Leaving Phoenix

[Desole! Pas de version francaise aujourd'hui! Utilisez Google Translate! :-P]

Last night I went to bed at 21:00 and I got up this morning at 7:00! Jetlag'd, moi? I don't think so!

I got everything I needed yesterday, including a great adventure hat.

The GPS is an absolute life-savior. It's not only a very detailed map and a very patient copilot, it is also the Yellow Pages! I can pretty much find anything now.

I'm starting to get used to the car and driving in the US. This is really car kingdom here. Every thing is far. I found natural to drive from a parking lot on one side of a street to a parking lot on the other side (slight exageration). The streets are really wide. Most often 3 or 4 lanes each way. The cars are big. I've never seen so many pick-ups and SUVs! Pedestrians look like an anomaly. Outside very commercial areas, it gives the feeling that no one's really out there. No life. Everything is so sparse, it feels like it doesn't have the critical mass to start crystallising history. Just keep cruising. (uh oh, I'd better change subject, I'm getting philosophical).

Driving through Phoenix reminds me a lot of playing Grand Theft Auto. Mostly because of the number of pick-up trucks. I've even seen a black 4-wheel drive just like the one in Back to the Future!

The fact that every big chunks of the city seems to be divided into either commercial, industrial or residential areas makes me think of the game Sim City. I remember finding the concept odd when I first played. This is so different to European cities.

Automatic cars have some interesting features. One is what they call "Overdrive". I like the name because it makes me think of the opening scene of "Back to the Future". It simply means the car will tend to use a higher gear to save fuel. In a manual car, you'd have much more control on that.

You also have the opposite possibility, where the car will maximise the engine braking.

Another feature I love is "speed control". The car will maintain the speed your going at without you having to bother with the gas pedal. Very nice to relax on a long trip. You can then adjust the speed by pressing buttons on the wheel. This feels so much like playing a video game, it's unbelievable!

Sometimes it's difficult to realise you have to stop. Streets are straight for miles here. When you suddenly see a red light, and you stop accelerating, the car doesn't slow down that much (because it's an automatic). Then you have to add to that the fact that the traffic lights are situated *after* the junction. It is a big deal because the typical street is twice 3 or 4 lanes, so you actually have to stop some 20 meters *before* the lights. Compared to Europe, this takes some getting used to.

A nice feature is that in some place, you can turn right when the light is red, provided you stop first (and give way).

On big roads (easily 5 lanes), the lane the most on the left is only allowed to cars carrying more than one person. Which means I can't use it, boohoohoo!

Oh, and one was thing that is cracking me up: my car has a built-in compass! It tells me if I'm headed North, South, East or West! I don't really use it because of the GPS, but it's very useful, seeing as most streets are aligned with the cardinal points.

People in shops are very friendly. I was in Safeway (like a small Tesco or Carrefour grocery store), minding my own business. I crossed the path of an employee, and he just stopped, greeted me and asked me how things were going. This never happened to me before. Not in the UK, not in France.

I've read and heard before that Americans tend to be more enthusiastic. Or at least they look like they are. It can be hard to tell what they really think of you -- that's usually pretty easy with Europeans.

Right, now I'm getting out of Phoenix and into the desert. I've already driven almost an hour and I'm still not out of here!