1. Proper sized towels - I held out for a while using teeny tiny hotel and motel towels even though I had one with me because it seemed silly to add to our laundry loads with a towel when we could use those provided and have them laundered for us. But today I cracked and am sitting here wrapped in my big towel as I type so thrilled am I at having something which actually wraps a reasonable way around my body and isn't see-through thin.
2. Having a window in the bathroom - we haven't had a naturally lit bathroom since we left home - it's pretty rare in hotels, motels and other types of sleep shack anywhere and isn't normally the kind of thing I notice when we're away for a week or two but it has been nice to have one in our apartment.
3. Knowing where to buy things - not just where the shop is, but what each chain actually sells so that when you want something out of the ordinary (such as a pencil sharpener for example) you can accurately predict where you will be able to buy one. This is particularly important when you have to drive absolutely everywhere - nothing here is within walking distance of anything else, meaning that the simplest errand is a harrowing brush with American roads and drivers, the quality of both leaving much to be desired, for what might turn out to be a wildly unsuccessful mission to buy something really simple.
4. Having a fully equipped kitchen - so far we have managed with motel ice and the occasional fridge, but after being on the road for seven weeks you get to a point where eating out is no longer a treat, but such a regular occurrence that you start to long for the chance to pick exactly what you have for dinner and wish that you didn't have to get dressed before breakfast. We've been in an apartment for just under a week now, but we're already enjoying the ability to have cold drinks whenever we want and cook dinner for ourselves. Having said that, we are still eating off plastic and paper plates with plastic cutlery, so we are thinking of treating ourselves to some dirt cheap tableware in the next couple of days so we can fully appreciate the experience.
5. Being able to walk to places is definitely underrated - we're not averse to a longish stroll and have even been known to walk for a couple of hours under the right circumstances, but walking anywhere in the US seems to be a complete anathema to the locals meaning that everything is so spread out that it's almost impossible to sensibly walk between places. The heat in Louisiana does mean that it's easy to understand why people don't want to walk around too much without air conditioning, so I suppose it's hardly surprising, but it is a noticeable factor in our daily plans.
