What You Need To Know About Restrictions On Fences And Rainwater Collection In Homes In the USA

Problem
You move to the USA, or another state in the USA. At first, it's great. Huge properties. High ceilings, Big bedrooms. Swimming pools. Wonderful. Then you discover a host of local regulations which make no sense. Drinking, marrying, gambling, building a fence or collecting rainwater, buying and carrying guns, death penalty - allowed or banned? It depends where you live. That's why in films (movies) you see the criminal racing across state lines to escape the cops.

1 Some areas won't let you build a fence around the property.
2 In this State you can drink. In the next State, you can't.
2 It's illegal to save water in a water butt, or install water collection devices to make your property green and water the plants. Where?
Why? What the ...!

STATE AND FEDERAL LAWS DIFFER
Coming from England, it took me a while to understand why different states had different laws and what federal means.
A state is like a council in Britain. You have laws which apply to the whole of the USA, and others which apply only to one area.

ALCOHOL - WHAT YOU CAN & CAN'T DO
One state can ban alcohol. We drove through West Virginia looking for a restaurant and kept seeing signs which said Club. Eventually, we stopped and asked a passer-by for direction to a restaurant. He told us,
'There's one on the corner. You just passed it. It's huge. I don't know how you missed it."
 I replied,
"Yes, we saw it. But we didn't stop because it says it's a club."
"You can eat there. You just have to join the club. It costs a dollar. In our state, only clubs are allowed to sell alcohol, so a restaurant serving alcohol has to be a club and charge you a membership fee. Every member of your group has to pay the dollar club fee. Of course, we locals, just pay the dollar once to two or three local restaurants, so, for us, it's no big deal."

We drove back to the restaurant, which was about to close for the night, just one customer left, or maybe they only ever had one customer, but we were just in time.
Our conversation with the receptionist went something like this:

"Howdy, folks! How ya'll doin'?"

"Fine thanks. Can we eat? Three of us."

"Yes, sir. But we serve alcohol, so, first, you have to join our club, which costs five dollars, each, for a  full lifetime membership. Fill out this form, pay me the money, and I'll give you your cards."
My husband does a quick calculation.
"Fifteen dollars! But we're only here one night."
"In that case, Sir, only one dollar each. And that's for the whole year! Keep your cards. And I'll keep your records, all year. Just in case you come back drivin' this way."
"That's an extra three dollars. For all of us? I'm not drinking alcohol. I'm driving. Can't my wife be a member, and let me in as a guest? Our son's under age. So he's not drinking."
"But, sir, if you was to take only one sip of your good wife's drink, and that state trooper, sittin' over there, watchin' us, saw you, you would be in big trouble, for drinkin' without the paperwork. And I could lose my business for servin' you! Let me explain ..."
"It's late, and I'm tired and hungry," said my husband. "Here's the money. Just give us the membership cards."

Every now and then I read that a debate is on to change drinking or other laws in one state or another. You have to watch it. But at least we now know what it's all about.

FENCES ARE RESTRICTED - WHY?
We used to drive around wondering why the big ranch houses (in the UK we say bungalows) had no fences. They looked unfinished. Like show homes.

And what about security! I suppose that's why they have guns. Anybody can walk in, and right around your house, looking in the windows to see if anybody's at home.

Then one day the mystery was solved. Some estates have bye-laws saying no fences. All the houses must look the same. Not different walls and fences on each one. (A bit like Hampstead Garden suburb in England, where you can't change windows nor doors, nor update antique wood with white ersatz double glazing, nor paint your house pink and purple stripes and dots.)

In America, on some estates, you have to keep the grass mown, because everybody can see. Lawns are around every house. Bushes over a certain height and tall trees are banned. No surrounding your property with fast-growing Cypress Leylandi and blocking the neighbour's light.

 No flowers. (I'm not sure if flowers are banned. But, I suppose the postman, delivery boy, or children, imaginary children, could pick them.)

If you don't have fences, you are rather paranoid. Rightly so. You keep a gun.

FENCES AND DOGS
How do you keep your dog inside your property and stop it running out to annoy neighbours or getting killed on the road? A Canadian company and others have made invisible fences, using electrified wires around the property. Oops - won't that injure children and other people and scare animals? It can be made connected to a dog collar which bleeps a warning when the dog gets close, without giving it a nasty shock. (See Wikipedia.)

What about dogs from outside coming onto your property. What if a dog comes onto your property, damaging your plants, leaving dog mess, threatenign you, your gods or your small children? A much-publicised court case in 2018 concerned a dog shot by a neighbour.

GUNS - TELL ME MORE
Gun laws vary from State to State in the USA, just as other laws vary.

So do the laws on when you can use guns.

'Stand your ground', is the catchphrase. Well, folks, you ain't got no place to go. As they say, the police are only half an hour away. Shoot first, asked questions later. Better judged by twelve than carried by six.' That puzzled me for ten seconds the first time I read it. It means judged in a court of law by a jury of twelve, for killing somebody, is better than carried in a coffin by six, because somebody killed you.

And the death penalty, or lack of it, varies, too, from state to state. States are like little countries. America is the size of a continent.

Okay, now I have visited America, taken a Greyhound bus, in a big circle, coast to coast, New York to LA and on to New Orleans. I lived in America, in three different states, and driven around from New York to Florida. I've also been on press trips to Florida, the mid-west, and California. I can go along with all of those laws, that stuff about drinking, and fences.

I also understand guns. Quite apart from those unprotected houses without fences. I have been to the mid-West and seen a preserved room where somebody got shot over a game of cards. I met a man on horseback who had a gun, when we were driving across a mountain range in Utah in the middle of nowhere.

I have sat on a boat in water, not Disneyland, real water, in the deep south, surrounded by crocodiles, giving toothy grins. Not me, them. Alligator or crocodile, same difference. Anybody got a gun? I hope it's not one which takes three minutes to re-load. There's another crocodile - behind you!

WATER COLLECTING RESTRICTIONS
Rainwater
But what about water? Bottled water, if you want it in a restaurant, but there's movement against plastic bottles. Drink tap water.
Some people install filters in their kitchen tap. Others collect rainwater as it falls on the garden. Or draw it out of wells.

Flashing around Facebook is a demand to fight and change laws stopping you from collecting rainwater in the USA. What's that all about?

WHY ARE THEY RESTRICTING WATER COLLECTIONS?
If you are asking why should it change: because we could be saving water in times of drought by collecting rainwater for plants. This would help your area not run out of purified water when the population increases or drought makes the water in dams run low. Poor people, those interested in conservation, people living 'off the grid', anybody moving a caravan or building a house and not yet on the water supply system, even demonstration centres and water butt sellers could be prosecuted if the law is allowed.

Why Collect Rainwater?
If you are asking why should restrictions on saving rainwater change: because we could be saving water in times of drought by collecting rainwater for plants. This would help your area not run out of purified water when the population increases or drought makes the water in dams run low. 

Poor people, those interested in conservation, people living 'off the grid', anybody moving a caravan or building a house and not yet on the water supply system, even demonstration centres and water butt sellers could be prosecuted if the law restricting water collection is allowed.

Useful Websites
US LAWS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_laws_of_West_Virginia
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5108843/Woman-left-tears-man-shoots-pit-bull-dead.html
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/08/united-states-cant-fences-certain-height-front-backyard/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand-your-ground_law
https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/is-rainwater-harvesting-legal-in-your-state-us/61586739
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/foreign-nationals-and-death-penalty-us
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_marriage_in_the_United_States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_in_the_United_States

St James Hotel, New Mexico. Photo from Wikipedia by Daniel Schwen. 

TOURIST SITES:
GUN HISTORY
https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/8798 Chair where Wild Bill Hickock was shot dead during a poker game
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._James_Hotel_(Cimarron,_New_Mexico)
St James Hotel, New Mexico, USA, fatal card game room. Everyone you can think of from the wild west stayed here. Wild Bill Cody, Wyatt Earp, Jesse James and many more. I loved it. Highlight of my trip.
WATER CONSERVATION
USA
https://www.hooverdamtourcompany.com/center.html

Hoover Dam showing the Hoover Dam bypass bridge, far left. Photo by Kuczora in Wikipedia.

HONG KONG
http://www.hypsos.com/en-us/cases/visitor-attraction/water-conservation-education-centre-in-hong-kong.aspx
TOURIST BOARDS
visitbritain.org
visit-usa.com
LANGUAGE & EMERGENCY
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/chinese-translation-of-emergency.html
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/american-and-british-english.html
Many more posts by Angela Lansbury about Americanisms, language, Esperanto, Chinese, learning languages, travel to the USA, Canada, UK, China, Singapore and more.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. 
I have many other posts on travel, living overseas, learning languages, and business travel and holidays.
Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts.

Updates, Albuquerque Balloons, and Bristol's International Balloon Festival 2018

Problems
Albuquerque in America in autumn - Balloon Fiesta in the Fall
1 Am I in time for Albuquerque balloon Fiesta? What are the 2017 dates?
2 If yes, and if no, what else can I do in Albuquerque?
Bristol
3 When's the next British Balloon Festival?
4 What else can I do in Bristol, before, during or afterwards?

Answers

1 The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta is at Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA October 7-15 2017. 

When you go onto their website you can see whether they still have any tickets for the day you choose. 

2 If not, you could watch from afar and visit the Balloon Museum. (See my previous posts.)

⧬⧬⧬⧬⧬⧬⧭⧭⧭⧭⧭⧬⧬⧬⧬⧬⧬

Hey - I was thinking of inserting a row of stars to indicate a change of subject and I tapped on insert special characters and found these. I think they are the symbols for male and female but they look like balloons when they are small. How appropriate. So cute!

3 BALLOONS IN BRISTOL IN BRITAIN

If you are thinking about going to next year's balloon International in Bristol, England, the dates are Thursday 9th to Sunday 12th August 2018.

So, you could see balloons in Britain in Summer, in the Autumn or Fall in America.

4 Your trip to Bristol is to a very English place, famous for 

1 Bristol English. I bought the humorous local book Let Stalk Strine.

2 Banksy, the world's favourite graffiti artist, has decorated Bristol.

Here's an aerial view of the show ground, surrounded by trees.

 It is at Ashton Court Estate, Bristol.

What's international about it? The people. The companies sponsoring the balloons.

From the last show, here are pictures of 

The red Virgin balloon. 

Champagne Taittinger, from the region of Champagne, the town of Reims, in France. If you go to Reims you can pay to take timed tours at many Champagne houses in the busy summer season. Check in advance.  

Hardy's wines, established in 1853, run guided tours for groups of the winery and tell you about wines and spirits, such Bristol Cream Sherry. Sometimes, given notice, a winery which only taken group bookings can add you onto a larger group.

Balloons at Bristol. We have lift off!

See you next year!

www.bristolballoonfiesta.co.uk

www.visitbristol.co.uk 

tel:0333 321 0101

For more on Bristol see next post.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See my other posts. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Balloon Museums, Events and Flights: UK, USA, France,Taiwan

Hot Air Balloons, San Diego. Photo author Jon Sullivan in Wikipedia.

Problem
Which museum/event? How many are there?

USA
1 Balloon Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
An all jumping American museum, open all year, with a shop.
Also October ballooning festival.

USA
2 National Balloon Museum, Iowa, USA
http://www.nationalballoonmuseum.com (Iowa, USA)
Great little website. This handy website, gave me links to others.
Their home page picture shows what you get on arrival:
The museum is shaped like a gondola, which is the basket for a couple of people to stand in when being lifted off the ground in a hot air balloon.
The cute building has knee-high colourful sculptures of hot air balloons leading up the path.

Inside the national Balloon Museum are:
The Ballooning Hall of Fame with photos of balloonists,
Women balloonists,
Scale models of balloons,
A Union Jack balloon. A real feel-good museum website.

WATCH NOW
Watch the National Balloon Museum, Iowa's online videos including the one with the background song, sounds like Sinatra singing, 'Fly Me to the moon ...', with a virtual tour around the interior of the museum.

Such smart people. They answered my question: How many such balloon events/festivals' museums  in the USA? Two.

TAIWAN!
CAN YOU READ CHINESE/JAPANESE?  Speak Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka?
Are you on holiday or business with a walking talking guide or a smart phone to translate?
3 Balloon Museum, Taichung, Taipai
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g297910-d6554431-Reviews-Taiwan_Balloon_Museum-Taichung.html
Not hot air balloons but hand-held party balloons.
https://www.prolloon.com.tw/#!prettyPhoto

(This website is mostly in Chinese but you can see the pictures and cartoons; also the phone numbers and email are in clear English or numbers.)

The Model of the Montgolfier Brothers' Balloon.

UK
Science Museum, London, England
The Science Museum in London receives 3.3 million visitors a year. The main collection is free although you must pay a fee to see exhibitions. You can see the model of the Montgolfier Brothers' balloon. 

Read about it in Wikipedia. It's fascinating. Joseph Montgolfier was watching a pocket in a piece of cloth drying by a fire.The cloth billowed up. He had been reading about a besieged city and thought that somebody could get lift-off and rise over the walls. He then enlisted one of his many brothers to help create a balloon shape which would rise up in the air.

Jolly Joseph who watched the drying clothes billowing and thought of making balloons. Photo from Wikipedia.

Science Museum, Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London SW7.

British Balloon Museum and Library
The British Balloon Museum and Library has collections which go to various museums such as Berkshire (now closed) and Bristol. You can become a Friend or buy items such as t-shirts, and gilets online. The Website is interesting. For example, a seasonal picture of Santa in a balloon is their greeting card.

You can also buy a ticket to their annual dinner, about £26. The last one had cupcakes with balloon logos which you could buy and the cupcakes sold out.

They are looking for funding to set up a permanent museum. (Or maybe another museum could build on a room or allocate a room to permanently house their collection.) Their collection includes postal envelopes showing balloons. Membership (when I looked in Oct 2017) is £10 and that includes four magazines a year.
They need help to get a permanent site. So look at their website . (Or leave them something in your will. A bequest. That's what helped secure the USA's Iowa balloon museum site.
http://www.bbml.org.uk/shop/

Professor Charles who took the balloon flight in 1783. Photo from Wikipedia.

FRANCE
The International Balloon Museum, Calvados, France
The chateau's historic building is beautiful and amazing with a spiral staircase and a trompe l'oeuil ceiling. You see the history of ballooning back to the famous French balloonist, Professor Jacques Charles in 1783. You can also read about his flight in Wikipedia. 

Château de Balleroy - Musée des Ballons

F-14490 Balleroy

Tél. : 02.31.21.60.61 - Fax : 02.31.21.51.77

E-mail : reservation@chateau-balleroy.com(link sends e-mail)

Here is his balloon flight with the huge crowd below watching. Photo from Wikipedia.

http://www.cheminsdememoire.gouv.fr/en/international-balloon-museum-balleroy

USEFUL LINKS

Other Balloon Museums:

www.Anderson-AbruzzoInternationalBalloonMuseum (New Mexico, USA)

http://www.nationalballoonmuseum.com (IOWA, USA)
http://www.cheminsdememoire.gouv.fr/en/international-balloon-museum-balleroy (FRANCE)

http://www.bbml.org.uk/shop/ (UK)
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g297910-d6554431-Reviews-Taiwan_Balloon_Museum-Taichung.html  (TAIWAN)

Balloons, bits and pieces
Smithsonian national air and space museum
https://airandspace.si.edu/visit/museum-dc
https://www.si.edu/museums

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_balloon

FLIGHTS
Flights from £127 for one from this website:
https://www.virginexperiencedays.co.uk/hot-air-balloon.
https://www.buyagift.co.uk/flying-experiences/hot-air-balloon
https://www.balloonintuscany.com/en/
https://www.viator.com/USA-tours/Balloon-Rides/
https://uk.viator.com/Spain-tours/Air-Helicopter-and-Balloon-Tours/

WEATHER & DELAYS
NB Hot air balloon rides, like boat trips, could be cancelled or postponed because of weather conditions.
Make sure you arrive on time, in advance, because there's a safety briefing first.
If you are joining a group, the basket may look empty but the other people might already be inside.
https://www.virginballoonflights.co.uk/blog/late-arrivals-for-your-balloon-flight/

SAFETY
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/01/health/hot-air-balloon-safety/index.html

FOR READING On the plane or at bedtime:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Aviation_novels

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.
See the previous post on the International Balloon Festival in Albuquerque. Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts. My books are on Amazon and Lulu.com and you can link to me on LInkedIn and Facebook. Tourist boards, please get in touch.

Balloon Museum and International Hot Air Balloon Festival, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Hot Air Balloons in The Land Of Enchantment

Balloons at dawn. Picture by Scott Williams shared in Wikipedia.

I have seen pictures of those multiple balloons so many times. I don't know where, but I have seen them. Hasn't everybody?

I've actually seen the balloons, by chance, when I was visiting New Mexico. I just happened to be there at the right time.

Drive Or Fly
If you want to see the balloons, and you are already in the USA, you are in luck. If you have the time, you can drive for miles in the USA, from one state to another, on wonderful motorways, with 24 hour burger bars, salad bars and food stops, and inexpensive out of town motels to break your journey.

We used to do that every weekend.  On one occasion we drove all the way from our rented home in Rockville, Maryland, just north of Washington DC, overnight down to Atlanta, Georgia. On another occasion we drove from Washington to New York State. It was always a great break for us, our child, and a visitor from Europe. If you save your airmiles, that's good, too.

Oct - 7-17 2017.
Article in Wikipedia.
Official website.

A Little History
It started in 1972 with one man wanting a balloon for publicity. They then thought of who had the most balloons, just over what we in Britain would call a dozen (12), actually lucky thirteen, in England. They flew them over. Not all arrived, but most did.

The Albuquerque Box
Once you reach Albuquerque, that is a great place for ballooning, and balloonists - what's the correct terminology? Albuquerque has mountains on one side, to the East, the low river, and the winds create a square draft so that a balloon can be blown around the square or circle and sometimes land back where it started!

Each year the event increased until they had over a thousand balloons. They decided quality was better than quantity, and cut the numbers back to one year, 750, one year 600.

On different occasions you can see a launch of something different, such as the funny shaped balloons. Birds, animals, planes. Disney characters.

Do I need to buy a ticket? How near do I need to be? You can see the balloons overhead at a distance. If you want to visit during the festival, you might enjoy booking cheaper out of town if your first choice accommodation is fully booked. Whilst you are enjoying other activities, the balloons provide an interesting addition to your photos.

The joy of being at the festival is that the balloons are so big. And you can actually enjoy rides.

Launch day is spectacular. They hold photo competitions. You can go the launch field to watch them take off, or one of the landing sites to see them land.

Look at the website. Online you will find merchandise, hotel booking suggestions.

Is it popular? Yes. The event is huge. A major tourist draw for the city, at the time and as a result of making the city known, throughout the year. The main site is the size of several football fields. To cope with millions of visitors they have a park and ride scheme.

You have to pay to park at designated points. At 'specially negotiated rates' they say.

When to go - which days?
October every year for nine days. It has just started now Oct 8 in 2017. You can book balloon flights. If you miss it, there's also a museum at the launch site.

What time of day?
There's something for larks and something for owls. That day starts at 6 am with the dawn patrol and laser show.

You can see balloons in dawn mist, as in the picture above, watch balloons in flight in full colour in daylight, and balloons ethereal, lit and static, at night, at least at dusk.

What Can You Buy?
From the main show online shop:
First of all tickets for the show. 2017 prices are $45 for five tickets, saving @1 per ticket.
Bookmarks, a Bucket List Book, a colouring book for children, a calendar for 2018, a mug, a 3D puzzle, pins, posters, a snowglobe for Christmas or as an all year paperweight, a shot glass, and patches.

Patches
Patches appeal to me. My wheelie suitcase has a tear. I've never been keen on torn jeans. Tears in clothes expose me to mosquito bites and irritation from rubbing. I keep a stock of patches in my sewing boxes. Then, when I have a hole or slit in a garment, I can stick on and/or sew on a patch of a suitable colour.

BALLOON MUSEUM
What can you see?
Short films about ballooning and a film from a flight over Albuquerque. the science of hot air and gas ballooning. Weather. Use of balloons in wartime, WWI and Zeppelins, Japanese use of balloons.

BUY From The Museum Shop:
The museum shop is open all year Tuesday through Sunday. (That's an Americanism. In the UK we would say the Britishism, Tuesday to Sunday.) You can buy clothing, wall hangings, ornaments, items related to the ballooning and other New Mexico artwork.

Is the museum and shop there outside the event dates? Yes, open all year.

VISIT
The museum has videos and activities, a buffet, a bacon for viewing the park, and they say the best view of the park.
You can also hire the museum for a wedding.

MUSEUM HOURS/ADMISSION
Tues-Sun, 9-5.
Cost: Four US dollars, for locals $1 discount with a valid New Mexico ID), seniors 65+ $2, children 4-12 $1, children 3 and under, free; Free admission Sunday morning 9 am to 1 pm, and the first Friday of the month except October.

So, if you can't get to Albuquerque for the October balloon festival, if you can arrive for a long weekend the first weekend of the month, Friday and Sunday mornings you get free admission to the museum. Ans spend what you saved in the shop.

Where To Go
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.

9201 Balloon Museum Drive NE
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87113

Tel: 505-768-6020
Tel: 505-880-0500

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albuquerque_International_Balloon_Fiesta

http://www.balloonfiesta.com

https://www.visitusa.org.uk/default.aspx?pname=Travel-Planner

https://www.newmexico.org

https://www.visitalbuquerque.org

www.balloonfiesta.com/guest-guide/park-ride 

http://www.balloonmuseum.com

Author, Angela Lansbury.

Creating A No Smoking Table In A Restaurant in The USA

Several years ago when no smoking in restaurants worldwide had just become a controversy I was on a large press trip for travel writers. We were visiting  four states in America where the four states meet. The four states are Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. On my trip were two other non-smokers, one from Europe, one from the USA.

At our first restaurant stop at breakfast the hotel had a table with a no smoking sign. I chose that table and my two non-smoking friends joined me. The non-smokers came over, saw the non-smoking sign and went away.

During the trip I sat tat the front of the coach to see better and hop off the coach and back on again in a hurry to take photos.

At our lunch stop I was first of the coach into the restaurant looking for a non-smoking table. I could not see one.

I asked. They did not have a policy or a sign. The girl serving was new.

I sat down, sighing. Why don't they have sign, I thought. They are not that expensive. They could even write one out by hand. If I wrote one and gave it to them and asked permission, maybe they would put it out.

I reached in my bag and got out a piece of paper and wrote non smoking.

Before I had time to go and as, one of my friends arrived and said, 'Oh - you found a mob-smoking table. Great.'

He sat down. 

In came the non-smokers. They looked at the sign and moved away.

All through the meal I was waiting for one of my friends to comment on the fact that I had written my own sign. But nobody guessed. They assumed the restaurant had done it.

***

How much is a sign?

I just went online and found a series of ads immediately. From pubshop.uk £1.47 (depending on whether you buy with or without VAT) plus postage. You could buy your own sign and carry it with you.
  Or just write your own!