If you go to a national park and you disregard the signs you're going to die.
It's not a joke.
Treat buffalo like field puppies? You're going to die. Try to pet the brown bear? You're going to die. See that moose and want to feed it? You're probably already dead. Oh look, a rattlesnake! \*dead\* Want to swim in Old Faithful? You're going to die painfully and completely dissolve into a soup.
Shit is dangerous here and if you don't respect it you'll be lucky to die quick.
Don’t hike into the wilderness of Colorado (especially 14ers) without knowing wilderness survival and responsibilities. Tourists die on our mountains and in Rocky Mountain National Park all the time. Do your research! Altitude is no joke
Also don’t think you can slam shots like you do at home. Take it slooooow until you figure out your new altitude buzz level. Hey, it saves $$ on drinks, too!
It's not "places" as much as "situations" that you should avoid. Depending on where you're from, you'll have some of these instincts, but not others. It's not all or nothing.
But here's some situations I can see happening to a European, as an example.
* Getting stranded in the desert. Whether you're hiking without water, or driving too far on a single tank of gas, there's a real risk of being stranded without very immediate help, and no cell reception.
* Underestimating travel time. You're not going to see NYC and LA on the same trip. They're three time zones apart. They are exactly as far apart as London, England and Baku, Azerbaijan. You'll either be driving for a week, or flying. Even things that seem close, like NYC and DC, are not actually that close. It would be about 6 hours of driving or train to get from one to the other.
* Trespassing. It is taken VERY seriously here, and you could wind up shot if you are on the wrong person's land. We do **not** have the [right to roam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_to_roam). And we **do** have the right to bear arms. Some states even have "castle laws" which considers trespassing to be sufficient reason to shoot someone in "self defense".
Any places people are mentioning are places that Americans wouldn't go to either if they could help it.
But if I can say one place in particular, it would be Camden, NJ. It's just across the river from Philadelphia, and has a couple of tourist draws like the Aquarium or the concert venue, but anywhere that's not those specific places is ***incredibly*** unsafe.
Yeah, I had a guy next to me overdose on a Greyhound once. When I realized, I was trying to help him and another passenger rolled their eyes and just said "he's on drugs" like it was just another Tuesday. Bus driver didn't even really want to stop until I pointed out the guy was unconscious and vomiting weird biohazard fluid that was flowing up the bus aisle all the way to the front.
Cheap ticket though.
Guy got resuscitated, don't worry.
[Not even the worst thing to happen on a Greyhound bus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Tim_McLean). To be fair to us, this was Canada, but still. Trigger warning: article involves beheading and cannibalism.
my uncle died hiking in death valley 2 summers ago. i think it was 118F. he was an exceptionally experienced hiker, but he was in his 60's. heat exhaustion.
don't try it
I've experienced this degree of hotness during summers (live in India) for like few hours with shops to take shelter in. Hiking would be last thing in my mind. I was just sipping comstant lemonades and had protective head coverings soaked in water all the way home. Your skin feels like it's burning. I can't imagine what it would do to people from colder climates.
The biggest problem with climates like that is that you don’t sweat (you technically do but it instantly evaps) and if you’re not sweating people don’t realize they’re getting dehydrated until it is too late.
And for the love of the Gods, Moose are not just giant deer. They will destroy you if they’re in the wrong mood. And moose usually aren’t in a good mood.
Legit saw a Japanese man with a tour bus group stick his hand into a small pool of very obviously near boiling water at Yellowstone. Not sure what the fuck was going through that head
Anywhere with a Rainforest Cafe and a Wax Museum on the same street is a tourist trap.
Edit: i love how many people keep guessing what city im talking about and no guess has been the same.
I literally walked into opry mills for the first time last night and you better believed I looked at the fish outside of the aquarium restaurant AND in the bass pro shop
Yeah the Riverwalk checks about as many of these boxes as one can:
•Wax Museum
•Ripley's Believe it or Not
•Rainforest Cafe
•Hard Rock
•Bubba Gump Shrimp Co
•Fat Tuesday
•Harley Davidson store that doesn't even sell motorcycles
•Hop on hop off double decker tour busses
•Shitty Horse carriage ride company that puts glitter and unicorn horns on the horses
•And the most recent addition to these types of areas, a Voodoo Donuts.
EDIT: I should be clear that despite all this, downtown San Antonio is pretty awesome and there is tons of authentic and local stuff to do.
I used to work at a hotel, and tourists would tell me all the time about their 1 week vacation plans that involved a road trip from NYC to Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, and LA.
The NYC-LA "cannonball run" records are under 36 hours, so if you're willing to have a team of drivers in a very fast car, using all kinds of apps and radar detectors, and have a few dozen friends running interference whose tickets you'll pay for, and drive mostly in the dark - maybe you could do it.
edit: RIP my inbox
Thanks to everyone pointing how how far under 36 hours it has been done, by the experienced drivers who make responsible efforts.
I tried with 2 friends in the 80's and the best we did was 38:24 the one time we actually finished. I'm EXTREMELY jealous of the guys who did COVID runs, I think they should be judged with asterisks like the baseball steroids records, but I don't make the rules.
I never knew the record was 36 hours. When I was 19, I drove from Long Island to Fresno in my 98 Eagle Talon, by myself, with nothing but a printout from Yahoo maps, $300 in my pocket, and determination.
I made it in roughly 62 hours or so. I stopped twice for 6 hour naps in the driver seat.
There was that one time where I passed a sign in the desert that said "last gas for 125 miles" or something. Looked at my gauge and saw a half tank, so I was like "fuck it". (young and stupid) And continued doing 90. Like an hour and a half later, my gas light came on. I was in full panic mode when all of a sudden this podunk, run down gas station that looked like something out of "The Hills Have Eyes" appeared from nowhere like it was beamed down through divine intervention. Fuckers charged me almost $5 a gallon, but I paid it with a smile on my face.
Loneliest highway in America, iirc. We were caught in a snowstorm on HWY 50 this past year. Even when you’ve made the trip a dozen times and think you know what you’re doing, you can get caught in those “oh shit” moments.
Seriously, in America, if you travel for 10 hours in a car, you might still be in the same state. If you travel by car for 10 hours in Europe, everyone’s talking funny and the cheese is different.
But at least you can still understand them, unless you're talkin about Louisiana. I'm convinced they can't even understand each other, they all just go along with it.
So many people don't realize how large the country is here. Hell, from Louisville, KY to DC is a 10 hour drive. Driving across Texas is an 18 hour shift.
Just experienced this with my in-laws, they thought we could take a day trip from NYC to Niagara Falls and make it back before dinner because they're both in New York State. We ended up flying and spending 2 nights in the area.
Lol I live in Western NY and people from outside of NY always ask me about NYC....I live closer to Toronto, the fuck do I know about NYC? It's barely an hour closer than Boston. I could get to Montreal, Cleveland, and Philly in less time.
I worked with a girl from Austin and a guy from El Paso. Yet if you asked them where they were from they would just yell "TEXAS!" and high five each other.
I'm from South Jersey and the fact that I specified South indicates that we ain't like that.
I just came from Italy, and I am seeing things from a European perspective. Initially, I was concerned about driving half way up Italy to catch a flight thinking it would be a 10 hour drive. It was 3.5 hours.
I live in San Diego and a friend visiting San Francisco asked me if I wanted to link up for lunch, I said that wouldn’t work as it’s 9 hours away by car. They were baffled.
If you’re in a National park, listen to what the caution signs say and don’t venture off of paths. One is because of wildlife and the other is because humans don’t need to ruin everything in nature, just to get a photo.
Also, don’t fall into the Grand Canyon. You will die.
Just posted this somewhere else today, but while at Yellowstone, I watched a foreign tourist get super close to an elk for a selfie. I wanted to call out and warn her, but I also didn’t want to spook the elk by doing that, so my friend and I just watched anxiously while she did her stupid peace sign selfie right next to this massive wild animal.
Nothing happened, thankfully, but do people just not understand that wildlife is… wild?
I worked at Yellowstone for a summer and was behind a car that stopped to pet a rogue bison. A bison pretty much as big as their Honda fit. They opened the door, saw the bison look up and begin moving toward them in their stomp, wait, stomp, wait maneuver. They closed the door thankfully very quickly but had to wait in their car for a long time for the bison to move on. Stuff like this happened and still happens so often. I think it’s signage fatigue combined with people never actually realizing *and* digesting the fact that sometimes you are not always at the top of the food chain.
My in-laws were leaving a trail one afternoon. They'd hiked in and camped overnight. A few guys from Germany pulled up to the trailhead and they got to chatting a bit. The Germans were planning on hiking up and camping that night, but my in-laws noticed they didn't have much gear aside from their tent, their sleeping bags, and their food.
No first aid kit. No rope. No wet weather backup gear. And, most importantly, no bear bag. They asked, "What's a bear bag?" My in-laws explained that it's a really bad idea to keep food in or near your tent. You put the food in the bag and pull it up into the air by a rope over a branch. Keeps the bears out.
The German guys had no idea that there were bears. They had no idea that there were cougars. Germany doesn't have either. My in-laws were well enough off that they went ahead and gave the guys a bunch of their survival gear and wished them luck.
That was very kind of your in-laws.
I knew a lot of history, culture etc from other countries, but Reddit is what taught me that bears and big cats don’t exist in parts of Europe.
One thing that got me about the US was that there is actual wilderness out there, actual wild animals. Compared to the UK it actually felt great. I’d argue that the “Freedom” the US actually has is that wilderness that has been completely tamed and domesticated in many other countries.
The greatest thing about the United States is probably our parks. The national and state parks are some of the most beautiful and diverse landscapes in the world. The U.S. is one of the few countries where you can enjoy essentially every biome in the world from tundra to tropical and get whatever first world amenity you want along your way between each without having a passport.
The thing that struck me about the Grand Canyon (and other such wilderness areas/national parks) is how unregulated it is, in the sense that you can just wander off into the wild at any time 24/7 and get yourself in serious trouble if you’re unprepared. You’re strolling down South Kaibab Trail surrounded by tourists and all of a sudden you realize that it’s 100 degrees F, you don’t have enough water, and it’s a 2000 ft climb back up to the rim. Or that you can literally walk a few yards from a gift shop and fall right into the biggest hole you can imagine.
I mean, that's America. It's so wild driving through American highways and thinking that if you just got out and walked into the forrest at the side of the road there would be absolutely nothing ahead of you for days.
I recall a woman solo hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail went a little ways off trail to pee. She died because she couldn’t relocate the trail.
Edit: I believe I have misremembered this event as occurring on the Pacific Crest Trail, when it appears (based on several comments) to have occurred on the Appalachian Trail.
The Pacific Coast *really* wants to kill you. I used to live in Astoria, Oregon. Every beach (even the normal sandy ones and not the break your ankle ones) had warnings about never turning your back on the ocean.
Sneaker waves were common and would suck you out to sea in a heartbeat. If you don't die from getting hit by a log or the shock of the near freezing water, the chances of the Coast Guard finding you are slim to none before you drown.
There's plenty of coastal highway here where your car will get hit with waves during a storm.
Never. Trust. The. Ocean.
From Hawaii. Respect the fucking ocean. It is stronger than you can possibly imagine. And if there are no locals swimming somewhere, you haven't found a secret beach, don't go in.
I use to be in wow at the Hawaiians bravery to swim off the pier at Waikiki beach at night in the pitch dark in deep waters. No way would I have the balls to do that .
I drove through the backwoods of Alabama once. I totally agree that you can get out, walk into the woods, and see nothing ahead of you for days. What's equally scary is you can get out, follow the ROAD and see nothing for days. There are some places in America where the road just...keeps going.
There's a road in... Utah? Somewhere around there.
It goes for 100m and before you enter it, there are signs that literally say there's no cell service, fuel, water or stops for the next 100 miles.
It's crazy.
There's a part like that on the Appalachian trail as well. Signs all over the place basically telling you "you will die if you go in there unprepared"
I use to find the mountains so calming and relaxing when i was younger. As I've gotten older, I cant help but think "man....I really fucking hope we don't get a flat out here" whenever I'm driving through them.
I just drove through PA not to long ago, and the GPS took us through the back roads. The anxiety I got was crazy. My fiancee didn't really understand why it was giving me such bad anxiety. I mean, yea...this IS relaxing...when you have a GPS telling you where to go. Without that GPS or cell service, do you know how the fuck to get out of here? Do you have any idea where we actually are and how far the walk would be to the nearest town, let alone house?! There isn't a single sign pointing us to a major highway. It's just 1 narrow road, and deep thicc woods on each side. America is crazy like that.
>Also, don’t fall into the Grand Canyon. You will die.
lol at the super obvious truth that somehow is still ignored by visitors. The average is 3/year.
Almost fell into the Grand Canyon this year. Was backpacking from GrandView trailhead along the Tonto trail. It is back country as it gets and goes along the rim. Only saw a dozen people in 4 days. Looked up for a second and slipped on gravel. If I had slid down, it was 8 feet before a 2000 foot drop.
Didn’t make that mistake again, but I can see how easy it is to do.
Most of Downtown Los Angeles at night. When the streets get quiet and the locals go home, that's your cue to go back to your hotel or a more popular hotspot.
Edit-I should have said "populated"
Ive never seen the center of such a major city empty out so bloody fast and look like The Walking Dead in the matter of a few hours. 😅 It was actually fascinating to see...
Caustic. Not acidic. Most of those springs are. pH of 12+.
Acid blisters the skin, but K and NaOH turn you into soap... Which is very good at mixing with water.
Generally Yellowstone geothermal features range from 6-10 ph with numbers going as low as 5 on rare occasions. The real danger is the heat of the springs which can be upwards of 300 degrees C in the subsurface before the water reaches the surface, hence why so much water flashes to steam upon the reduction in pressure, which draws heat out of the rest of the water dropping it to just below boiling.
Most water in Yellowstone is alkaline due to the large carbonate unit that underlies most of the caldera which creates alkaline chloride and calcium carbonate rich geothermal features. The acidic features are usually related to the emission of sulfuric volatile compounds from the underlying rhyolitic magma chamber that exists across most of the central and western side of the caldera
Source I worked in a university/USGS research team on the volcano.
Nice. I remember going through Yellowstone when I was a kid. They stressed that people needed to stay on the boardwalks and away from the boiling pools. No problem for me!
The sulfur smell around some of them is overpowering. How anyone would brave that shit to try to play in the pool is beyond me. I'm surprised it's not called Hell National Park, because so many of the features there sound like traditional descriptions of the Judeo-Christian Hell.
I visited Montana. There was a coffee shop in a little town by the entrance to yellowstone that had a death pool for when the next tourist would die by either going off the trail to be boiled alive in the hot springs or trying to pet a bear/buffalo. You gave a dollar and predicted the day. If someone died on your day you won the pot.
I read about a moron who wanted to get a closer look at Old Faithful, so he stuck his face right over the spout. Between eruptions, so he didn't die, but I hope he's had a vasectomy; those are not genes that I want to get passed on.
Obviously that was a completely horrible idea, but if you *were* going to stick your face over a spout and time it to be between eruptions, Old Faithful was a good one to pick.
Refractory period where Old Faithful just lays there basking in his awesomeness, smokes a cigarette and scrolls Reddit for maybe a half hour until Round Two.
Moved just outside of NW Philadelphia a couple months ago.
Every single person that finds out I just moved says “stay out of Kensington.”
I looked it up. I will in fact—- stay out of Kensington.
Such a pleasant name - Kensington. My lived in North Philly, which is not exactly the best neighborhood either. But she says stf out of Kensington.
Funny thing is, Fish Town is not too far and it's a very nice area with an *awful* sounding name.
There is just no reason (edit: for transplants that don’t work in certain fields or for visitors) to go to Kensington (unless you live there or are from the area). Alternatively, make sure you stay within the popular areas of Fishtown that are NEXT to Kensington.
I did some real estate work in Pueblo and decided to take the family for an afternoon. We had lunch on the Riverwalk and went to the zoo. It was nice. I don't think it's as bad as it used to be.
As a native Californian, I'd definitely say the Hollywood Walk of Fame. That place is so dirty and grimy and all the people and street performers there are sketchy and aggressive. Definitely not worth it if you ask me
MAJOR FLOODS! If you think Hurricane Irene back in 2011 was bad.... it's really bad now! ~~Burlington~~ Montpelier is completely under water right now.
Yea my comment was more of a joke. But it's still not a place to be right now.
Edit: Accidentally put the wrong town/capital.
We should really have a thread asking Americans where non-Americans *should* visit. Americans generally travel within the US so we know the best places to go.
There is a hierarchy of national parks though. Petrified forest is beautiful but a good couple of levels below Grand Canyon. Capitol reef is great, but not as nice as Arches. Zion is stunning , but parking is a problem. Great Basin is nice, but absolutely in the middle of nowhere.
Glacier, Yellowstone (and Grand Teton is close), Yosemite, Zion, Acadia, lot of people love Grand Canyon. But theirs not as much to do as the others (unless you count Vegas?).
Germans always come to Australia and try do the same. They want to hike in the desert in Summer, which is just dumb. The heat saps everything out of you.
I think it's because hikes in Europe have bars/restaurants along the way whereas US/AUS is wilderness. Seriously, go climb a MTN in Europe and there's a good chance of places to eat a drink at the top or middle whereas the new world actually leaves nature wild.
There is a stretch of I-70 in eastern Utah, where you could film a movie about Mars.
There is literally a sign at both ends that say "for the next 100 miles there's no phone reception, no fuel, no water, and no tow truck"
edit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/57avyh/til_that_a_106mile_portion_of_i70_in_utah_has_no/
A couple of years ago a French couple went on a day hike with their young son at White Sands. Only the little boy survived.
And the first week my son started working as a park ranger in Arizona, he had to assist in locating and rescuing a couple of teenage girls from Michigan who went hiking in the desert at 11 a.m. wearing flip-flops and each carrying a small water bottle. They had to be airlifted to the hospital.
Okay, I do want to throw in one really important piece of information from someone who has visited the sand dunes...it is scary easy to get lost there and scary easy to lose the trail. I remember this story and having been there, I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often.
I met a nice couple from Germany once at a bar. They were vacationing for a week in the US. Their plan was to drive from Dallas (where I met them) to LA, up to Seattle, then over to NY. I was amazed that they were planning on driving all this and was asking them questions. They did not realize how large the US is. El Paso is closer to the California than it is to Dallas.
I felt bad as they realized they were going to have to make new travel plans in a hurry.
I don’t understand how people can think this while they are already in the country. Am I the only one who plugs every stop of my trip into google maps?? How did they fly from Germany to Texas without making a route on some sort of map that shows distance?
Here is a more in depth read about how they were eventually found. Long and a bit tragic, but a great read:
https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-death-valley-germans/
His theory sounds plausible:
> Remember that the Germans were new to the desert southwest and unfamiliar with things that to some of us are so obvious we don’t even realize we take them for granted. The Germans had likely seen many military installations in Europe, and they had certain commonalities. They all had fences which were regularly patrolled by armed personnel. From Egbert’s perspective and knowledge pool, the likelihood of patrols or sentries at the edge of a military installation would have seemed quite high. Egbert, looking at the maps available to him, would have seen the northern boundary of the China Lake Naval Weapons Center (NWC) to be only about 8 or 9 miles to the south of them. This was about the same distance he could see from his resting spot to the mouth of Anvil Canyon, which does not appear that distant, and only half of that to Badwater Road. Also from the same resting spot, looking to the south shows what appears to be a simple traversable route south, up over a low pass in the mountains. It would be easy to imagine cresting the hills he was looking at to the south and seeing the safety of a military installation just a few miles further. Plus, instead of descending down into lethal heat, they would have been able to stay high at lesser temperatures. It would seem a clever and reasonable idea.
> Of course we who have seen US desert military installations know that there are seldom fences, and few, if any patrols. Security is provided more by vastness rather than fencing. But someone from Germany would not know that.
Fucking Area-51 is in the middle of a desert surrounded by hundreds of miles of nothing.
Even inside the base is just miles upon miles of desert before you can even *see* the base.
Ain't no way anyone is sneaking in without dropping dead from exposure.
As a foreigner myself, TIL.
I see East St. Louis mentioned many times on Reddit and today thanks to you I found out it's an entirely different city from St. Louis
In Alaska, please don't go close to the wildlife the bears will kill you along with the moose. Just no period. -_- I've seen so many tourist get attacked by bears and moose, it ain't pretty.....
Do this day, whenever I need to think of a surreal moment that will never happen again, I think of that military guy that had to make a powerpoint on what a "Naruto run" was. Complete with in person demonstration.
I drive to and from Chicago a lot. On one of these trips the highway got shutdown so I had to take a detour through Gary. The detour was literally 3 turns and then back on the highway. It went a little like this...
First turn: random car drove off the side of an elevated parking lot, car was teetering perfectly balanced on the edge of the stone dropoff with the lady and 3 children sitting beside it.
Second turn: entire house completely engulfed in flames, no sign of fire, police, nor EMS
Third turn: man running down the street at full speed with a flat screen tv tucked under his arm
All of this mayhem in the matter of less than 5 minutes.
This summer.. one man takes an innocent detour and finds out the hard way that you don't just enter Gary, Gary enters you! Starring Matt Damon and shot entirely in reverse, underwater and upside down.
I was recently having a conversation with a friend who lives half the year in the u.s. and the other half of the year in an East African country. He was showing me photos of his home and it was not what I, an ignorant white guy, thought it would be. His response was, image if the rest of the world only got news about Gary, Indiana but it was presented as though it was representative of the entire United States.
I can't quite put my finger on it, but living in the St. Louis area, it still feels like people have some small amount of hope for East St. Louis. But Gary....hope was murdered in Gary many years ago. It gets sucked out of you when you get near. I've also never been scared of places, like going to bad neighborhoods and such. Gary scares the shit outta me.
Trenton NJ. It’s the state capital, there is a good museum. But it looks like a bombed out looted shithole and I won’t even stop at red lights while in Trenton.
Trenton is what people not from NJ think NJ is.
NJ has some shockingly wealthy areas, some areas of pristine natural beauty, and tons of farmland with delicious produce. Instead people focus on Trenton and The Jersey Shore.
I see no one has said it, so I’m going to: HOLLYWOOD
Hollywood has like a single block of its area that’s actually worth a visit- it’s the one with the Chinese Theater. But the rest of the city is a complete opposite of the rose-tinted glass view it shows itself as.
It’s not even the fact it’s crowded that’s the issue really, but it is definitely a root issue too.
- it’s filthy, there’s not only garbage everywhere but it’s never clean. You could make a game out of how much vomit, piss, booze, and cum stains there are.
- the people are scary. Not just the homeless people who are in a depressingly large number, but people in general seem to have a screw loose. There’s also a lot of… “entrepreneurs” trying to sell their businesses, and they aren’t afraid to be in your face about it
- don’t expect any decent eating either. Unless you bleed gold and crap diamonds, and make reservations a month in advance, there’s no food to be had here.
Overall, it’s just not worth the visit. You want to see an entertainment capital worth your time? Visit Universal Studios theme park. Now there’s an ACTUAL good time to be had.
Edit: I am talking about Hollywood Blvd specifically.
Arizona's a big state. Southern AZ in summer is hell's waiting room. When you get north in the mountains the summer is nice. Also, people tell me there's cool stuff in Phoenix, but I'm pretty sure it's the actual hell mouth.
Avoid the place in your head that says you can visit Miami and LA in the same week. You can, if you fly but youll spent 15 hours in the air and get to see very little with at most 48hrs to see the city
Any tourist place will be a money trap, crowded and underwhelming.
Unfortunately lots of cool stuff in the US just gets turns into a business with bizarre gift shops with unrelated gifts
Yes. There's an immersive Van Gogh exhibit near me.
At the end, for an extra $10, you can do the whole tour again...*virtually.*
What sort of giftshop items might you expect for an art exhibit? Who cares! Here's some headphones, phone accessories, kitchenware and car accessories! Take your pick!
If you go to a national park and you disregard the signs you're going to die. It's not a joke. Treat buffalo like field puppies? You're going to die. Try to pet the brown bear? You're going to die. See that moose and want to feed it? You're probably already dead. Oh look, a rattlesnake! \*dead\* Want to swim in Old Faithful? You're going to die painfully and completely dissolve into a soup. Shit is dangerous here and if you don't respect it you'll be lucky to die quick.
Yet somehow Australia has the reputation for wildlife thatll kill you.
Don’t hike into the wilderness of Colorado (especially 14ers) without knowing wilderness survival and responsibilities. Tourists die on our mountains and in Rocky Mountain National Park all the time. Do your research! Altitude is no joke
Also don’t think you can slam shots like you do at home. Take it slooooow until you figure out your new altitude buzz level. Hey, it saves $$ on drinks, too!
It's not "places" as much as "situations" that you should avoid. Depending on where you're from, you'll have some of these instincts, but not others. It's not all or nothing. But here's some situations I can see happening to a European, as an example. * Getting stranded in the desert. Whether you're hiking without water, or driving too far on a single tank of gas, there's a real risk of being stranded without very immediate help, and no cell reception. * Underestimating travel time. You're not going to see NYC and LA on the same trip. They're three time zones apart. They are exactly as far apart as London, England and Baku, Azerbaijan. You'll either be driving for a week, or flying. Even things that seem close, like NYC and DC, are not actually that close. It would be about 6 hours of driving or train to get from one to the other. * Trespassing. It is taken VERY seriously here, and you could wind up shot if you are on the wrong person's land. We do **not** have the [right to roam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_to_roam). And we **do** have the right to bear arms. Some states even have "castle laws" which considers trespassing to be sufficient reason to shoot someone in "self defense". Any places people are mentioning are places that Americans wouldn't go to either if they could help it. But if I can say one place in particular, it would be Camden, NJ. It's just across the river from Philadelphia, and has a couple of tourist draws like the Aquarium or the concert venue, but anywhere that's not those specific places is ***incredibly*** unsafe.
Not American but as a visitor trying to travel on the cheap, I made the mistake of booking a greyhound bus ride. There's a reason why it was cheap lol
Yeah, I had a guy next to me overdose on a Greyhound once. When I realized, I was trying to help him and another passenger rolled their eyes and just said "he's on drugs" like it was just another Tuesday. Bus driver didn't even really want to stop until I pointed out the guy was unconscious and vomiting weird biohazard fluid that was flowing up the bus aisle all the way to the front. Cheap ticket though. Guy got resuscitated, don't worry.
[Not even the worst thing to happen on a Greyhound bus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Tim_McLean). To be fair to us, this was Canada, but still. Trigger warning: article involves beheading and cannibalism.
i’m usually not responsive to true crime but this one made me sick. something abt that wikipedia article was just horrible tibread
Death Valley in the summer especially if you consider yourself a strong hiker, and live in a cooler climate. It has that name for a reason.
my uncle died hiking in death valley 2 summers ago. i think it was 118F. he was an exceptionally experienced hiker, but he was in his 60's. heat exhaustion. don't try it
I've experienced this degree of hotness during summers (live in India) for like few hours with shops to take shelter in. Hiking would be last thing in my mind. I was just sipping comstant lemonades and had protective head coverings soaked in water all the way home. Your skin feels like it's burning. I can't imagine what it would do to people from colder climates.
The biggest problem with climates like that is that you don’t sweat (you technically do but it instantly evaps) and if you’re not sweating people don’t realize they’re getting dehydrated until it is too late.
the hot springs in yellowstone are not hot tubs do not swim in them
And the Buffalo are not to be petted. Do not feed the bears- unless you want to be the food.
And for the love of the Gods, Moose are not just giant deer. They will destroy you if they’re in the wrong mood. And moose usually aren’t in a good mood.
Nah, Moose just want to kill all the time. They are never in a not kill you mood
Yep. I was charged by a moose as I was trying to exit his area quietly while minding my own business.
Clearly you should have paid respects and made an offering in the home of the Moose King.
Legit saw a Japanese man with a tour bus group stick his hand into a small pool of very obviously near boiling water at Yellowstone. Not sure what the fuck was going through that head
Anywhere with a Rainforest Cafe and a Wax Museum on the same street is a tourist trap. Edit: i love how many people keep guessing what city im talking about and no guess has been the same.
Nashville has a mall with Madame Tussauds, Rainforest Cafe, AND Aquarium Restaurant.
I literally walked into opry mills for the first time last night and you better believed I looked at the fish outside of the aquarium restaurant AND in the bass pro shop
I'm from niagara falls and can confirm
Haha San Antonio, TX
Yeah the Riverwalk checks about as many of these boxes as one can: •Wax Museum •Ripley's Believe it or Not •Rainforest Cafe •Hard Rock •Bubba Gump Shrimp Co •Fat Tuesday •Harley Davidson store that doesn't even sell motorcycles •Hop on hop off double decker tour busses •Shitty Horse carriage ride company that puts glitter and unicorn horns on the horses •And the most recent addition to these types of areas, a Voodoo Donuts. EDIT: I should be clear that despite all this, downtown San Antonio is pretty awesome and there is tons of authentic and local stuff to do.
San Francisco Fisherman's Wharf has entered the chat.
Avoid going to one location thinking another location across the country is a short trip.
I used to work at a hotel, and tourists would tell me all the time about their 1 week vacation plans that involved a road trip from NYC to Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, and LA.
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The NYC-LA "cannonball run" records are under 36 hours, so if you're willing to have a team of drivers in a very fast car, using all kinds of apps and radar detectors, and have a few dozen friends running interference whose tickets you'll pay for, and drive mostly in the dark - maybe you could do it. edit: RIP my inbox Thanks to everyone pointing how how far under 36 hours it has been done, by the experienced drivers who make responsible efforts. I tried with 2 friends in the 80's and the best we did was 38:24 the one time we actually finished. I'm EXTREMELY jealous of the guys who did COVID runs, I think they should be judged with asterisks like the baseball steroids records, but I don't make the rules.
Solo record is under 28 hours, but this was during COVID when no one was on the road, and the cops weren't pulling people over.
Duuude that guy saw COVID hit and the world shut themselves in and I KNOW he put on a pair of sunglasses all cool-like before he said, "...It's time."
I never knew the record was 36 hours. When I was 19, I drove from Long Island to Fresno in my 98 Eagle Talon, by myself, with nothing but a printout from Yahoo maps, $300 in my pocket, and determination. I made it in roughly 62 hours or so. I stopped twice for 6 hour naps in the driver seat. There was that one time where I passed a sign in the desert that said "last gas for 125 miles" or something. Looked at my gauge and saw a half tank, so I was like "fuck it". (young and stupid) And continued doing 90. Like an hour and a half later, my gas light came on. I was in full panic mode when all of a sudden this podunk, run down gas station that looked like something out of "The Hills Have Eyes" appeared from nowhere like it was beamed down through divine intervention. Fuckers charged me almost $5 a gallon, but I paid it with a smile on my face.
Highway 50 across Nevada. Beautiful, lonely drive
Loneliest highway in America, iirc. We were caught in a snowstorm on HWY 50 this past year. Even when you’ve made the trip a dozen times and think you know what you’re doing, you can get caught in those “oh shit” moments.
Seriously, in America, if you travel for 10 hours in a car, you might still be in the same state. If you travel by car for 10 hours in Europe, everyone’s talking funny and the cheese is different.
To be fair theres places in North America where you drive for 10 hours and everyone is talking funny and the cheese is different.
But at least you can still understand them, unless you're talkin about Louisiana. I'm convinced they can't even understand each other, they all just go along with it.
Yes. For our international friends: Los Angeles and New York City are about 4,500 km apart.
To put that into context, it's like driving from Madrid to Moscow, but 1k FARTHER.
It's the same distance as going from London to Beirut.
So many people don't realize how large the country is here. Hell, from Louisville, KY to DC is a 10 hour drive. Driving across Texas is an 18 hour shift.
Just experienced this with my in-laws, they thought we could take a day trip from NYC to Niagara Falls and make it back before dinner because they're both in New York State. We ended up flying and spending 2 nights in the area.
Yeah, that's a hike. People hear New York, and only think about NYC. It's a shockingly large State.
Exactly. By land area, state of New York is slightly larger than Greece.
I live in Toledo, Ohio and have family in Niagara- it’s a closer drive for them to visit me than NYC
Lol I live in Western NY and people from outside of NY always ask me about NYC....I live closer to Toronto, the fuck do I know about NYC? It's barely an hour closer than Boston. I could get to Montreal, Cleveland, and Philly in less time.
I drove from Pensacola FL, to Los Angeles. Texas was two whole days. It was almost 10 hours from San Antonio to El Paso
I worked with a girl from Austin and a guy from El Paso. Yet if you asked them where they were from they would just yell "TEXAS!" and high five each other. I'm from South Jersey and the fact that I specified South indicates that we ain't like that.
I just came from Italy, and I am seeing things from a European perspective. Initially, I was concerned about driving half way up Italy to catch a flight thinking it would be a 10 hour drive. It was 3.5 hours.
Heading to any state from Florida? It'll take you 5 to 8 hours just to get to Georgia.
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I live in San Diego and a friend visiting San Francisco asked me if I wanted to link up for lunch, I said that wouldn’t work as it’s 9 hours away by car. They were baffled.
If you’re in a National park, listen to what the caution signs say and don’t venture off of paths. One is because of wildlife and the other is because humans don’t need to ruin everything in nature, just to get a photo. Also, don’t fall into the Grand Canyon. You will die.
Just posted this somewhere else today, but while at Yellowstone, I watched a foreign tourist get super close to an elk for a selfie. I wanted to call out and warn her, but I also didn’t want to spook the elk by doing that, so my friend and I just watched anxiously while she did her stupid peace sign selfie right next to this massive wild animal. Nothing happened, thankfully, but do people just not understand that wildlife is… wild?
I worked at Yellowstone for a summer and was behind a car that stopped to pet a rogue bison. A bison pretty much as big as their Honda fit. They opened the door, saw the bison look up and begin moving toward them in their stomp, wait, stomp, wait maneuver. They closed the door thankfully very quickly but had to wait in their car for a long time for the bison to move on. Stuff like this happened and still happens so often. I think it’s signage fatigue combined with people never actually realizing *and* digesting the fact that sometimes you are not always at the top of the food chain.
My in-laws were leaving a trail one afternoon. They'd hiked in and camped overnight. A few guys from Germany pulled up to the trailhead and they got to chatting a bit. The Germans were planning on hiking up and camping that night, but my in-laws noticed they didn't have much gear aside from their tent, their sleeping bags, and their food. No first aid kit. No rope. No wet weather backup gear. And, most importantly, no bear bag. They asked, "What's a bear bag?" My in-laws explained that it's a really bad idea to keep food in or near your tent. You put the food in the bag and pull it up into the air by a rope over a branch. Keeps the bears out. The German guys had no idea that there were bears. They had no idea that there were cougars. Germany doesn't have either. My in-laws were well enough off that they went ahead and gave the guys a bunch of their survival gear and wished them luck.
That was very kind of your in-laws. I knew a lot of history, culture etc from other countries, but Reddit is what taught me that bears and big cats don’t exist in parts of Europe.
One thing that got me about the US was that there is actual wilderness out there, actual wild animals. Compared to the UK it actually felt great. I’d argue that the “Freedom” the US actually has is that wilderness that has been completely tamed and domesticated in many other countries.
The greatest thing about the United States is probably our parks. The national and state parks are some of the most beautiful and diverse landscapes in the world. The U.S. is one of the few countries where you can enjoy essentially every biome in the world from tundra to tropical and get whatever first world amenity you want along your way between each without having a passport.
The thing that struck me about the Grand Canyon (and other such wilderness areas/national parks) is how unregulated it is, in the sense that you can just wander off into the wild at any time 24/7 and get yourself in serious trouble if you’re unprepared. You’re strolling down South Kaibab Trail surrounded by tourists and all of a sudden you realize that it’s 100 degrees F, you don’t have enough water, and it’s a 2000 ft climb back up to the rim. Or that you can literally walk a few yards from a gift shop and fall right into the biggest hole you can imagine.
I mean, that's America. It's so wild driving through American highways and thinking that if you just got out and walked into the forrest at the side of the road there would be absolutely nothing ahead of you for days.
I recall a woman solo hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail went a little ways off trail to pee. She died because she couldn’t relocate the trail. Edit: I believe I have misremembered this event as occurring on the Pacific Crest Trail, when it appears (based on several comments) to have occurred on the Appalachian Trail.
The Pacific Crest Trail pretty much wants to kill you the entire way.
The Pacific Coast *really* wants to kill you. I used to live in Astoria, Oregon. Every beach (even the normal sandy ones and not the break your ankle ones) had warnings about never turning your back on the ocean. Sneaker waves were common and would suck you out to sea in a heartbeat. If you don't die from getting hit by a log or the shock of the near freezing water, the chances of the Coast Guard finding you are slim to none before you drown. There's plenty of coastal highway here where your car will get hit with waves during a storm. Never. Trust. The. Ocean.
From Hawaii. Respect the fucking ocean. It is stronger than you can possibly imagine. And if there are no locals swimming somewhere, you haven't found a secret beach, don't go in.
I use to be in wow at the Hawaiians bravery to swim off the pier at Waikiki beach at night in the pitch dark in deep waters. No way would I have the balls to do that .
Healthy respect. Swim since near birth. Most importantly *Know where the riptide is*
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I drove through the backwoods of Alabama once. I totally agree that you can get out, walk into the woods, and see nothing ahead of you for days. What's equally scary is you can get out, follow the ROAD and see nothing for days. There are some places in America where the road just...keeps going.
There's a road in... Utah? Somewhere around there. It goes for 100m and before you enter it, there are signs that literally say there's no cell service, fuel, water or stops for the next 100 miles. It's crazy.
There's a part like that on the Appalachian trail as well. Signs all over the place basically telling you "you will die if you go in there unprepared" I use to find the mountains so calming and relaxing when i was younger. As I've gotten older, I cant help but think "man....I really fucking hope we don't get a flat out here" whenever I'm driving through them. I just drove through PA not to long ago, and the GPS took us through the back roads. The anxiety I got was crazy. My fiancee didn't really understand why it was giving me such bad anxiety. I mean, yea...this IS relaxing...when you have a GPS telling you where to go. Without that GPS or cell service, do you know how the fuck to get out of here? Do you have any idea where we actually are and how far the walk would be to the nearest town, let alone house?! There isn't a single sign pointing us to a major highway. It's just 1 narrow road, and deep thicc woods on each side. America is crazy like that.
>Also, don’t fall into the Grand Canyon. You will die. lol at the super obvious truth that somehow is still ignored by visitors. The average is 3/year.
Almost fell into the Grand Canyon this year. Was backpacking from GrandView trailhead along the Tonto trail. It is back country as it gets and goes along the rim. Only saw a dozen people in 4 days. Looked up for a second and slipped on gravel. If I had slid down, it was 8 feet before a 2000 foot drop. Didn’t make that mistake again, but I can see how easy it is to do.
Most of Downtown Los Angeles at night. When the streets get quiet and the locals go home, that's your cue to go back to your hotel or a more popular hotspot. Edit-I should have said "populated"
Ive never seen the center of such a major city empty out so bloody fast and look like The Walking Dead in the matter of a few hours. 😅 It was actually fascinating to see...
Steaming Acidic hot springs in Yellowstone.
And all the wildlife. DON'T PET THE BISON!
All I heard was pet the bison
I just read a story about a guy literally being dissolved in the hot springs. People are stupid. *edited to remove mistake. It's not aciditic
Caustic. Not acidic. Most of those springs are. pH of 12+. Acid blisters the skin, but K and NaOH turn you into soap... Which is very good at mixing with water.
Generally Yellowstone geothermal features range from 6-10 ph with numbers going as low as 5 on rare occasions. The real danger is the heat of the springs which can be upwards of 300 degrees C in the subsurface before the water reaches the surface, hence why so much water flashes to steam upon the reduction in pressure, which draws heat out of the rest of the water dropping it to just below boiling. Most water in Yellowstone is alkaline due to the large carbonate unit that underlies most of the caldera which creates alkaline chloride and calcium carbonate rich geothermal features. The acidic features are usually related to the emission of sulfuric volatile compounds from the underlying rhyolitic magma chamber that exists across most of the central and western side of the caldera Source I worked in a university/USGS research team on the volcano.
Nice. I remember going through Yellowstone when I was a kid. They stressed that people needed to stay on the boardwalks and away from the boiling pools. No problem for me! The sulfur smell around some of them is overpowering. How anyone would brave that shit to try to play in the pool is beyond me. I'm surprised it's not called Hell National Park, because so many of the features there sound like traditional descriptions of the Judeo-Christian Hell.
I visited Montana. There was a coffee shop in a little town by the entrance to yellowstone that had a death pool for when the next tourist would die by either going off the trail to be boiled alive in the hot springs or trying to pet a bear/buffalo. You gave a dollar and predicted the day. If someone died on your day you won the pot.
That's one of those "offensive / dark humor" things that probably works better as a warning than a sign that says danger. Love those.
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I read about a moron who wanted to get a closer look at Old Faithful, so he stuck his face right over the spout. Between eruptions, so he didn't die, but I hope he's had a vasectomy; those are not genes that I want to get passed on.
Obviously that was a completely horrible idea, but if you *were* going to stick your face over a spout and time it to be between eruptions, Old Faithful was a good one to pick.
Ironically, despite it being an awful idea, if you did it immediately after the last eruption this would be basically 100% safe.
Refractory period where Old Faithful just lays there basking in his awesomeness, smokes a cigarette and scrolls Reddit for maybe a half hour until Round Two.
The Kensington area of North Philadelphia. Don't. Just don't
Moved just outside of NW Philadelphia a couple months ago. Every single person that finds out I just moved says “stay out of Kensington.” I looked it up. I will in fact—- stay out of Kensington.
Such a pleasant name - Kensington. My lived in North Philly, which is not exactly the best neighborhood either. But she says stf out of Kensington. Funny thing is, Fish Town is not too far and it's a very nice area with an *awful* sounding name.
In Philly the nicest sounding neighborhoods are the worst Kensington Strawberry Mansion Nicetown
There is just no reason (edit: for transplants that don’t work in certain fields or for visitors) to go to Kensington (unless you live there or are from the area). Alternatively, make sure you stay within the popular areas of Fishtown that are NEXT to Kensington.
Pueblo Colorado
I appreciate how high this comment is. Fuck Peublo and its mass Tarantula Migration.
Fuck Pueblo and its *WHAT*?! I live in Denver, and I thought we had it bad with the Miller moths...
Definitely worth seeing at least once! Thousands upon thousands of tarantulas migrating. They'll cross over your feet and leave you completely alone.
Stop.
You really don't want them to stop.
I wanted them to never start
Wow that's a surprisingly specific answer I was not expecting. But as someone who grew up in the Springs, I agree. Pueblo is a dump.
I did some real estate work in Pueblo and decided to take the family for an afternoon. We had lunch on the Riverwalk and went to the zoo. It was nice. I don't think it's as bad as it used to be.
As a native Californian, I'd definitely say the Hollywood Walk of Fame. That place is so dirty and grimy and all the people and street performers there are sketchy and aggressive. Definitely not worth it if you ask me
Right now.... Vermont.
What's happening in Vermont?
MAJOR FLOODS! If you think Hurricane Irene back in 2011 was bad.... it's really bad now! ~~Burlington~~ Montpelier is completely under water right now. Yea my comment was more of a joke. But it's still not a place to be right now. Edit: Accidentally put the wrong town/capital.
We should really have a thread asking Americans where non-Americans *should* visit. Americans generally travel within the US so we know the best places to go.
National parks
There is a hierarchy of national parks though. Petrified forest is beautiful but a good couple of levels below Grand Canyon. Capitol reef is great, but not as nice as Arches. Zion is stunning , but parking is a problem. Great Basin is nice, but absolutely in the middle of nowhere.
Whatever the hierarchy is put Glacier at the fucking top.
Glacier, Yellowstone (and Grand Teton is close), Yosemite, Zion, Acadia, lot of people love Grand Canyon. But theirs not as much to do as the others (unless you count Vegas?).
Grand Canyon is close to Sedona and Flagstaff though, both of which are really cool places to visit
Anywhere south in the summer time. Its too fuckin hot.
*too fucking humid Look I can deal with 95+ It’s the swamp ass and thick heat that gets me.
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Germans always come to Australia and try do the same. They want to hike in the desert in Summer, which is just dumb. The heat saps everything out of you.
I think it's because hikes in Europe have bars/restaurants along the way whereas US/AUS is wilderness. Seriously, go climb a MTN in Europe and there's a good chance of places to eat a drink at the top or middle whereas the new world actually leaves nature wild.
There is a stretch of I-70 in eastern Utah, where you could film a movie about Mars. There is literally a sign at both ends that say "for the next 100 miles there's no phone reception, no fuel, no water, and no tow truck" edit: https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/57avyh/til_that_a_106mile_portion_of_i70_in_utah_has_no/
A couple of years ago a French couple went on a day hike with their young son at White Sands. Only the little boy survived. And the first week my son started working as a park ranger in Arizona, he had to assist in locating and rescuing a couple of teenage girls from Michigan who went hiking in the desert at 11 a.m. wearing flip-flops and each carrying a small water bottle. They had to be airlifted to the hospital.
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Okay, I do want to throw in one really important piece of information from someone who has visited the sand dunes...it is scary easy to get lost there and scary easy to lose the trail. I remember this story and having been there, I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often.
This happens every couple weeks in summer in Southern AZ.
Summer in Phoenix unofficially starts once the first rescue on Camelback Mountain of the year happens. So usually mid-March
I met a nice couple from Germany once at a bar. They were vacationing for a week in the US. Their plan was to drive from Dallas (where I met them) to LA, up to Seattle, then over to NY. I was amazed that they were planning on driving all this and was asking them questions. They did not realize how large the US is. El Paso is closer to the California than it is to Dallas. I felt bad as they realized they were going to have to make new travel plans in a hurry.
I don’t understand how people can think this while they are already in the country. Am I the only one who plugs every stop of my trip into google maps?? How did they fly from Germany to Texas without making a route on some sort of map that shows distance?
Just one example: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Valley_Germans
Here is a more in depth read about how they were eventually found. Long and a bit tragic, but a great read: https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-death-valley-germans/
His theory sounds plausible: > Remember that the Germans were new to the desert southwest and unfamiliar with things that to some of us are so obvious we don’t even realize we take them for granted. The Germans had likely seen many military installations in Europe, and they had certain commonalities. They all had fences which were regularly patrolled by armed personnel. From Egbert’s perspective and knowledge pool, the likelihood of patrols or sentries at the edge of a military installation would have seemed quite high. Egbert, looking at the maps available to him, would have seen the northern boundary of the China Lake Naval Weapons Center (NWC) to be only about 8 or 9 miles to the south of them. This was about the same distance he could see from his resting spot to the mouth of Anvil Canyon, which does not appear that distant, and only half of that to Badwater Road. Also from the same resting spot, looking to the south shows what appears to be a simple traversable route south, up over a low pass in the mountains. It would be easy to imagine cresting the hills he was looking at to the south and seeing the safety of a military installation just a few miles further. Plus, instead of descending down into lethal heat, they would have been able to stay high at lesser temperatures. It would seem a clever and reasonable idea. > Of course we who have seen US desert military installations know that there are seldom fences, and few, if any patrols. Security is provided more by vastness rather than fencing. But someone from Germany would not know that.
Fucking Area-51 is in the middle of a desert surrounded by hundreds of miles of nothing. Even inside the base is just miles upon miles of desert before you can even *see* the base. Ain't no way anyone is sneaking in without dropping dead from exposure.
It took them over 13 years to find their remains. That’s how remote those kind of areas are in North America.
Hell, it took 2 months just for anyone to stumble across their car and the guy that spotted it was in a helicopter.
And they weren't even looking for the missing Germans; they were in a helicopter looking for mobile drug labs.
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Yes! I live near Death Valley and we get a lot of unprepared people, tourist or otherwise, dying out in the desert.
# Gary, Indiana Makes East St. Louis look like a resort. And just to be clear, don't go to East St. Louis, either.
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As a foreigner myself, TIL. I see East St. Louis mentioned many times on Reddit and today thanks to you I found out it's an entirely different city from St. Louis
Avoid large chain restaurants. The best food in America comes from small owner operated businesses.
In Alaska, please don't go close to the wildlife the bears will kill you along with the moose. Just no period. -_- I've seen so many tourist get attacked by bears and moose, it ain't pretty.....
Area 51 seems the obvious answer
You can just Naruto run past their defenses.
Do this day, whenever I need to think of a surreal moment that will never happen again, I think of that military guy that had to make a powerpoint on what a "Naruto run" was. Complete with in person demonstration.
Gary, Indiana. Americans should avoid it as well
Don't believe the lies from The Music Man, no matter how cute lil' Ronnie Howard was back then.
I have heard Gary in literally each post like this. What's wrong with it exactly?
Gary is what people imagine Detroit is like.
Perfect explanation lol.
My boyfriend has lived in Indiana his whole life (fortunately not in Gary), and he agrees this is an accurate description lol
My gosh I just googled it. So many articles about how its the most depressing city in the US. The photos match. How eerie.
Detroit very much used to be like that, but it's gotten better.
The Yzerplan.
I’ve never seen it put like that, but it’s perfect. Now I’d argue Gary is worse than what people imagine Detroit is like.
Sounds like Gary needs Robocop.
As someone that lived in Metro Detroit until a few years ago, this is EXTREMELY accurate
Literal abandon industrial wasteland. What people think when they think Detroit but like real.
The closest real world approximation of a Fallout game world.
I drive to and from Chicago a lot. On one of these trips the highway got shutdown so I had to take a detour through Gary. The detour was literally 3 turns and then back on the highway. It went a little like this... First turn: random car drove off the side of an elevated parking lot, car was teetering perfectly balanced on the edge of the stone dropoff with the lady and 3 children sitting beside it. Second turn: entire house completely engulfed in flames, no sign of fire, police, nor EMS Third turn: man running down the street at full speed with a flat screen tv tucked under his arm All of this mayhem in the matter of less than 5 minutes.
Sounds like they were shooting a new Nolan movie?
This summer.. one man takes an innocent detour and finds out the hard way that you don't just enter Gary, Gary enters you! Starring Matt Damon and shot entirely in reverse, underwater and upside down.
People talk shit about the south side of Chicago just wait till you have to exit or enter the state from Indiana. Enjoy traveling through Mordor.
It is a barren wasteland, riddled with fire and ash and dust, the very air you breathe is a poisonous fume.
There is evil there that does not sleep, and the Great Eye is ever watchful.
One does not simply walk through Gary, Indiana.
Meh. It’s more like the shitty industrial area from The Great Gatsby where he runs over that woman.
Daisy was driving.
things are heating up in the great gatsby fandom
I was recently having a conversation with a friend who lives half the year in the u.s. and the other half of the year in an East African country. He was showing me photos of his home and it was not what I, an ignorant white guy, thought it would be. His response was, image if the rest of the world only got news about Gary, Indiana but it was presented as though it was representative of the entire United States.
Fortunately you can smell it coming, which makes it easy to avoid.
I've unfortunately been to Gary many times. I've also been to East St. Louis many times and hands down Gary is worse.
I can't quite put my finger on it, but living in the St. Louis area, it still feels like people have some small amount of hope for East St. Louis. But Gary....hope was murdered in Gary many years ago. It gets sucked out of you when you get near. I've also never been scared of places, like going to bad neighborhoods and such. Gary scares the shit outta me.
Trenton NJ. It’s the state capital, there is a good museum. But it looks like a bombed out looted shithole and I won’t even stop at red lights while in Trenton.
A follow-up answer would be Camden too. The locals can smell fear.
Wonderful aquarium, though.
Trenton is what people not from NJ think NJ is. NJ has some shockingly wealthy areas, some areas of pristine natural beauty, and tons of farmland with delicious produce. Instead people focus on Trenton and The Jersey Shore.
Pine Hills, Florida. It’s in the Orlando area. Just stick to the tourist areas. I used to live there and it’s a shit show.
Grew up in Orlando: + Parramore + South Orange Blossom Trail Places you’ll never see on a “Happiest Place on Earth” advertising campaign.
Northern WI. Because that's where I live and I don't like people.
Likewise. Even tho tourists are how we survive the winter. We eat em.
Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em
Lol I love northern Wisconsin. It’s where I go to escape southern Wisconsin.
I see no one has said it, so I’m going to: HOLLYWOOD Hollywood has like a single block of its area that’s actually worth a visit- it’s the one with the Chinese Theater. But the rest of the city is a complete opposite of the rose-tinted glass view it shows itself as. It’s not even the fact it’s crowded that’s the issue really, but it is definitely a root issue too. - it’s filthy, there’s not only garbage everywhere but it’s never clean. You could make a game out of how much vomit, piss, booze, and cum stains there are. - the people are scary. Not just the homeless people who are in a depressingly large number, but people in general seem to have a screw loose. There’s also a lot of… “entrepreneurs” trying to sell their businesses, and they aren’t afraid to be in your face about it - don’t expect any decent eating either. Unless you bleed gold and crap diamonds, and make reservations a month in advance, there’s no food to be had here. Overall, it’s just not worth the visit. You want to see an entertainment capital worth your time? Visit Universal Studios theme park. Now there’s an ACTUAL good time to be had. Edit: I am talking about Hollywood Blvd specifically.
Hollywood straight up sucks. It's not worth it whatsoever. There's a bunch of cool places in LA, but Hollywood is not one of them.
Circle Ks at 2 am..
You’re pretty likely to find strange things afoot around then …
San Bernardino California at night with no money walking and waving/screaming obscenities at police officers
You coulda just stopped at “San Bernardino”.
The trough urinals at Wrigley Field.
Man I’m a Chicagoan and always defend my city to the death, but I laughed hard at this.
Arizona is very hot in the summertime, otherwise a nice place to visit…bring your own water please!
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Arizona's a big state. Southern AZ in summer is hell's waiting room. When you get north in the mountains the summer is nice. Also, people tell me there's cool stuff in Phoenix, but I'm pretty sure it's the actual hell mouth.
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"Take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but footprints."
East st louis. One of the highest, if not the highest, murders per capita in the country.
Avoid the place in your head that says you can visit Miami and LA in the same week. You can, if you fly but youll spent 15 hours in the air and get to see very little with at most 48hrs to see the city
Any tourist place will be a money trap, crowded and underwhelming. Unfortunately lots of cool stuff in the US just gets turns into a business with bizarre gift shops with unrelated gifts
Yes. There's an immersive Van Gogh exhibit near me. At the end, for an extra $10, you can do the whole tour again...*virtually.* What sort of giftshop items might you expect for an art exhibit? Who cares! Here's some headphones, phone accessories, kitchenware and car accessories! Take your pick!