Bits and pieces US style

Hi Y’all

I thought I might piggy back on Dad’s bandwagon and send home some notes from a big country as Bill Bryson would title it. I’ve had a great trip over here, the works has been fun and gone really well

If your ever wondering when watching TV about where they find these people….. I found them!! South Carolina. Actually everyone I’ve met here been nothing but friendly and very hospitable. They all drive trucks and carry guns, the trucks I get the guns I don’t. There are a bunch of Australian guys working over at the mine site who will be there for a couple years all running out to get there social security number so they can get a gun.

The town of Kershaw near the mine, beyond the people I’ve met being very nice, is probably best described as a bit of a dump. I’ve been taken to all best places in town for lunch which depending how your counting would also be the worst places for lunch. The food has always been good but the buildings haven’t been touched since they were built in the forties. One place I went to was pretty great actually – Jo Jo’s Backyard BBQ, good food, interesting old shack. You ordered two meats and two sides. I was confused by what a Brunswick stew as a side was so the lady told me it was a spicy vegetarian stew…. with bacon and chicken – so ribs, pulled pork and stew it was.

I had to walk through a drive through ATM in town in order to get some cash out. No-one seems to walk or ride anywhere. There aren’t many footpaths and the footpaths there are have letterboxes sitting right in the middle of them so you couldn’t ride down them anyway. Outside the obvious drive through takeaway and bottle shop so far I've seen drive through ATMs, chemist, supermarket. Also the chemist sells beer and smokes

There are churches everywhere. Speaking to my landlord for the last week most of them might only have a congregation of only two or three family’s. I’ve been driving around the country side the past week getting to work and back. The countryside is quite pretty, all the pear trees have jumped out in blossom in the last two days. Houses are dotted all along the roads on the 30 min drive to work, the area is quite poor so some of the houses reflect that. What surprises me though is the lack of garden people have or even a deck of patio to encourage you to sit outside. Few houses had a set of swings or something like that but pretty much no landscaping as such. None of the houses have fences so maybe this doesn’t encourage people to garden cause there is no start and stop between your neighbours place.

Dad one of your notes mentioned how sensible the Dutch and other European countries were with the laws regarding bike helmets. Over here they go to the other end on the sensible scale and pick lunacy and no-one wears helmets on motorcycles.

I had a chance to get to Charlotte one night to see an NBA game – Charlotte v Dallas. I picked up a great seat, got to watch Dirk Nowitski do his thing. Good fun night lots of entertainment, probably not a great game though.

So I’ve been to all the sites so far Walmart, Home Depot etc. Walmart are currently running a Lenten special on fish, get your recipes herehttp://learn.walmart.com/Cook/LP/Lent_Recipes/?povid=1199529+%7C+LHN+%7C+2015-11-01%7C+1+%7C+LN-LHN-R-SF-LentRecipes All the supermarkets seem to run this promotion with posters up in the store. You can also buy a ceral from Kelogs called Smores which is wheat pieces with marshmallow, this seemed like the silliest thing to eat I saw. There was also a push on St Patricks day – green donuts, cupcakes, Doritos etc – South Carolina seems about as far away from Ireland culturally as you can get in the US. Starting on the way home now. Just having a day in Colorado Springs with Kevin and his family. Impressions of this place so far beyond The amazing Snow capped mountains is that the entire city must have been built in the last 10 years in single shade of beige. Kev tell me there is an old part of town but from what I've seen to date everything is new.

The town is so spread out it makes Canberra look like Manhattan. All these isolated suburbs and shops connected by freeways. Kev Dan and the kids seem like they have settled in nicely and are enjoying themselves

Matt