There's a big ass river, so on this side of it you're in IL and the other side is IA.
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NM perspective: Border crossing at Anthony - immediate cattle feed lots, huge freeway, and then the pile of cookie-cutter houses that is El Paso.
North into Colorado: Seems pretty much like NM, but the food gets blander and more expensive as you enter Boebert's district. Denver is ok, but it's like Los Angeles at a little higher altitude. If Denver had a culture, it probably died in traffic.
East into Oklahoma/Texas: There's like... nothing there. For miles. It's really pretty, actually, but don't get a flat tire.
West into Arizona from Gallup: It's like a portal into the 1950s, all abandoned route 66 stuff and super offensive 1950s native american stuff.
Culturally, I'd say most of the 4 corners zone is pretty similar "southwest", though Texas is really obsessed with big box stores and Arizona is a bit obsessed with unmarked police cars. Colorado culturally is as bland as their chiles :D
The biggest cultural shift is traveling through the res lands between NM/AZ where you can actually go to grocery stores with local language signage.
The AZ/NM area was absolutely my favorite part of the past 3 years of round trips across the country (driving someone who medically can't fly). I'll never be a desert dweller, but the Sonora, Payson, and heading into Gallup and Albuquerque is just jaw dropping.
More bumps on the road after crossing the state line.
Same when going from the Netherlands to Belgium.
It's usually on a highway and highways usually have a "Welcome to …" sign at the border.
Welcome to Michigan. Come buy some cannabis. Signs every where
The drivers for sure. I live in a major metropolitan area on the east coast and at the intersection of three jurisdictions.
My home state’s drivers are slow as molasses and geriatric or are obviously foreign and didn’t take U.S. driver’s ed.
Across the river is a bunch of sheltered drivers who I normally pity. Their city is usually walkable or transit-able so driving is not something you could even expect them to be good at.
And then there’s the adjacent state which is notoriously home to some of the worst drivers in the US who genuinely, routinely make me fear for my life when they’re in my proximity on the road lol. Hate those drivers.
Other than that, I think the culture of my home state is much warmer and friendly while the adjacent state is nice but the people are also a bit more standoffish and cold. Home state is a barren wasteland of awful roads and data centers, adjacent state has so much green space and well-developed communities.
The lines on a map are actually painted on the ground. It's amazing to see the one running along the bottom of Lake Tahoe. 😊
The Missouri-Illinois border is the Mississippi river. Hard to accidentally cross it.
Edit: I take that back. I wasn't accounting for the crazy interchanges in St. Louis right before and after the three bridges that cross near downtown. So you have all the local traffic and exits for downtown piled up with local and interatate traffic crossing the bridges. People love it.
Right now just with signs, but if Wisconsin doesn't get their shit together it will be a clearly marked, well equipped check point
I live near two other states and can tell a distinct difference by the shape of the mountains (one has rolling hills, the other has very steep-sided hills, my home region has deeper valleys) and the building style since one state has lax building codes and the other has older and larger structures. The barns are typically discernable too.
I live close to the Louisiana border, so I know I'm in LA when the roads turn to shit.
Crossing from LA to Mississippi, you notice there's a lot more cops.
Not super stark, but travelling north from Alabama to the Tennesee/Alabama/Georgia triple point you get a lot of rocky outcrops and the terrain will tell you that you're in the Cumberland Foothills.