Brits need help with those "place names"

[Carl L]

Hi Tom

YEP - we're still here.

Im starting to get worried that understanding the place names wont be as much of a problem as understanding the way the Americans have messed around with our fine language.  ;D ;D

Whats a TIRE ?
How about LITER ?

Surely they should be TYRE and LITRE,

Oh God, I just realised that Im "learning American" already.........I should have started with Yes, not YEP (where did that come from).

Ah weel, you're just getting started.  I suppose you already know that we drive on the right hand side of the road.  However, I will bet you do not know that....

We have no traffic circles to speak of.  99.9999% of our intersections are right angle crossings.

We do have 4 way stop signs.  Priority is decided by arrival time.  If there is a tie, as is usual, the car on the right goes first.  Don't ask...it seems to work out.

Petrol is gasoline and is sold by the US gallon (3.785 liters).  Cross a state line and the price of the stuff can jump up or down as much as 50 cents a gallon.  One benefit is that you can pay at the pump and not have to pay some slackjawed attendant in a greasy booth.

If you are ticketed for a traffic violation the officer could be a city policeman, a county deputy sheriff, a state highway patrolman or trooper, or even a park ranger.  But don't worry, they all take the same type of dollars at the courthouse.

American roadside dining, if one can call that dining, is suprisingly good and cheap  compared, say, to the Little Chef's that litter the UK.  However, I will caution you that US travel plazas have little to offer beyond UK travel plazas.  There is something evil about travel plazas.

 

[Ian H]

I bet your more confused than ever.
Its quite easy really just dont try to make sense of it all.

 

[Carl L]

And a must see of course is Mt. McKinley.

If you can see it.  From Fairbanks or Anchorage it is visible only in the winter under normal conditions.  In the summer it is too haze and cloud obscured to be visible.  In the park itself, it is not visible from the town of Denali and for most of the tourist areas.  All those gorgeous shots of the mountain are take of the north wall (all 18,000 feet of it) from Wonder Lake.  Unfortunately, Wonder Lake is at the end of a 85 mile trip on park shuttles -- at 20 mph.