Now now. You won’t find me indulging in that ridiculous NY/NJ rivalry. I’ve visited New Jersey many times and found it to be a wonderful place full of great people.
Unlike those dickheads in Connecticut.
Now now. You won’t find me indulging in that ridiculous NY/NJ rivalry. I’ve visited New Jersey many times and found it to be a wonderful place full of great people.
Unlike those dickheads in Connecticut.
Of course that doesn’t count since it’s not a state line. But while we’re on the subject, wouldn’t it be a trivial matter to get on surfboard here, paddle out on the Mexican side, and ride back in on the US side? Why get into a hot truck when you can swim?
Back to the topic, I think the most glaring example is the presence of fireworks dealers. You can tell when you’re entering a state with more liberal fireworks laws than the one you left by the number of fireworks stores and the billboards that advertise them.
I suppose the most glaring cultural border is between Utah and just about any state it touches, ditto for Nevada. North/south is more gradual. You can’t get to the old confederacy without passing through the border states so it’s like getting one foot in the cold pool at a time.
In my neck of the woods, driving from Michigan into Ohio means you slow down, knowing that Ohio police just love to stop cars with Michigan plates.
Just off I-44 there’s an Indian casino on the Oklahoma/Kansas/Missouri border.
Just south of Evansville, Indiana, there’s a small strip of land north of the Ohio River that’s actually a part of Kentucky. On the Kentucky side of the strip there’s a horse track and a tobacco store. On the Indiana side, there’s a year-round fireworks store.
At one time, when you were crossing from Arizona into Nevada on I-40, you’d encounter a batch of billboards proclaiming “It’s Legal in Nevada”, advertising brothels.
I’m not sure how to take that.
“It’s Legal in Nevada*”
“*except where prohibited by law and in counties with population in excess of 700,000 as of the last decennial census”
Doesn’t quite have the same ring.
Where Interstate 10 crosses the New Mexico/Texas border, you will feel a bump, and suddenly the pavement will change color. The asphalt on the NM side is a deep black, the asphalt on the TX side has a reddish tinge.
Texas repairs their roads more frequently than New Mexico, so their side usually has the smoother ride.
The MA/NH border is like that too, although possibly less abrupt. The whole “no sales taxes/live free or die” NH attitude means that the big box stores and the fireworks shops are right over the border, especially around Rt. 1 and Nashua. The attitude towards sales tax is also probably reflected in the $2.00 toll they charge to drive the 16 mile length of I-95, those bastards.
Some would say the ten miles from the small city of Lawrence, Kansas to the much smaller town of Lecompton, Kansas still bears cultural traces of the North/South divide, from just before the Civil War when Lawrence was the center of activity for those who wanted Kansas to be a free state, and Lecompton briefly a rival capital for the slave-staters.
But the Orlando-rural Florida divide is a better example. Maybe where the DC suburbs of Northern Virginia meet the sleepy villages of the Appalachian foothills and (further east) the Tidewater region would be a close second.
syncrolecyne:
It’s pretty noticeable, since it’s a bridge over the Ohio River. I’m sorry to report, though, that the grass on the Kentucky side isn’t suddenly all blue.
While working transect grids in the remote forests along the Alabama and Florida panhandles on small, winding dirt roads there rarely was any posted designation as to which side of the border we were on but the difference was clear to us. At least in that part of the state Alabama had no rural trash collection while Florida did. The secluded houses, farms and ranches we came across with clean yards were on the Florida side while those with large, often ancient piles of debris and burned trash were in Alabama. It was quite a distinction.