Who's been to/lives in Florida?

[Bandit72]

We were supposed to take the turnpike but ended up on the road towards Naples, lol. Managed to cut up to go past Lake Okeechobee and stayed on the 27 all the way up to Haines City. Turned out it was a better route but we were not to know that. We have a clicker on the car so go through all the express exits at the tolls. Scorching today, love it.

We're gonna go to the Gulf Coast next week. Artemis recommended Clearwater do we're going there.

[Bandit72]

On the no English point: the United States, unlike Canada, has no official language(s). So if enough people speak Spanish in a place, I guess it's the de facto official language of that part of the country.

Plus, like... Florida was Spanish for 300 years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Florida

If that's the case then why are the road signs not bilingual? Barcelona shows Catalan and THEN Spanish underneath. I'm not saying that you're incorrect, just that if the Spanish speaking population is so large then surely it should be catered for?

[Angry Canine]

Pretty sure official signage, like road signs is under Ferderal design guidelines. There are places where (especially) small stores and businesses will have predominately Spanish signage.

I really see it as a bit of a real issue that an unusual amount of young Hispanics seem to have an unreasonable resistance to learning English. Welcome to the melting pot, start melting. One set of my great grandparents were from Italy, and never really learned all that much English, but none of my grandma and her siblings weren't completely able to use English as well as people ten generations in the US, and by my mom's generation very few Italian words or phrases were even known. Same with the Vietnamese I grew up with in my neighborhood, parents learned little English, kids were as fluent as any of the rest of the kids in the neighborhood.

A common language is a pretty key part to any kind of national bond, just as much if a nation to do great things as a nation as it to do terrible things.

[Hype]

Pretty sure official signage, like road signs is under Ferderal design guidelines. There are places where (especially) small stores and businesses will have predominately Spanish signage.

I really see it as a bit of a real issue that an unusual amount of young Hispanics seem to have an unreasonable resistance to learning English. Welcome to the melting pot, start melting. One set of my great grandparents were from Italy, and never really learned all that much English, but none of my grandma and her siblings weren't completely able to use English as well as people ten generations in the US, and by my mom's generation very few Italian words or phrases were even known. Same with the Vietnamese I grew up with in my neighborhood, parents learned little English, kids were as fluent as any of the rest of the kids in the neighborhood.

A common language is a pretty key part to any kind of national bond, just as much if a nation to do great things as a nation as it to do terrible things.

Apparently 31 states have declared English official, and I think English is just assumed as the de facto language of business federally. But the other 19 states are either officially bilingual (Hawaii) or de facto multilingual (New Mexico and Louisiana) or just haven't bothered to do anything. Florida is a funny case because the Spanish influence at least in the southern part is mostly Cuban, not Mexican... and the panhandle doesn't seem to have the same population distribution so it's less likely to be an overall issue for the state. It might be a city-by-city thing (Miami is probably considerably more Spanish than Tampa).

I think it makes a lot of sense for states closer to Mexico and Cuba to have a lot of Spanish influence and probably offer lots of services in both English and Spanish.

Canada technically has two official languages, but there's really no incentive for Quebec to offer English and French services anywhere except the major cities and along the borders with the English speaking provinces. Likewise, Ontario doesn't really have much in the way of French service unless you're near the border with Quebec. Official signage is in English and French only because of the official language law. The United States has no such law.

[Bandit72]

A couple of things I have noticed.

a) How come cars in Florida only have a licence plate on the rear of the vehicle? Is this a state law?
b) Why are there so many prangs on the road? The roads are huge. The speed is slow. Yet every day I'm out in the car there is an accident. Maybe it's a percentage thing it's just I see an accident every day here I hope I'm not involved in one.

[mockbee]

A prang is a tall tower-like spire, usually richly carved. They were a common shrine element of Hindu and Buddhist architecture in the Khmer Empire.

Never saw any prangs in Florida, maybe different where you are at.....?

Maybe you are not referring to this, but I don't know what a prang is then.



Florida has a bunch of old people who probably shouldn't be driving. The state's car accident fatality rate seems to only be slightly above the national norm though, maybe just a bunch of fender benders. There are 645 car accidents every day in Florida, so I guess you are bound to see one.

Driving sucks, I would advise against it, that way you won't be in an accident.

[nausearockpig]

lol

prang
praŋ/
BRITISH informal

verb
1.
crash (a motor vehicle or aircraft).
"Ernie pranged his sports car last month"

noun
1.
a crash involving a motor vehicle or aircraft.
"he had numerous prangs and near misses in his motoring life"

[Bandit72]

Lol! sorry, I thought that word was universal.

[Romeo]

A couple of things I have noticed.

a) How come cars in Florida only have a licence plate on the rear of the vehicle? Is this a state law?
b) Why are there so many prangs on the road? The roads are huge. The speed is slow. Yet every day I'm out in the car there is an accident. Maybe it's a percentage thing it's just I see an accident every day here I hope I'm not involved in one.

Yes, Florida does not require front and rear license plates (NY does)
Actually 19 states do not require front plates:
Alabama
Arkansas
Arizona
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Indiana
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Michigan
Mississippi
New Mexico
North Carolina
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
Tennessee
West Virginia



And you see so many crashes because peoples driving SUCKS Actually in Florida part of the issue is elderly drivers. Some of them have bad eyesight and have slower reaction time BUT still possess a license.
HELL my friend in NJ, her Mother is 87 and just got a license renewal for another 5 years. WTF??? She can legally drive until she's 92 she should of stopped driving 5 years ago.

[Artemis]

When I was in FL for the first time in the early 90s, I noticed that many of the old people had huge cars like Lincoln Continentals. I don't know how they parked those things..

[Romeo]

Now old folks either drive


Lincolns


OR


Toyota Camry's and in Beige

[Bandit72]

My hire car is a new Ford Escape SE which is nice. It's the first time I've driven in the states and it only cost me $32 to fill the tank. Back home it would cost me about $95. I have noticed though the car eats fuel, even though the cruise control regulates the speed. It does tend to rev quite high though before changing up. Lots of great lookin cars here though, the Ford 150's seem very popular and I've seen a lot of 5.4 l engines I even saw a Nissan dealer have a sign saying buy 1 get 2 free! Wtf?!

Today I did a swamp tour in Kissimmee which was great. Saw a few alligators including a mother by her nest and this HUGE eagle. Amazing to see.

[Pandemonium]

My hire car is a new Ford Escape SE which is nice. It's the first time I've driven in the states and it only cost me $32 to fill the tank. Back home it would cost me about $95. I have noticed though the car eats fuel, even though the cruise control regulates the speed. It does tend to rev quite high though before changing up. Lots of great lookin cars here though, the Ford 150's seem very popular and I've seen a lot of 5.4 l engines I even saw a Nissan dealer have a sign saying buy 1 get 2 free! Wtf?!

Today I did a swamp tour in Kissimmee which was great. Saw a few alligators including a mother by her nest and this HUGE eagle. Amazing to see.

Did you get to see any massive lightning storms yet?

[Bandit72]

The best one we saw was right at the start when we were driving up through 'Alligator Alley' from the airport up towards Lake Placid. Really mad lightning miles away. Puts you off driving a bit! It's been very, very wet on the Gulf Coast the past few days but in central Florida we've been very lucky. Just pockets of rain for about 20 minutes and a few distant rumbles.

[Romeo]

My hire car is a new Ford Escape SE which is nice. It's the first time I've driven in the states and it only cost me $32 to fill the tank. Back home it would cost me about $95. I have noticed though the car eats fuel, even though the cruise control regulates the speed. It does tend to rev quite high though before changing up. Lots of great lookin cars here though, the Ford 150's seem very popular and I've seen a lot of 5.4 l engines I even saw a Nissan dealer have a sign saying buy 1 get 2 free! Wtf?!

Today I did a swamp tour in Kissimmee which was great. Saw a few alligators including a mother by her nest and this HUGE eagle. Amazing to see.

I used to own a Escape SE and YES it eats gas (V6 engine). But it was a first model year so it was "ok", they are way nicer now (but still eat gas)

Now I have a Ford focus. Cute little car, only 2.0 liter engine so I save sooooo much on gas!