Big things

1. Cars. The car should be taller than you. It should be too big to park and too big to stop when approaching smaller cars.

2. Camping. If you can't walk into your tent then it's too small. If you don't have a fridge and TV then you're not really camping. The Wild Frontier has been tamed. And supersized.

3. Bridges. Chesapeake Bay Bridge is very very long.

4. Wilderness. The parks are cool, the sunsets amazing.

5. Distances. Obviously. I thought I was prepared for it, but I think this is only about the second time this week that I've stood still.

6. Culture. Surprising, but loads of places (particularly in New England) have reinvented themselves as cultural oases. Last night I was watching Senegalese drummers tearing up a parking lot outside a warehouse in Hartford, CT, today I was walking round the Dr Seuss National Memorial Garden in Springfield, MA. And there are museums for everything (Early American Farm Implements, anyone?)

7. History. History is big over here. They have less of it but make so much more. Everywhere has a claim - Washington has appropriated all the cool stuff. Charlottesville claims ownership of Jefferson. Williamsburg and Jamestown say history began in 1607 and its best years were the first hundred. Philadelphia says it began in 1776. And they claim Franklin. Connecticut says it had the first Constitution (and some founding fathers of its own). Everyone thinks George Washington was one of theirs, but tend not to dwell on the slavery (except when euphemistically referring to the founders "battling with the contradictions of the day"). I expect Boston will say it all began in 1620.

The results can be overwhelming, and confusing. There are tours, audio guides, plaques, museums, reconstructions everywhere. And context and sequencing gets lost - so Ricky Skaggs tells a bemused crowd in Jamestown that the 1607 colonists came "to practice their religions and worship freely", when in fact they came to make as much money as possible (the religion stuff came later). But it can be enlightening (the Quakers were cool) and impressive - young kids here know it all back to front, and (it seems) people here have a much stronger connection with their story than we do.

[Where would we start? "Hastings: The birth of an aristocracy." "1215: Let freedom reign (a bit)." "1649: Let Puritans reign (for a while)" ... and I didn't really do any history after this point so not sure what happened next - which is kind of my point.]

8. The future. According to Gary Younge (a very enjoyable book), the US is the only country in the world where people consistently say that the next year will be better than the last.

9. Welcomes. I know it's a cliche, but folk here are so friendly. My new pals Ali and Corey took me over to Springfield today and I'm sat in Ali's front room now using her internet. Last night Jordan took me to her husband John's bar. Last week four people in Philly took me out then bought me cheesesteak. And it's not because I'm a gregarious person (most of you know I'm a miserable git.) I'm not sure I've even said hello to a tourist in London.

10. Poverty. It's tragic really. I don't think I've ever seen such abject poverty in a developed country and I'm sure it's got worse since the last time I was here. I must've counted 50 homeless people in Philly in one day. I lost count in Washington. Maybe 20 in the few hours I was in Atlantic City. Something has gone seriously wrong - I think it's all about solidarity and the welfare system, but I would say that wouldn't I.

11. Vices. Standing in Trump Towers, Atlantic City, you wouldn't know it was daytime outside or that the oldest boardwalk in the US and then the Atlantic Ocean are a stone's throw. The beach there was a lonely, desolate place - Trumptown has torn the heart out of the city (Cape May, by comparison, without the casinos, is a beautiful "Victorian" Harbour town).

So those are my superficial observations, but since someone challenged me in Williamsburg to explain what I like about the US, I think they're the best I can do. I love the connection with the past and optimism about the future but hate the failure, or inability, to sort out the present. Cognitive dissonance.

Anyway. In other news, I've got my photos online. There are loads, but take the time to look at them - I've put titles on the cool or interesting ones (you need to scroll through a few pages on some of them). Ben asked to see the blue ridge mountains - here they are:



Top tip: Email me! Is anyone reading this? What's happening in the world? Let me know!
What I'm listening to today: Super Furry Animals
Where next: Martha's Vineyard for a few days, then up to Boston