix. Stylish, modern, spacious and comfortable brown southern city.
5. Old and new architecture coexist organically here.
6. But the best thing about Phoenix is the gateways and service drives.
7. The former Ukrainian prosecutor “Caesar” Pshenka would be jealous of this golden border.
8. There’s something about it when you walk around trash cans and look at works that could decorate a decent art museum.
9. There is so much graffiti in the alleys of Phoenix that when we walked onto the main street I thought for a second that I was present at the birth of another masterpiece. In fact, the man is knocking the plaster off the façade.
10. Southern Arizona is the Sonoran Desert, where it rains very rarely. The bees touchingly fly to the human spring for water, drink carefully, trying not to get in the way and without making too much of a buzz, and then fly away again to do their bee business.
11. The city of Sedona has amazing views. We are used to seeing something so grandiose within the boundaries of a nature reserve or a national park, but when you just stopped at a gas station and are washing the windshield of midges, and out of the corner of your eye you see a giant red miracle rising to your left, then this is a completely different matter.
12. Sedona, of course, has a lot of tourists, but the city is only better for it. An American, as well as a foreign tourist, is usually a decent, well-mannered person who appreciates beauty and respects nature. So, in Hawaii, the most tourist places are usually cleaner and more pleasant than places where only locals visit. The restrooms on Waikiki Beach are tidier than those in the remote park on the west side of the island. It’s the same here - Sedona, in fact, only benefits and happiness from tourists.
13. I advise everyone to visit Sedona (Michael, thanks for the tip).
14. Like any other state, Arizona has its own reservations. In fact, in the United States, Indians are usually not called Indians, although reservations are called Indians. People are more often called Native American - a native of America. Indians love to make various jewelry and souvenirs, and tourists love to buy them.
15. When traveling, of course, you pay attention to the transport of other travelers. There will be a separate post about this, but for now there is only one photo characterizing the automobile preferences of Americans: SUVs and crossovers.
16. Animals in parks and reserves are practically tame. Especially rodents - they calmly come up and take nuts from your hands, and if you don’t let go of the nut, they will resist and pull it towards themselves as if it were their property.
17. Arizona liked the variety. From the hot, dry desert we came to green mountains, with cool gorges, noisy rivers and pine trees smelling of resin. We spent the night here and headed further north.
19. And then the steppe ends in an abyss.
20. As usual, photography conveys neither volume, nor distance, nor depth. But if you leave that three-story house, follow the path and get to the very bottom of the photo, it will be only one-sixth the depth of the Grand Canyon.
21. The canyon is beautiful. Its scale, its antiquity, its silence. It’s also unusual that you don’t have to climb anywhere to look at the views later. You just got out of the car and it’s like you’re already at the top of a two-kilometer mountain.
22. You can return to the Canyon. We looked at it, and you can live with it, walking along the paths above the abyss, pitching a tent in the gorge and rafting down the red-brown Colorado River.
24. And again there is a hole ahead. Its size is mesmerizing even from a distance (people are visible on the right side of the photo).
25. This is a Horseshoe. Depth - three hundred meters. You can sit here for a long time and not even think about anything. Impressions and sensations completely occupy the brain and it takes time to digest what you see.
26. A power plant was built near the city of Page on the Colorado River. This means that the river is blocked by a dam and upstream it has spilled into a huge lake. And a park town has been built on the lake, where you can rent any floating device, from a motorcycle to a large house on the water.
27. We take a powerful, stable vessel designed for ten people.
28. A breeze blows along the river-lake, raising waves. We need to be careful, especially on a collision course with large ships, so as not to take off and then dive under a two-meter wave.
29. In fact, we are sailing through a canyon that was once deep, but was later filled with water due to a dam. The banks here are the walls of the canyon. We begin to ooh and ahh, and the kids don’t give a damn about beauty. They would like more speed.
30. There is a lot of transport on the river, so it needs its own police. The sheriff stopped someone.
31. And this is the same floating house, and of medium size. These are rented, usually for a week (from $2,500) by a large group. They stock up on food and drinks, fill up their tanks and off they go, up the river, fortunately there is somewhere to go - 300 kilometers in one direction. And this is not counting the numerous branches, narrow and wide, where there are secluded corners for fishing and beaches for relaxing on the shore. Along the river there are also parking lots, places for refueling and waste disposal, restaurants, campsites and much more. An ideal place for a summer holiday.
32. We enter one of the branches. The walls rise even higher. Moreover, the water has now dropped, this can be seen from the white marks on the rocks.
33. One of a kind, unique place. The height of the banks is impressive, and this despite the fact that the boat is quite far from the wall.
34. There are taxis in the river park. After all, without these golf carts it is impossible to drag all your things onto the boat.
35. Transportation in Page hints at out-of-town attractions and opportunities.
36. There is one more, small, but no less famous canyon left, which we want to visit. It is located on the territory of an Indian reservation, where access can only be in the company of a guide and only on a four-wheel drive truck.
37. Let's go. As always, in the company of tourists from Asia - they are the majority, everywhere.
38. A girl, crazy from the speed and noise of the wind, screams original songs at the top of her lungs.
39. The guide explains to us how the canyon came into being (water and sand washes a winding road in heterogeneous soil), why it is dangerous (if it rains far in the mountains and water flows where we stand, then you can drown in the canyon, which is what happened in 1997, when 11 people died here) and why you can’t climb the walls (indecent).
40. From above, Antelope Canyon (named after the many antelopes that used to live here (Russian Wikipedia lies)) is unremarkable. If you don’t know what’s down there, you can simply step over it and move on.
41.The entrance to it is also not so tempting.
42. It’s gloomy inside. Not the best time for photography - we arrived at half past four, but should have been at eleven, but then you need to reserve a place in the group two or three months in advance. The guy, knowing every turn here, still finds points for us from where we can take at least some decent picture.
43. Let's do it. It seems to be working out well.
44. Humid and quiet, only the crumbling sand rustles slightly. There are dark shadows in the corners, brown walls before your eyes, and magic above.
45. Alla cannot believe her eyes.
46. Our acquaintance with Arizona ends on this beautiful note. We cross the Colorado River.
47. We take a last look at the state that impressed us.
48. We are moving north.
48a. We are visiting the glorious state of Utah.
49. Since Tanya is still “visiting” us, we are staying at the hotel again. At the entrance there are motorcycles of real travelers.
50. In the morning we wake up to the noise and vibration that is unusual for cozy, quiet hotels designed for relaxation. The bed shakes, glasses clink, pictures on the walls sway. It turns out that they are doing construction and laying asphalt here. Including using a vibrating roller. Such an alarm clock.
51. We looked into the next room. I’ve never seen anything like this before - checking into an unfinished hotel.
52. Utah has a lot of good and interesting things to do, especially in the south of the state. But we don’t have time to stop here now, so we’ll leave the south for the future, we’ll come back here. In the meantime, we get to Salt Lake City, the capital of the Mormons.
53. I won’t talk now about who the Mormons are and what their problem is. I just didn’t know that outsiders were strictly prohibited from entering their main temple. And for some reason the main sign of Satanists is placed above the doors and windows - a pentagram.
54. And everything else is like any religious sect. Solid lies, guilt, hypocrisy, boredom, resentment, hope, stupidity, hopelessness, and at the center of all this are the fates of people. Seemingly living by their own religious concepts, but persistently trying to constantly violate and circumvent them.
55. This is hard to watch, yes. As they say, it doesn’t seem to foretell anything. And none of them yet suspects that the above list of “joys” is approaching them with the inexorability of a locomotive.
56. And from the outside - normal, cheerful, modern people.
57. Inscription: “I am Alpha and Omega.” Tanya: “Hmm, 1 am, Alpha and Omega. And what is going on with them at one in the morning for such alpha and omega? Is this, like, an advertisement? :)
58. Religion in all its glory. Behind two-meter walls, behind thick glass and curtains from a Soviet cultural center, something is happening there. And the question here is not even that it is difficult for me or another observer to get there, but that it is almost impossible for those inside to get out.
59. Well, another illustration of religion. Probably the most accurate. Zion Bank and Mormon Temple. Temple and bank. If anyone didn’t know: religion, any religion, is always first and foremost a business. The calculation in which is not necessarily made only in money.
60. The city of Salt Lake itself is very large, but its center is quite small. By and large - one street, in the south going to infinity.
61. And in the north it rests on the hills.
62. But it’s also good to walk here. But in 2002, the Winter Olympic Games were held in Salt Lake.
63. Old buildings are typical, but still good.
64. Conservative Utah has very strict alcohol laws. Wine can only be bought in liquor stores, the beer here is not strong, and before entering the bar, the visitor is entered into the system so that he can always later remember where he drank yesterday and where he can be found now.
65. In the coffee shop there was a mockery of electronic fireplaces.
66. Utah Capitol. It looks right - on a mountain, near the center of the state's largest city. Again, who didn’t know: most state capitals are located not in big cities like Seattle or Chicago, but in some provincial villages like Olympia and Springfield. But there is still a story about this too.
67. America is good because it is not sleek and you can always find both advantages and disadvantages in it without much difficulty. Why are virtues valued even more, especially considering that there are many more of them. Here, for example, is a typical feature of large cities: three blocks from a clean, well-kept center there is bound to be a ghetto with rickety fences and crumbling buildings.
68. The Utah people decided not to go far for mineral resources and tore up a mountain right outside the city center. There are also ugly pipes from some kind of processing plant. There's not much at the depot. Someday this will be prohibited by law - to breed a monstrosity near the place where people live, work and relax.
69. Utah also has its own Antelope, but not a canyon, but an island in the middle of the Salt Lake. Unfortunately, the lake is drying up and it is not yet clear how irreversible the consequences of this will be.
70. The buffalos are doing well here so far.
71. But the fish and birds suffer.
72. In Salt Lake City, all streets begin counting from the block where the main temple stands. So, I saw the street with the highest serial number. And this is not the end.
73. Here for the first time I saw a restaurant where you eat in the car. I could not find the meaning of such an invention.
74. Already leaving the state we saw some kind of booger on a rock.
75. I had to fly closer.
76. Alla accepts Fantomasik, who has returned from a mission, into her arms.
The fourth week of the first part of the expedition is over. Idaho is ahead, and then vacations in Washington and Montana.
Daily trip reports -