I-76 from Nebraska into Colorado. The Nebraska side is flatflatflat, but once you cross into Colorado the road starts doing this roller coaster thing, going up and down over small hills (maybe a mile or two across) until you get near Denver (where the hills are replaced with mountains).
Didn’t we just do this a couple months ago?
I-96/I-75 is in excellent condition at the bridge, and Detroit’s primary surface streets are actually in pretty good condition. I’m not sure how the city pays for it – perhaps they’re county roads. Ironically it’s once we get into the suburbs that our roads get seriously degraded. At least all of the major freeways have been resurfaced lately.
On the other hand, I can’t recall a time I’ve ever ridden on a bad road in Ontario. Maybe Huron-Church near the 401, but that was rebuilt several years ago.
He surely meant “western Ontario.” I noticed the same thing. Around Port Huron, MI, it’s mostly woods. Around Sarnia, ONT, a mile or two away, it’s mostly farms. I’m pretty sure there’s no geological (soils, etc.) reason in this case – more about how the economies and histories diverged (at various scales).
On I-15 between Las Vegas and the Greater Los Angeles area there’s the “town” of Stateline, Nevada
When I lived in Vegas back in the 80s/90s Stateline had two low-rent dive casinos on the Nevada side within a couple hundred feet of the border. And a large convenience store/gas station right against the border. The station had gas pumps and a convenience store with slot & video poker machines on the Nevada side where gas was much cheaper than California’s due to lower taxes and slots were legal in generic retail stores.
They also had a small outbuilding across their parking lot just over the border in California that sold lottery tickets (and not much else), since lottery tickets were readily available in California but illegal to sell in Nevada. Ain’t regulation grand?
Other than those businesses the “town” consisted of a hundred trailers where many of the workers lived. Others commuted the 30+ mile distance from the nearest real towns.
From Google maps, etc. I see now that one of the casinos and the gas station has been replaced by an outlet mall and the trailers have been replaced by a small apartment complex. But the California-side lottery store still exists, conveniently accessible from the Nevada side via “Lotto Rd.”
I recall thinking the border on US 90 from Florida to Alabama was a sudden change, but it might not be anymore. Haven’t been on that road in quite a while.
What I saw was probably just a change in usage by the owners of adjacent lands, which happened to coincide with the state line. All cultivated on one side, and forest on the other.
Sometimes even the state highways department concept of right-of-way can have a sudden impact on the perception of a driver crossing a state line.
I remember two signs in quick succession. “Welcome To Pennsylvania” followed by “No Comfort Stations Next 90 Miles”.
:rolleyes:
There are lots of places where one state has a state park or preserve that runs, naturally, right up to their state border.
If the adjacent state didn’t happen to place a park right there, the difference between wild virgin land and tamed land will usually be real stark. More so in areas with lots of water, less so in the deserts.
NH has billboards, Maine does not.
And the GW Bridge, connecting Harlem with Fort Lee. My niece was amazed the first time we drove over it–Apartment buildings giving way to high rise condos and TREES!
You could tell where the line is when you cross from Texas into Louisiana where the same thing happens- roads go from well maintained and relatively smooth to rather less so.
Very subtle, but I see a difference between the Oklahoma and Texas sides of the Red River.
On the other hand, I see no difference at all between far West Texas and SE New Mexico. It’s dirt, tumbleweeds, and oil pumps for miles in any direction.
Colorado to Wyoming, the wind picks up the moment I hit Wyoming. Confirmation bias I’m sure.
I observed that on the ground too, crossing from desert Nevada to abruptly lush California on CA-299 in Modoc County.
When traveling eastward from the town of West Wendover, Nevada into the bordering town of Wendover, Utah, you’ll know you’ve crossed the border when you see no more casinos.
There are mountains separating Oregon and California. On the Oregon side, it’s green and wooded. On the California side, it’s desert/savannah.
Similar thread from last year: Which state lines in the U.S. represent the most abrupt borders?
When I was a kid, we drove from CA into NV on I-80 and it seemed at the time that it went from green to brown very quickly.
I always thought that at the California/Arizona border the shapes of the mesas and color of the rock drastically change.
Wow, over a year ago. No wonder my search didn’t find it. I limited it to one year.
More flat, open spaces definitely means more wind. We always joke about how Colorado is a tropical paradise compared to Wyoming. It’s quite common for the weather to be fine in Colorado and turn into a blizzard as soon as you cross the Wyoming border.