U.S. Adventure

 

Well, that was, to say the least, interesting. We just spent the month of February in the United States; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to be exact. There are a lot of thoughts that came about from the trip. I’ll try and summarize some of what we encountered.

The US overall

The US is a strange place these days.  I’ve visited there often and lived there for two years in the 1970s. I was there when Richard Nixon (“I’m not a crook”) was forced to resign. But I have never seen anything like what is going on now. People are treading carefully, not knowing what might come next. There is a sense of buyers’ remorse among the people. They are confused about what is going on and what might come next. When some people found out we were Canadian, they apologized to us on at least two separate occasions. A poll while we were there showed that 77% of Americans did not want to annex Canada.  There was a fine on-line letter from a Florida pastor who asked why the US should want to annex Canada and gave several reasons why it should not be done.  We did not have any problems from any of the people we encountered, it’s only their government that seems to be the problem.

The best advice that I can give on this matter is to embrace the American people while you condemn their government. At some point, the majority of the American people are going to realize they have been duped by Mr. Trump and will start to resist his demands. Show our friendship to the American people and they will respond.  They have no issue with Canada.

Weather

We went to Myrtle Beach for some sun and warmth; an opportunity to get out and walk and enjoy.  Well, as I said to my kids in an e-mail, one out of two ain’t bad.  For the first two weeks, that seemed to be the case. The warmer days (mid to high teens C) were overcast with heavy fog most days.  On sunny days, it was colder and windy.  The only changed to better weather came in the last week or so we were there. Note that today’s (March 8^th) temperature there is 26 C. and sunny. Oh well, at least we missed the many snow falls here.

What the weather never did was stop us from walking on the beach every day.  The beach there is long and flat. The beach below the high tide mark is nice and firm and good for walking. There was only two rainy days, and on those, I used the resort’s fitness centre to maintain some semblance of conditioning. The extent of the beach in Myrle Beach and North Myrtle Beach is 17 miles and is part of a 62-mile beach stretch along the coast of the Carolinas.

Driving

Last October, I bought a new Hyundai Tucson Hybrid. It was an upgrade to my 2021 model of the same model. I have become a true believer in hybrid cars. They combine great range between fill-ups and tremendous gas mileage. I averaged over 35 miles per US gallon diving down there, reaching 40 mpg at one time. One of the features of this car is the ability to change the settings between metric and American units. Thus, I was able to drive in miles and show temperatures in degrees Fahrenheit while in the US. The car drives very well, is a pleasure to drive and is quiet to be in. Oops, I’m starting to sound like car salesman. To me, hybrids are a great compromise and transition to all-electric vehicles.

US drivers were quite inconsistent. Some of them very fast, particularly on freeways, but many would not even drive the speed limit in urban settings.

At the condo timeshare where we were staying, we saw licence plates from all over the US, and a few from Canada. The farthest state was Iowa, the farthest province was Newfoundland and Labrador.

Retail

While you’re in the states, there is always the temptation to shop, and we did some of that. What gets you is the sheer size of many of the retail outlets. The usual suspects such as Walmart and Costco are expected to be big, other outlets surprise you with their size. I visited a PGA golf store (one of two in Myrtle Beach) that was the size of a good-sized department store. The biggest surprise was a liquor store which was several times as big as the biggest LCBO store I have every seen. It had two sides, one for hard liquor, whisk(e)y, rum, gin, vodka, etc., and one for just beer and wine. Americans, it seems, like things big.

Finis

As you can see, it was an interesting experience. We did enjoy the experience, but at the end, we were glad to get home. Just remember, the ordinary people in the US want to be friends, it’s their government that is the antagonist.