Tip No 4

One industry which has boomed since my last visit to the USA is the gambling business... Most of the casinos are in the Native American lands as they can make their own rules and it is a money spinner e.g. Each member of the Seminole Nation receives $3,000 per month from their casinos (they recently bought the Hard Rock Casino chain).

Casinos have an economy which is not based on reality and you can benefit; they receive enormous amounts of money from working stiffs who "invest" their wages in the slot machines, this allows the Casinos to provide other services at amazingly low prices to draw people in... So if you want a cheap and decent meal, stop at a casino; as long as you don't mind benefitting because poor people are losing their money next door... It's like the National Lottery, the government doesn't want to raise taxes to pay for Sports and the Arts so they get poor people to buy £1 lottery tickets.

Tip No 3

There is almost a complete absence of good, strong coffee outside the major cities in the USA, so if you are staying for more than a couple of days you will need three things...


A mug of a decent size ($1.33 from the supermarket), a filterpaper-less coffee filter ($2.49 from the supermarket) and some coffee of your choice. Almost all hotels/motels have coffeemakers, just ignore their coffee sachets, heat the water and make your own coffee.