Besides the obvious “welcome to [state name]” sign. Is there a significant change in architecture, infrastructure, agriculture, store brands, maybe even culture?
The Missouri-Illinois border is the Mississippi river. Hard to accidentally cross it.
Edit: I take that back. I wasn’t accounting for the crazy interchanges in St. Louis right before and after the three bridges that cross near downtown. So you have all the local traffic and exits for downtown piled up with local and interatate traffic crossing the bridges. People love it.
As soon as you get out of Pennsylvania you see a marijuana store. Regardless of which state you’re going into.
As soon as you set foot in Pennsylvania there’s a fireworks store
Obviously pot is more dangerous than Uncle Teddy shooting fireworks off the back of his truck next to all the young children in the family
I grew up in Illinois, about an hour northwest of Chicago. As soon as you cross into Wisconsin or Indiana there are fireworks stores EVERYWHERE! And as of a few years ago, Illinois has returned the favor with dispories on its side of the border.
Also as soon as you cross into Indiana, you’re bombarded with billboards for “gentlemen’s” clubs and ones saying “Hell is Real” and the like.
Crossing into Wisconsin, it never took long to leave the flatness of Illinois behind to have it replaced by the state’s rolling hills. You’d also stop seeing businesses with “Chicagoland” in the name once you were north of the border. You do see that in parts of northwest Indiana though
I used to live near Cincinnati. You don’t go to Kentucky by accident. The largest tributary of the Mississippi was in the way and all thats waiting for you is Kentucky. Also the traffic sucked
Welcome to Michigan. Come buy some cannabis. Signs every where
I have to cross a bridge over one of the largest rivers in America.
I‘ve only been once to the US but do you by any chance mean California - Arizona?
The Colorado River is nowhere near as wide as the Mississippi.
Close, a little further north. Columbia river. Oregon to Washington.
Cincinnati?
It feels like traffic instantly doubles after you cross the California border, but that could just be me. The Palm trees are also noticeably different in Cali.
Not super stark, but travelling north from Alabama to the Tennesee/Alabama/Georgia triple point you get a lot of rocky outcrops and the terrain will tell you that you’re in the Cumberland Foothills.
I cross a river and my first emotion is usually eww.
PA -> NJ
My state has piss poor roads.
Every time I leave my state the roads are noticeably smoother and less noisy.
It’s very distinct and almost comical.
I’m up in Canada and we have provinces here … I live in Ontario and in the year 2000 me and a friend took a motorcycle ride across Canada to the west coast. Great trip.
But for motorcycle riders in Ontario, especially northern Ontario, its famous for rain during the summer, especially when you want to go riding. Sure enough in the first week of July that we started our trip, trying to make sure to catch the best weather for riding, we rode through rain for about three days as we drove through northern Ontario.
The funniest thing was … as soon as we crossed the Ontario/Manitoba border, the skies parted and I could literally see dark clouds over Ontario and bright clear summer skies to the west … right at the border of the two provinces.
We had great weather the rest of the trip! … and sure enough when we did the return trip, we were rained on again in northern Ontario!
I pray for my suspension every time I go from Ontario to Quebec.
I had that driving into a new county by the coastline. Right at the county line it was like a sheet of rain pulled across the road.
michigan?
I plead the 5th.
Let me guess, South Carolina? Been through there twice, and the change was jarring and immediately noticeable crossing into Georgia or NC.
Lmao I was driving about 16 hours solo to get back to Michigan. Legitimately immediately after crossing the Ohio to Michigan border, the road contrast was so incredibly stark lol. Immediate potholes everywhere.
My state disallows billboard advertising, which I forget until I cross into another state and have to suffer through Jesus and injury lawyer ads.
One of the many great things about Vermont
Never been, but I’ve heard it’s lovely.
Not the easiest place to get to, but it sure is beautiful
Vermont? I remember that that’s a thing there.
In CA there’s this injury lawyer who has billboards all over highway 101 from San Francisco to San Diego. Hundreds of billboards. His name on the billboards is Sweet James and he has a pony tail. Sweet James. I don’t know how a lawyer could become so seemingly popular while using that name.
Why is it always lawyers?
I saw one that was just a photo of an eye and a phone number. I wasn’t from the area, so it was driving me nuts wondering what it meant. Didn’t take long driving through the area to learn that this lawyer has so many different billboards up, that his eye alone has become recognizable.
That’s crazy! Hope he never gets a retina biometric lock on his door.
There must be a lot of money in injury law, but no nationally-known firms, so your choice is either a referral or their name bobbing out of your subconscious from driving past it every day.
I couldn’t believe driving through Missouri. What a shit hole.
I never saw these personally, but ten years ago in Matt Gaetz’s district a shelter ran billboards with “She’s your daughter, not your date”. Yikes.
you know, most roads will tell you. The change in asphalt for sure will tell you exactly
plus for me at least, Idaho is different than Washington
the roadside advertisements is instantly different
the highways are laid out in much different ways
the people are absolutely different almost to an extreme
Where I come from the asphalt change was how I knew I was in the next County
oh yeah, that happens here too, just not as much because our counties usually have the same funding and contractors
Ah yes, CO to NM
It’s Nebraska.
Or, image reversed, west/east Washington
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Nope.
The main thing you’ll notice is a shit ton of stores for anything that’s not legal in one state, or taxed higher in one state.
The rest of the stuff mixes together along state lines and there’s no clear divide except for the legal/tax stuff.
Crossing into Wyoming from Utah is hilarious for this. Suddenly there’s porn, cigarettes, beer, fireworks, and more porn!
Crossing into Wisconsin from Minnesota, I will start seeing lots of fireworks stores.
Been a few years since I lived in Minnesota, do you still see signs for Spotted Cow beer as you cross into WI? I had friends bringing trunks of sixers back and while I would always accept a free craft beer, I didn’t understand the hubbub.
The limited distribution makes people think it’s a mind-blowing beer. It’s pretty good.
I never noticed them! I don’t tend to pay attention to adverts though.
When crossing into Minnesota from Wisconsin, do you see lots of dispensaries?
Major roads have a “welcome to wherever” sign but minor ones won’t. They’re always a clear delineation in the pavement, though, because neither state is going to pave one single molecule of distance further than they have to. And they never seem to be able to arrange it so that there isn’t a noticeable bump at the junction.
One of my neighboring states also has some kind of pathological aversion to putting complete and legible signs for the names of roads at intersections, too. So the disappearance of all useful street signs is therefore usually also a clue.
