Great Things about Louisiana (extended)

Ok all, my last message was a little negative about things over here, and I'd like to set the record straight. I was a little frustrated with the DMV at that point and needed to vent. So to balance the ledger a little here's a list of great things about living in Louisiana. It was going to be just 10, but I found more....

- You don't need to wait on hold when calling a service company (eg: I need insurance). You hop on the website, fill out some details and specify a time for the company to call you back. Then you can put them on hold.

- They sell alcohol in supermarkets. Makes my shopping a lot easier :-). And not just beer, most supermarkets have a really wide selection of quality wines.

- The food is sensational. Probably in part due to the really great fruit and vegetables available; the berries are better than anything we've found in Perth.

- Restaurant food variations - there's no problem with customising any meal on the menu to your particular taste, in fact, it's encouraged. So don't take the suggested menu as given, add mushrooms to your sauce, swap the side of fries for some garlic mash, extra olives on the salad, with honey mustard dressing, on the side, swap the cheese on the pizza for artichokes…all at no extra cost & they're quite happy to do it.

- Interstate speed limits. 80mph (~130 k's) is quite acceptable and won't get you fined. You'll still get overtaken by half the traffic though.

- Highway and exit numbering. Rather than trying to remember street names, which exit to take, what part of the road to be on, you just know that you need to take the I-12 to highway 190 and you're set. And since even numbers go E-W and odd numbers go N-S, you can even tell approximately where the road will go.

- Drive-through. Anything can be drive-through, not just fast food and bottle shops. Try banks (with tellers in booths, not just atm's); pharmacies; coffee shops. If you choose you could probably never leave your car. Which leads me to:

- Cars are very cheap, even factoring in the exchange rate. And petrol is way cheaper than in Oz (though people still complain about the price).

- The internet speed is blindingly fast - way faster than anything I've seen before. Average download speeds in multi-MB/second.

- People have been exceptionally friendly, see Gator Girl's driving test story for just one example of it. It seems like Katrina really gave people a sense of community.

- Right turn on red after stopping.

- Extended shopping hours and weekend shopping.

- Daylight savings! Yes!

- Continuous refills of drinks (not alcoholic unfortunately)

- The whole service culture. It's not just the people that rely on tips who provide great service, the whole concept has permeated down to all levels - everyone's willing to help!

- Loyalty programs are everywhere and provide great discounts for no outlay.

- Satellite radio. Dedicated hardcore/punk/ska station with no commercials. You do get 5 country channels unfortunately :-(.

- Saturday services - the postman delivers, all banks are open.

- Postman picks up mail as well as delivers.



This place is great.